Michael_Elliott The Loreley's Grasp (1973) ** 1/2 (out of 4)A number of young girls have been brutally murdered so hunter Siguard (Tony Kendall) comes to a local German school where he plans to stop it. Before long more and more women are found dead and some begin to think it's the work of the Loreley monster.Amando de Ossorio's THE LORELEY'S GRASP is a rather interesting movie that isn't a complete success but there's no question that it has some very memorable moments. The Spanish horror genre didn't always deliver a lot of gore and violence but there's no question that this one delivers enough for two movies. If you're a fan of films with a lot of gore then there's no question that you'll be entertained by what this has to offer.The film is basically a monster on the loose picture and for some reason I kept thinking about Universal's MONSTER ON THE CAMPUS. In that film, a local campus was being stalked by a monster and that's pretty much what you've got here, although this one here takes the German legend and adds some sleaze to it. The most shocking thing about this picture is the gore level as there are some really brutal murders where flesh is ripped open and hearts are ripped out of the victim's chests! The effects aren't always the best looking but there's plenty of blood for gorehounds.The film does have some major problems with the biggest being the story structure. Well, there's really not too much of a story here as we see a woman getting ready from bed, she's brutally murdered and then we see the reaction the next day. This here just gets repeated throughout the running time. I'm really not sure why they didn't attempt to do a bit more with the material but I guess they just figured the look of the monster and the gore would be enough.

unbrokenmetal This was a nice discovery of a lost or at least unknown movie for me. 'The Loreley's Grasp' was released with a German dubbing for the first time in 2014, and because the director is famous for the 'Blind Dead' series, I bought the Blu-ray disc blindly (no pun intended).Sigurd (Tony Kendall) is requested to save a boarding school from a mad killer that stalks the village at the Rhine. Elke (Silvia Tortosa, known best for 'Horror Express' with Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing) is the young teacher who walks alone in the night a lot, so Sigurd is getting a chance to save her. Of course she could stay inside, knowing that a killer is outside, but then we wouldn't get any chase sequences. A blind musician tells everyone in the village about his suspicion that the killings are related to the Loreley legend, but when Sigurd meets a mysterious woman introducing herself as Loreley (Helga Liné), he is not suspicious at all and falls for her tricks, until it is almost too late...Not a very clever script, rather dumb characters, cheaply made (the school has about 6 students), very free interpretation of the original myth, but never mind, you get a lot of darkness, a monster with green claws and big teeth, screaming girls and typical 70s sleaze. The killings are rather bloodthirsty - I personally prefer the old-fashioned, black and white 60s style over the graphic violence in the much too colorful 70s style, but it is a sign of the times.

jriddle73 I'd heard some pretty terrible things about THE LORELEY'S GRASP, but it turned out to be very good, almost excellent. Certainly hampered by budgetary considerations, but not cripplingly so.Shortcomings: I could have done without the weird little professor's radioactive recreation of Siegfried's blade--why not just stick with the mythical elements of the film and write it so the Doc had found what he believed to be the real one? Loreley's business face was an atrocity, but good ol' Amando realized it from the beginning, and, having thankfully never been corrupted by the Lucio Fulci School of Talentless Hackwork with regard to lousy effects, never allowed us to get much of a look at it.At the same time, her public relations face was that of Helga Line, and we get to see plenty of it, which is just dandy.Great locations, too. Amando is almost Franco-like in making solid use of interesting surroundings. He manages, at times, to imbue the movie with an otherworldly feel, as though it's a fairy tale or myth; something that isn't necessarily taking place in a fixed time in the real world. Our heroes' stripey pants do unfortunately date the film. Put him in some khakis, and we'd be talking Timeless.Overall, a very solid effort--a movie I'm glad I saw.

adriangr "The Lorelei's Grasp" is sadly hard to find at the moment. The awful re-release "When The Screaming Stops" makes a mockery of the heart of the film, dressing it up as drive-in trash. In it's original version, it's still a bit cheesy, but I think it's a pretty good horror film. The plot centres on beautiful girls at an exclusive school who are being terrorised by a killer...some of the girls are already dead and so the school calls on the help of a handsome bodyguard called Sirgurd to protect the rest of them. Sirgurd has his hands full as all the schoolgirls soon develop a crush on him, but he also has to work out who is responsible for the gruesome murders.Although the English version has terrible dubbing and most available versions are bootleg copies with a poor picture, it's possible to see that there is a good film hiding in here somewhere. The Lorelei creature itself is a bit hokey, but it doesn't hold back on the violence, with lot's of gory chest ripping shots(the Lorelei likes to rip people's hearts out). It also features some beautiful actresses of the period, notably Silvia Tortosa as the heroine, and the fabulous Helga Line as the mysterious beauty who seems connected with the murders somehow. It also has a poetic ending of sorts, and a great dreamy musical soundtrack. This film could gain a lot more appreciation if it was given a re-mastered DVD release. As they have recently done a make-over for the director Amando De Ossorio's "Blind Dead" series, maybe this one could be next?