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.

When I saw this years and years ago....there was a big gimmick.They advertised it in my area as "When the screaming stops" and said it was the most disgusting movie ever. So, everybody that showed up got an airline style barf bag and they ran a big warning at the beginning of the movie telling people the producers were not responsible for whatever happened to those who watched the movie.The movie was heavily hyped with lots and lots of ads on local TV stations telling everyone that this was the grossest movie ever made.So there was a big buzz and the theaters were packed.Then, of course the opening scene was of a tranquil lake outside some castle in Europe and people began making very mocking barf sounds...that was probably the most memorable thing of the whole movie.There were some disgusting parts (including one part where I think the bad guy rips an organ out of a body and if I remember right eats it.Pretty gross stuff. But it was clearly a foreign movie repackaged and expertly hyped here in the US. Probably made some decent money but many felt ripped off.

This may not be as good as D'Ossorio's atmospheric and grotesque BLIND DEAD series, but it's also light-years ahead of his execrable DEMON WITCH CHILD. Supposedly based on a German folk legend, WHEN THE SCREAMING STOPS deals with a murderous rampage by the Lorelei, a female were-lizard with a penchant for ripping out human hearts. She sets her sights on a girl's school--where all the pupils are beautiful, of course--and the carnage begins. The authorities call in one of your Great White Hunter types to stop the slaughter. He's supposed to be great, but he's not so competent that a few more bodies don't fall before the end. He also has a lack of fashion sense that's amazing even for the early 1970s. The issue is not so much whether he'll be seduced by the Lorelei in her fetching human form as whether she'll die laughing at the sight of his tacky striped pants. In American tapes you could always tell when somebody was about to get shredded because the screen would turn red for a few seconds before each murder. Add hit-or-miss gore effects and the usual lousy dubbing and you're in for a real fun time.

May contain some small spoilers.I vaguely remember the German folk story about the Siren that lures sailors to shore only kill them and take all their treasure. To say That I vaguely remember it means that I have heard of it in passing. It is an intriguing story and to make a horror movie out of it is a pretty good idea. You have all the settings for a typically frightening shock fest with intangibles like a small sleepy town located on the Rhine River. The nights are mist-filled and fog covered. And since there has been something about small ghost towns like this one that have captivated a horror audience, I have to say that this adds nicely to ambiance and potential of the film. Also typically present in this film is an all girls school that feels threatened by a murder of a young girl and needs protection from the beast that is on the prowl. In short, there are some very powerful elements working for this film and it has all the ingredients to be a great entry in the horror genre, but ultimately it falls short of achieving greatness and that has to be attributed to the flimsy story, amateur directing and a conclusion that ultimately lets you down.The english translation to this Spanish film is When The Screaming Stops, when really the film is titled Las Garras de Lorelei, which I can only assume means the legend of Lorelei or the revenge of Lorelei or something to that matter. It was wise to give it a different english name but as I stated earlier, the legend of Lorelei is a very intriguing story and it should be been better than this. As it stands, the film begins with a young woman brushing her hair, alone at night. We see a large, scaly hand envelop the screen. We hear heavy breathing and soon the creature attacks the young woman and tears her apart quite well. Blood splatters everywhere and her skin is literally excoriated, in quite a gory fashion. There is little editing here to preserve the appearance of non-violence. In other words, the Ontario Film Board has not gotten their paws of censorship into this one. Many times various other films have been hindered because the OFB has deemed the scenes too violent for our fragile little minds to embrace. And although I have to admit that my wife was looking away in disgust, I was quite impressed with the amount of gore and the quality job they did of making it seem like a heart was being ripped out and that skin was being torn from the body. So on that level the film is worth seeing. There are not many films that remain intact--from the directors view-- and straight to us. Most of the time ( take many of the later Friday the 13th's ) films are cut and then pasted back together, but not this one.Back to the story: So now the all girls school hires a hunter to hunt down this animal and to protect them. This is one of those 70's porno-girls schools where the girls don't ever go to class, get giddy at the site of a man, run around in the skimpy bikinis, laugh for absolutely no reason (all of the time) and behave like sex starved kittens from hell. The only thing we don't have in this film is lots of gratuitous sex. There is a fair bit of nudity, but only when someone is getting filleted. Now the hunter finally meets a mystery woman that shows up in strange places, first with hooded men that act as body guards and then as a half naked gorgeous looking "siren" that sits on the beach and then flees when he approaches. Soon enough she reveals to him that she is Lorelei and that she is here to eat people's hearts so that she can survive. That is all you need to know about the film because as I said, what starts out as an interesting idea is wasted by the inneptitude of all involved. The direction is amateur at best. To build tension, there is nothing but bushes that shake everytime someone is about to be mangled. There is no build up and ultimately no pay-off. You know who is going to die and by the second killing you know that you are going to see the same manner in which it is done everytime. I have seen some excellent gore in my horror days so watching eight or ten people get their hearts ripped out grows cumbersome and a little boring after the first two or three.As I said, the denouement is absurd and silly. The film could have been saved had the ending been a little better. Our fearless hunter has fallen for Lorelei's pulchritude and this has been disguised as love. And although he has to kill her, he is finding it increasingly difficult to do so, even though she has promised him a life of enslavement and the fact that she has gone onto kill a multitude of towns folk. Maybe the film can be forgiven because it is Spanish ( no disrespect to Spanish people) and maybe the whole culture and legend of Lorelei is above my comprehension, but lost in all of this is the fact that this is first and foremost a horror film and beyond the blood and gore and dripping hearts, there is nothing horrific about it.5.5 out of 10-- If you come across this film at your local video store, it may be worth a look. It is, as I said, not the greatest horror film but if you are hoping to one day make a good one, this will show you what not to do. Anyone can make a model of a human and fill it with blood and organs, but not everyone can emulate John Carpenter ( when he was making Halloween).