Well, yes, this is a pretty bad Euro-sleaze picture that has liberal doses of blood and murder but far more nudity and sex. Not really all that bad a combination is it? We get an asylum for rich women relaxing, playing croquet, and having fun - only to be visited by a masked, heavy-breathing murderer wielding a variety of medieval weapons. If you are looking for cogent and coherent story here, pass, BUT if you are looking for one of those classic entertaining, sleazy pictures that you could only get from the 70's(and in particular Italian cinema) then sit down and enjoy. The film has a pretty impressive cast from that era of "genre" stars like Klaus Kinski. He does virtually nothing in the movie and I barely noticed he was in the picture at all. True, most of my attention was focused on the female cast, but Kinski does nothing with his role of a doctor helping these women cope with their problems(he does start an affair with one later though). John Karlsen as Professor Osterman does a far better job engaging the audience with his acting skill as the man seemingly running this institution. But make no mistake, it is the female cast that is a veritable buffet for the eyes. First, there is Sara Bay - Rosalba Neri - she went by Bay in the classic sleaze-fest Frankenstein' Daughter where she played a nymphomanical scientist out to create the perfect lover to satiate her carnal desires. She disrobed frequently in that film and does so here. Guess what? In this film she plays a patient with a seemingly incurable disease - nymphomania! What acting range! Who cares. Just look at that black outfit she wears through most of the picture. Then there is Margaret Lee - a beautiful Englishwoman who is no stranger to these types of films and is very integral to the revelation of the denouement. Next we have beautiful blonde and buxom Gioia Desideri as a woman who tries to kill herself(fortunately she later gets some much needed help). There is a hot, steamy shower scene with Neri, but hands down the most erotic aspects of the film deal with a bizarre relationship with Nurse Helen and patient Mara. The way Nurse Helen - Monica Strebel - seduces and ravages Mara with just her delicious blue eyes is a real treat to see. She is so blatant that I was laughing. Then we get the massage scene where Mara has her exotic buttocks caressed for what seemed like twenty minutes. There is more. Both girls are pretty, and we even have Mara do one of her homeland tribal dances or something along those lines. But I digress from the horror of the film, for it does have some. No one dies until 30 minutes into the film. But the opening SUGGESTS a murder will take place. The deaths are interesting though we never really are given a real reason for why they happened. We get sword deaths, death by iron maiden, a crossbow, an axe, and even a scythe. The ending is very bloody and very surrealistic almost as a mace is used with frequency and energy - like the energizer bunny it keeps going and going. Look, this is no great film by any means. It is fun though(on many levels) and somehow keeps your full attention. It does have great atmosphere. It does have lots of eye candy. It does have some wonderful Euro-sleaze music. Before I set down to write this review, I gave it a 5...I have now convinced myself to give it a 6. It might be worthy for you to take a peek.

The great late Fernando Di Leo is certainly best known for his brilliant Milieu-Trilogy ("Milano Calibro 9" of 1972, "La Mala Ordina" of 1972 and "Il Boss" of 1973), three masterpieces and undisputed highlights in Italian crime cinema. While the incredibly sleazy Giallo "La Bestia Uccide A Sangue Freddo" (1971) is certainly not most ingenious work in Di Leo's career, it is still a highly enjoyable film that my fellow fans of Sleaze-Horror should not miss. Admittedly, "La Bestia Uccide A Sangue Freddo" has one of the most nonsensical and silliest plot lines ever in a Giallo (then again, the Giallo-genre is usually known for intelligent and convoluted plots), but it makes up for this with tons of stylish sleaze and gratuitous nudity from a gorgeous female cast, gory murders, Giallo-typical elegance, and the great Klaus Kinski in the role of a psychiatrist. In spite of the plot being incredibly illogical and silly, this is an outrageously entertaining film, which does not get tiresome for a second.Kinski plays Dr. Francis Clay, a psychiatrist who leads a noble psychiatric facility set in a remote countryside château; all the patients happen to be hot women, including a gorgeous brunette nymphomaniac (Rosalba Neri), an equally gorgeous black chick (Jane Garrett) who suffers from amnesia, her gorgeous red-headed lesbian nurse (Monica Strebel), and others. In this loony-bin for hot chicks, a sadistic killer is on the loose. He commits his crimes using medieval weapons, which happen to be hanging on every wall (maybe not such a good idea in a psychiatric facility?). More and more beauties disappear...The film is actually a mixture of Giallo and rather explicit Softcore Erotica, and while the mystery part of the Giallo pales in comparison to most other specimen of the genre, the film entertains on all levels. The setting in the château is elegant, the cinematography is genre-typically beautiful, and the murders are gory and sadistic. Klaus Kinski doubtlessly was one of the greatest and most charismatic actors who ever lived, and while this is probably one of the movies that he meant when he publicly (and frequently) despised his own films as being "s***", it is great to see this favorite actor of mine (who himself wasn't exactly known as the sanest person in the world) as a psychiatrist. Regrettably, he is a little under-represented in the film though. The doubtlessly most convincing reason to see "La Bestia Uccide A Sangue Freddo" is the gorgeous female cast, most notably the regular genre sirens Rosalba Neri ("La Figlia Di Frankenstein", "The Devil's Wedding Night") and Margaret Lee ("Venus in Furs", "Dorian Gray") and the virtually unknown but incredibly ravishing Jane Garrett, who unbelievably never did any other films. All female characters are exhibitionists, and they all have either nymphomaniac or lesbian tendencies. The nudity and sleaze is quite explicit, even by sleazy Italian 70s standards. The score is good, but not too memorable by the high Giallo-standards.Overall, "La Bestia Uccide A Sangue Freddo" is doubtlessly one of the most nonsensical Gialli ever made, but The beautiful female cast, the constant sleaze, gore and elegance are easily enough to forgive the lack of logic and real suspense. A series of gory murders, taking place in a loony-bin set in a castle, full of gorgeous naked women... how could anybody not like this film? True entertainment, recommended to all my fellow Eurohorror/Cult fans.

Slaughter Hotel (1971) * 1/2 (out of 4) This Italian giallo has the reputation of being one of the sleaziest out there but more on that in a bit. The film takes place at a mental asylum for rich women. Klaus Kinski plays a doctor trying to cure some of the women but soon a man dressed in a black coak shows up and starts killing the women one by one. After hearing so much about this film over the years I must say I can't remember the last time I was more disappointed in a movie. In fact, this might be the most disappointing Euro Horror I've ever seen, which is a shame because the film features a great cast. You got the wonderful Kinski on hand but he mostly sleepwalks through the film. You've got two beauties in Margaret Lee who was in Jess Franco's The Bloody Judge among others and you've got the incredibly sexy Rosalba Neri from Lady Frankenstein. The screenplay of this film never makes any sense and the movie also features some of the worst editing I've ever witnessed. Just check out the scene towards the start of the movie when we first see the killer and he's walking up the stairs. Another problem is that the film is rather dull and downright boring. There's never any energy behind the film, which sits even worse considering the first murder takes nearly half an hour. As for the reputation of the movie being sleazy, that's really not true. There are several murders but all of them are quite tame and there's quite a bit of nudity, including Neri playing a nymph, but nothing really stands out. There's a couple hardcore masturbation scenes but again, they aren't erotic and come off very lame.

Slaughter Hotel is a sensationally sleazy and spectacularly silly giallo. It involves a mystery killer who stalks and slashes in a clinic for mentally disturbed women. This clinic is ideal for the purposes of a homicidal maniac as it contains a room with an arsenal of medieval weapons and torture devices. The film-makers find no reason to explain this. It does seem a trifle irresponsible considering some of the inmates have murderous tendencies. But there you go. The clinics other feature is a croquet green - I can honestly say I have never before seen a movie where croquet and medieval weaponry share the billing.The doctors include a Peter Fonda lookalike and the legendary Klaus Kinski. In the Shriek Show DVD Klaus has a really silly English accent but it isn't as distracting as it might be as Kinski basically sleepwalks through this movie. The women are pretty hot though. Rosalba Neri turns up and delivers classic dialogue like 'I'm not one of those mad people who need you, I just want to make love' before going off for a soft-core shower. Generally speaking the dialogue in this movie is atrocious, it's not exactly helped by the appalling dubbing but it is very (unintentionally) funny in places. However, the cinematography is pretty decent, incorporating a great deal of angular camera-work. And the set itself is pretty lush, recalling the colourful interior decor from Mario Bava's Blood and Black Lace. A good thing. The mix of Gothic and giallo imagery is unusual and occasionally arresting. The music by Silvano Spadaccino is pretty forgettable, incorporating Euro-cheese and an insistent piano soundtrack when the killer is on the prowl. When the murders do happen they are impressively unconvincing. Occasionally laughably so. But they are often super-sleazy. In most giallos the sex interrupts the violence, in this film Di Leo takes the opposite approach. There is a very high sleaze factor. It occasionally even enters (if you excuse the pun) hardcore territory with some really graphic female masturbatory action. There is copious other soft-core fumblings, including a memorable butt massage. In fairness, Di Leo handles the sex better than the violence. Ultimately, Slaughter Hotel falls into the same category of giallo as Renato Polselli's Delirium, i.e. it's basically a bad movie that sort of gets away with it by way of its unrestrained Euro grind-house excess.