There's a scene in A Cat in the Brain where Fulci directs a Nazi orgy like a deranged madman. The results are what opens Sodoma's Ghost, as a group of Nazi deserters and prostitutes are at play while Willy films the proceedings. Everyone dances to strange jazz music and claps their hands while watching films of the war, then the bombs fall. When you combine this intriguing beginning with a great movie poster, you can see why I picked Sodoma's Ghost for a 3:25 AM viewing.Years later, six American students - Mark, Paul, John, Anne, Celine and Maria - are traveling to Paris when they find the house we just saw in the opening. It's abandoned but fully furnished, and by fully furnished, I mean it's packed with all sorts of pornography on the walls. And oh yeah. It's also duly appointed with Nazi ghosts.Also, there is a flea market here, the Rossi Pop Up Market, that used to be a movie theater. You walk from theater to theater, some of which are turned into stores and some of which I am certain are now places where hoarders live during the week. This Nazi house looks like one of those theaters, with the seats all ripped out and a man in rags ready to surprise you as you search for old DVDs and only find his collection of old bags of Wonder Bread and stacks of old copies of Grit.Is it politically correct of me to say that I would like to think that sex-crazed Nazis would have had better taste in decoration than this?Also: It's 21 minutes into a Fulci film and no one has lost their eye yet.That night, Anne sleeps alone in a room when the ghost of Willy returns and slaps her around, bloodying her lip. He then licks the blood off and they have the most awkward kiss ever while the worst background music ever created plays and she bleeds all over the place. Evil Nazi ghost Willy is also a worse kisser than Randy West. He makes her confess that she loves it. She then wakes up all alone again, as it was all just a dream.Every time the kids try to leave, they get stuck. The roads all lead back to the house. The car breaks down. The police station answers with evil voices. The phones are cut. And then they're locked in the house. As cabin fever sets in, Maria starts to lose her mind.Mark, drunk and wandering, finds some Nazis playing cards. He joins them only to play Russian roulette for Willy, which he survives and is rewarded with a prostitute. As he starts to touch her, his hands go right through her body and he's covered with blood. He runs away and sees Paul as a Nazi, then tumbled down the steps to his death.Maria then is seduced by a prostitute - who is also a ghost - who tries to turn her against her girlfriend Anne, who she claims is cheating with Celine. Speaking of Anne, a possessed version of her tries to get with Paul before turning into a corpse. Sex hijinks amongst friends was never this gory. Or ridiculous.Paul and John find the film of the Nazis as Mark's corpse begins to rot. They play the film and just as the ghosts arrive, the bomb drops again and the screen goes to black.When everyone wakes up, Mark is back alive and it's all a dream. The teenagers finally drive away, safe from the Nazi menace.This movie just makes me sad. Anyone but Fulci could have directed it - it's free from the trademark verve and spark of mania that he brought to films where you expected nothing, like Conquest. It's rote and boring, with it's running time feeling way too long. Honestly - any movie packed with Nazi ghosts, sex and violent death should be way more exciting than this.

A late Fulci with much adverse criticism, surely it can't be that bad, I thought. Well, actually, it doesn't start too badly. Some sort of nazi orgy which is being filmed, nothing very explicit but diverting, then a long car journey in present day France. Eventually this settles down as a haunted house mystery and some nazi ghosts. There is some blood and gore and much naked flesh but no decent story, no decent dialogue and the only passable acting id by Robert Egon who plays a young nazi soldier. He has a most effective scene early on where the violence, blood and sex work dangerously well together but not once more does this film rise (or should that be sink?) to such a level. Music's awful too but then this is the 80s but 80s or not does not excuse such lazy film making especially when it is so well lit and shot. It's not a terrible idea either and with a bit more care this could have been a pretty potent brew. Shame.

I found some of the reviews left by some other readers excessively negative! Especially if they think the ludicrous "Touch of Death" is better than this one! I agree on a few things: you can certainly see that Fulci's health was sadly deteriorating,especially,by feeling like he hadn't re-wrote parts,or,improve certain implausible situations on set(like he often used to do!) from a script that needed a solid re-work. Some lines, or twists(which are still impressive anyways) of the plots are very contrived, and do not help, especially, in such an ambitious project! In fact i believe real critics' reviews are way more accurate and benign,and not certainly as a form of respect for the Maestro, but,because they clearly seen all to see/understand,the way more complex nature of this movie,and,consequently the way more difficult and specific sense of the execution needed by such material, again,way more brutally haunting and -seriously- demanding,than some of other usual and more formulaic horrors like Aenigma,Zombi 3, or even, of the quite overrated,"Manhattan Baby"! I always thought that the visual style of this film, was always so superior to many other's, and very,very stylish. I know that many may argue that a film is not just mere style and aesthetic's,like brilliant cinematography or very goth and creepy sets, but,i was stunned by,how much Fulci could still achieve with a smaller budget,just by using unique and inventive camera angles,creating horrific SFX's,but even more so,true atmospheres with such a dense,if exploitative, sense of erotic decadence and darkness! It's so obvious to me,How most other directors(Americans,or Italians,too!),having to work with similar string budgets and limitations,would have never been even able to imitate his professionalism by far,or most likely,would have not been able to bring to completion,a real motion picture with all these demands,period! The use of primarily dark blue's and dark red's tones, with gold and purple colors,matching vividly, by being opposed to the black or Noir,"hard boiled" scenario, were incredibly beautiful and artistic,while the use of a Morricone's inspired theme,bringing that 'classic descent to Hell' tone, with some period's influences,were helping greatly to create a tension,just where the script could have not. And,if there are for sure some back holes in story telling, the artistry behind this film, always saves the form and the interest. And so does the cast,in a way. Even though,a few of them,especially some 'of those then famous soft core starlets' just cannot transfer on screen something more convincing (like,let's just say,all the cast in something like Brass' masterpiece "Salon Kitty",1976-a film,that obviously Fulci must have admired very much!-instead could deliver with striking realism, and greater, morbid expressionism) there are here,still, a few great choices,like the handsome leads Aliotti and Sebastian Harrison, or,especially, the wildly ambiguous antagonists,all cult stars,like Domiziano Arcangeli,Zora Kerowa,Al Cliver and Robert Egon,envisioned here,and very cleverly,like a bunch of 'fallen angels',so pale and blond,to look very effectively,like vampires or creatures of the Devil,to better -symbolically- incarnate the tragic decadence of historical and very serious facts,that truly happened.. called Nazism and Holocaust! So,for many different reasons, I found this movie, very interesting to watch,and even with its flaws, a still superior exercise of style, from the always sensational Maestro's Fulci.

In an all-too-familiar scenario, a group of teenagers traveling in Europe discover an isolated villa and choose to stay there overnight, unaware of the mansion's dark, war-time past. Italian filmmaker, Lucio Fulci, ventures into the realms of Nazi-exploitation with this crudely produced, yet strangely entertaining, obscure, low-budget film. 'The Ghosts of Sodom' begins in a typically sleazy manner, with a short portrayal of a drug-laden Nazi party of debauchery being filmed by one member of the party who we will soon come to know as Willy (Robert Egon). Despite the pseudo-eroticised nature of the opening segment, the sequence soon takes a rather unpleasant, repellent tone before the cut-shot quickly transports the viewer back to the present day. It is here that we are introduced to the main characters and, rather characteristic of a Fulci film, these characters remain underdeveloped throughout and seemingly have no individual personality. This is an unfortunately consistent flaw with a large number of Fulci's movies but more so with this film. Despite a few brief instances, the majority of lines in the film could have been spoken by any one of the six main characters. Sadly, this rather glaring fault is coupled with numerous instances of wholly pointless and asinine dialogue. However, this is not to say that 'The Ghosts of Sodom' is an entirely bad movie. In fact, for a production of this type, it is a rather accomplished piece of film-making. Fulci utilises a beautiful, enchanting soundtrack in a professional, productive way to create a dynamic, dramatic and foreboding atmosphere when coupled with the astonishingly gloomy, despairing and mesmerising visual elements that had become one of his trademarks. Although there are only a few gory shots to satisfy those viewers who have become accustomed to Fulci's often-excessive usage of gore, one should be able to appreciate that the erotic and supernatural elements of the film provide the fodder here. Unfortunately, the rather slow-pace and often empty, prolonged instances of tedium can certainly subtract from the viewing enjoyment and distract the viewer from appreciating the more intricate and important plot-aspects; a true concern as the story is far from enormously intricate. However, in reality, how many similar films do not suffer from these same problems? One can appreciate this film for the superb, atmospheric presentation if they are able to ignore the predictability, plot/character flaws and kitsch of the whole production. Despite the somewhat inane storyline (although adequate for the production) and often-ridiculous scripting of the movie, one can certainly waste eighty minutes on films far poorer than this. 'The Ghosts of Sodom' is quite simply Nazi-exploitation with a supernatural twist which, in places, is full of tension with the 'Russian Roulette' sequence being the absolute peak of heart-pounding suspense. Fans of Fulci's other films may be disappointed, but fans of the sub-genre may find various things to like about this film despite the movie not being as explicit as other movies of its type. My rating for 'The Ghosts of Sodom' - 6½/10.