Sodoma's Ghost

The later eighties would be the beginning of decline in quality for Lucio Fulci's work (some would argue it began earlier with the likes of Murder-Rock but I think there was still some drive in his material at that point personally).  During this period he made a few films for producers Antonio Lucidi and Luigi Nannerini, of which Il Fantasma Di Sodoma (Sodoma's Ghost) is one.  The most idiotic teens you've seen since wandering past a British inner city high school are driving out on holiday and get hopelessly lost, only to come across an old house that was used by the Nazis for the purposes of sexual degradation back in the day.  Finding that it's impossible to escape from the place the dumb teens end up staying a few days, only to be accosted in various ways by the malevolent (but still quite sexually charged) spirits of the long-dead Nazis.

Whilst I've not seen everything that Fulci ever directed I have seen a fair bit of his work, but this is the lowest pile of drivel I've witnessed (he also wrote the story and screenplay for this one) - a sad comedown from the glory days (just a few years before, amazingly) of The Beyond and House By The Cemetery.  I could only view this in English and perhaps the translation/dubbing was flawed, but judging it from this alone the dialogue itself is atrocious, sometimes to amusing effect.  The saving grace of the teens, who generally deserve to be shot on sight, is the presence of one sultry Jessica Moore, who made this after the far more enjoyable Eleven Days, Eleven Nights, and thankfully gets her kit off here too.  In fact there is a very high level of nudity in this film throughout, though even this plus-point can't quite save the film.  Any potential (and there was some in the germ of the idea) is also damaged by Carlo Maria Cordio's incessant and irritating score.  To add final insult to injury is the lame-as-f**k ending, almost suggesting that nobody involved with this production had a modicum of enthusiasm for it.

EC Entertainment released this abortion via region 2 PAL DVD well over ten years ago - the fullframe (as shot) transfer is quite ugly.  Two audio tracks are included - English language and Italian language (the latter being much hissier).  Why did I not watch the film in Italian?  Because, despite what it said on the back of the box, there are no subtitles!  Still, a bad disc serving up a worse film is not the end of humanity.