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Las Garras de Lorelei
The Loreley's Grasp
The Night the Screaming Stopped / When the Screaming Stops / Grasp of the Lorelei / The Lorelei's Grasp
Spain 1976
produced by José Antonio Pérez Giner, Ricardo Munoz Suay (executive), Ricardo Sanz (executive) for Astro, Profilmes
directed by Amando de Ossorio
starring Tony Kendall, Helga Liné, Silvia Tortosa, Josefina Jartin, Loreta Tovar, José Thelman, Luis Induni, Francisco Nieto, Betsabé Ruiz, Luis Barboo, Ángel Menéndez, Sergio Mendizábal, Marisol Delgado, Victoria Hernández, María Vidal, Javier de Rivera, Antonio Orengo, Cristino Álmodóvar, Iris André, María Luisa Tovar
written by Amando de Ossorio, music by Antón García Abril, special effects by Alfredo Segoviano
Lorelei
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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There is a killer loose in a German village on the Rhine, so Ms Elke
(Silivia Tortosa), teacher at the local all girls boarding school, hires a
hunter, Sigurd (Tony Kendall), to safeguard her girls. Frankly, he doesn't
make a very good job of it, but Ms Elke doesn't care about this half as
much as about how drawn the girls feel to the handsome young hunter. So
she does everything in her power to make his life a living hell - and of
course, the two fall in love before too long. Sigurd meets a scientist
who tells him the killer is actually Lorelei, a mutant (or something) from
the saga of the Nibelungs, living in some caves under a nearby lake to
guard her father's treasure, and he gives him a radioactive dagger, the
only weapon that can kill the Lorelei. Later, Sigurd meets a girl (Helga
Liné) who actually claims to be Lorelei - but Sigurd doesn't believe her
and actually tells her about the professor ... whom Lorelei kills not long
afterwards. Because you see, Lorelei is actually a shapeshifter, beautiful
girl by day, monster by night, and she really lives in some caves under
the lake. But Lorelei is also a woman, and she has fallen in love with
Sigurd of course. It takes quite a time before the dead professor is
found, but when he is, Sigurd knows all he has said was true, and he goes
diving to look for and find Lorelei's caves. He is captured, but since
Lorelei is in love with him, she refuses to kill him. But when she finds
out he's in love with Ms Elke, she decides to go after her - giving Sigurd
plenty of opportunity to free himself and blow up her caves. Sigurd
arrives just in time to stop Lorelei from killing Ms Elke and drive the
radioactive dagger into her back. Then he kisses dying Lorelei (in her
human form) and sees her ride of to Valhalla (no, really). Not
a great film but a great piece of Euro-trash/-horror: The story lacks
originality and doesn't make much sense and messes up its own mythology,
the characters are invariably flat to ridiculous, the lead actors are on
the wooden side, there are plenty of breast-baring opportunities for the
uniformly über-cute female cast, and the effects are crude but effective.
It's not a film you will remember long, either ... but heck, while you
watch it this movie is just great fun (especially if accompanied by beer
of course), as it has such a great unapologetic straight-to-the-jugular
feel to it that only very rarely results in an actual good movie - but
quite often in great trashy genre entertainment!
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