Sergio (Gianni Macchia) has come to his lonely house in the countryside
for the weekend, to spend it with his wife Liliana (Patrizia Behn) and his
young sister-in-law Paola (Lorraine De Selle), with whom he has an affair
and whom he plans to shag while the wife is out. What neither of the three
knows though is that on the premises, escaped convict Gio (Joe
Dallesandro) is lurking, and he seems to have some important business
inside their house to attend to.
But Gio is no fool who would attack them head-on, he waits until Sergio
is out hunting and Liliana has gone to the next village to do some
shopping. Now only Paola is left, and she has dozed off while sunbathing
anyways, so it's no big deal to knock her out. Then Gio starts taking
apart the fireplace and starts digging. Eventually, Paola wakes up, and
she tries her charms on Gio to keep him from killing her ... but at first
he only forces her to dig in his stead - but he is only a man, and soon he
has fallen for her charms and rapes her. First, Paola puts up quite some
defense, but after a while she lets him proceed however he wants to and
starts to really enjoy it (now there's a macho fantasy). But after sex,
she makes an attempt to flee - in the nude - but fails and now Gio ties
her up.
When Liliana comes home, Gio has little problems to overcome her and
tie her up together with Paola. Even Sergio, who carries a gun (he has
been out hunting, you know) is overcome rather quickly, and now Gio forces
him to dig for him at gunpoint, while disclosing to his wife that her good
hubby had an affair with her sister.
Finally, the whatever-it-is is dug up, a bag full of money, a small
fortune no less, and Paola, impressed by the money, uses all her charms to
try to persuade him to take her with him when he makes his getaway. But
Gio isn't interested in her, in fact he sends her and Sergio to the other
room while he tries to seduce Liliana, who - after having heard about her
hubby's affair - oon gives in to his avances.
In the meantime though, Paola makes up a plan how she and Sergio could
overcome Gio, and according to Paola, the only one whom Gio would be able
to shoot is Liliana, while Paola and Sergio could get away with the loot.
A good plan, in theory, but when carried out everything goes a little
differently and eventually, Gio shoots both Paola and Sergio. For Liliana
though, he only has soft feelings, and he asks her to come with him to
wherever-it-is. He even trusts her enough to leave the gun with her ...
and ultimately she shoots him in the back ...
An extremely tight thriller, that takes its cue from Desperate Hours
(1955, William Wyler), but turns the situation topsy turvey inasmuch as
the hostages (at least Sergio and Paola) are far more despicable than the
intruder himself, and when they are shot in the end, one can't help but not
feel sorry for them. Quite a bit of nudity of course doesn't hurt either.
Recommended.
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