4/10
Stay away from the castle...
24 July 2003
... and from this movie!!!

My oh my, what a bad movie! I have seen lots of bad movies (like Troll 2, or Robot Monster), and this one is as bad as those are! I am a fan of Paolo Villaggio, and normally I like his movies, the Fantozzi series for example, but also many of the less known movies from the 1970's, but this one is a stinker. It's a spoof of the classic 1950's and 1960's horror movies, with Villaggio as the improbable hero, Fracchia, a man afraid of virtually everything. The feeling is actually that of the classic horror stories, and if it wasn't for the attempts at comedy it would indeed make an almost decent b-movie... but unfortunately it tries to be a comedy, failing all the way. The plot is as thin as it can be (Plot? What plot?), and there isn't a single memorable scene, nothing at least a bit funny. Actually, I felt almost sad after watching this movie. Why would Villaggio accept to make a film like this in 1985, when he had already had quite a lot of success with his Fantozzi movies? I guess he needed the money badly, I can't see no other reason for him to do this.

This is a difficult one to find (my copy is a videotape I bought back in the 80's), especially outside of Italy. In this case, this isn't a bad thing. Let's hope they never release this one, somebody may buy it... If you really want to see some funny Paolo Villaggio movies, try the first two from the Fantozzi series, those are the real classics.
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