TRHAUMA - DVD REVIEW

Although labeled in many genre reference books as a giallo, Gianni Martucci’s TRHAUMA has more similarities to the then popular stalk-and-slash craze, which, thanks to the enormous popularity of John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN (1978), dominated box office receipts at the time.  If it’s not glaringly obvious by the misspelled title card, TRHAUMA is pretty much the rock-bottom of the genre, albeit with a few odd touches and sleazy characteristics to keep it mildly entertaining.

A disheveled man (Per Holgher – credited as L’Essere / “The Being”) with a disfigured blind eye roams the crypts of a large Italian villa, who, in his spare time, is also constructing a large toy castle made entirely of children’s building blocks.  As he secretly works away, a wailing cat in the background is soon ‘hushed-up’ when he removes its head with a large sickle – but don’t worry, folks, it’s all very unconvincingly done.  In the meantime, a group of well-to-do socialites – including a photographer named Paul (Timothy Wood), his model Olga (Anna Maria Chiatante), a wealthy industrialist (Franco Diogene) and his newest secretary (Gina Mancinelli), and also Carlo and Silvia (Roberto Posse and Silvia Mauri), an unhappily married couple – are all visiting Andrea (“Ronny Russ” / aka Gaetano Russo)’s sizable country estate. But for reasons unknown, this house seems to be a thorn in the side of his wife Lilly (“Dafne Price” / aka Domitilla Cavazza), and as night falls, everyone becomes the target of the aforementioned resident madman, but who is that mysterious figure taunting him with new boxes of building blocks…?

 

As unusual as the above premise sounds, the set-up is about as simplistic as it gets, and the second half is simply one extended stalking sequence à la HALLOWEEN (at one point, our heroine even stabs her attacker in the eye with an arrow!), but without any of that film’s expertly-handled misc en scène and suspense.  Like any low-budget slasher film, characters simply gather together to more conveniently get bumped-off, but Martucci’s film also contains unavoidable gialli elements including an especially unpleasant group of people with plenty of dirty secrets and hidden agendas. At one point, Paul blackmails Silvia with compromising photos of her taken while she was having a lesbian tryst with Olga, while Andrea is probably the most pathetic of the group: a degenerate gambler who is obviously financially supported by his wife (“You’re crazy if you think I’ll continue to finance your megalomania!” exclaims Lilly).  

 

Characterization is certainly not the film’s main impetus with most of the ‘stars’ appearing tired and bored, although Holgher seems to relish his part as the mute killer. In one of the film’s most unexpected scenes, his character has his evil way with Olga’s corpse in an open field, which seems to have strayed in from a completely different film. During TRHAUMA’s extended finale – which is also an obvious nod to Italian Gothics – Lilly is pursued by “The Being” as she endlessly runs through the dark villa in her negligee, all of which adds up to a rather formula pic without much of a personal touch. 

 

Director Martucci only directed a grand total of five films, which also included the entertaining and highly exploitable poliziesco BLAZING FLOWERS (1978) with George Hilton and Marc Porel, and THE RED MONKS (1988), a relatively bland horror cheapie (again with Russo) put together during the fading days of Italo-horror, which gained some unexpected popularity due to the controversial – and confusing – “Lucio Fulci presents” moniker it got saddled with. As for TRHAUMA, it’s inconceivable to think that it took fully three writers (namely Alessandro Capone, director Martucci and star Russo) to slap this story together, and outside of a few fitful spurts of gore and plentiful nudity, most viewers will probably find TRHAUMA pretty dull. 

 

Even during the VHS days, this obscurity was never circulated in an English-friendly version, and despite being released in Italy, French Canada, and even Korea, both the French Canadian (released by Les Plaisirs Vidéo as DÉMENCE) and Korean VHS tape (in Italian with Korean subtitles) featured edited versions of the film. Gone was the film’s entire pre-credit sequence and the brief but rather startling scene of necrophilia, which totaled just over four-and-a-half minutes of footage. Thankfully, CG Entertainment’s Italian DVD from 2009 features the uncut version, and unlike the overly dark and murky VHS tapes, CG’s DVD is a vast improvement in every way, which is significantly sharper, brighter, and more colourful, allowing those more adventurous viewers to better appreciate this sleazy little thriller. Incidentally, the credit sequence on the DVD unfolds over a plain black background unlike the earlier VHS tapes, which open with kaleidoscopic brush-strokes, adding extra fuel to Ubaldo Continiello’s disco-infused score (“Come on, dance…”), which also includes several lengthy excerpts from his earlier work on Ruggero Deodato’s The LAST CANNIBAL WORLD (a.k.a. JUNGLE HOLOCAUST, 1977). Unfortunately, their disc only features an Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 audio track with Italian subtitles for the hard of hearing, and brief Italian biographies (remember those?) for director Martucci, and actors Gaetano Russo and Roberto Posse. 

 

Despite its humbler origins and flimsy plot devices, those even slightly entertained by the trashier gialli movies of the ’70s may find sporadic entertainment value here. 

THE LAST HAREM - BLU-RAY REVIEW

Adapted from his own novel of the same name, Alberto Vázquez Figueroa’s writings also provided the basis for several pictures including Antonio Isasi’s A DOG CALLED… VENGEANCE (1977), Richard Fleischer’s ASHANTI (1979), and Enzo G. Castellari’s TUAREG THE DESERT WARRIOR (1984), to name but a few. Undoubtedly one of the more obscure films based on Figueroa’s work, Sergio Garrone’s THE LAST HAREM (1981) boasts ex-James Bond star George Lazenby and the always magnetic Corinne Cléry under the direction of a man better known to Euro exploitation fans for helming economical spaghetti westerns, and a pair of outrageous Naziploitation pictures. Although on the slow-moving side, the film’s interesting giallo-styled framework not only features an attractive cast, but also re-emphasizes Figueroa’s love of adventure, exotic locales, and far-off cultures. 

Bookended by a rather nondescript TV program (akin to a no-budget version of Robin Leach’s Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous television show, 1984-1995), which, in typical cost-cutting fashion, handily provides the necessary background information on the film’s title character, Prince Almalarik (George Lazenby). According to our enthusiastic hosts (played by busy English voice talent actors Larry Dolgin and Pat Starke), this “Arab potentate” is perhaps best known for his “clever manipulations” in the world of international finance, but they also jokingly refer to him as the “Arabian Don Juan” and a “big swinger among the jet-set society.” Despite Almalarik’s protestations that he is a “good Arab”, his uncle (an uncredited Gérard Tichy) and current King of this unspecified middle-eastern country, is displeased at all the unwanted attention his nephew receives in the press, especially in regards to his harem. When Almalarik finds his newest and favourite wife Sara (Cléry) murdered, suspicions fall on the other wives, which heralds the start of a plot to reveal the killer, complete with out-of-sequence flashbacks and enough red herrings to fill three giallo murder thrillers. 

 

An odd, languorously paced film, this is quite a departure for director Garrone, who eschews the grittier coarseness of his earlier pictures in favour of a glossy, stylized sheen more in common with Italian sex pics and erotic thrillers of a decade later. Highlighted by an impressive roster of Eurocult regulars (which also includes Mirta Miller, Daniela Poggi, María Kosty, Ursula Buchfellner, Adriana Vega, and uncredited bit parts from Marina Frajese and Aldo Sambrell), who are brimming with bitterness, jealousies, and lots of suspicious glances, THE LAST HAREM attempts to propel its narrative on careful plot and dialogue (“Life in the harem is only good for the sheik!”), which strives to fabricate psychological rationale for most of the characters’ behaviour, but unfortunately, none of it generates the necessary – and much-needed – tension. Elsewhere too, Garrone’s directorial control is not so much leisurely as utterly indifferent, even when occasionally enlivened by frequent nudity and some nice location shooting in the deserts of Almería, which double for the middle-east. 

 

Having first gained recognition in Just Jaeckin’s S&M melodrama THE STORY OF O (1975), Corinne Cléry is ideally cast in the role of Sara, Prince Almalarik’s newest conquest. Even though she is regarded as nothing more than a personal possession, her character still radiates ample sensuality and confidence (“She was the mistress of everything and everyone!”), which she uses to her benefit as she cleverly insinuates herself into Almalarik’s flared slacks. Portraying Lazenby’s first onscreen wife, the sultry Mirta Miller (also seen in more than a few Spanish horror films such as Javier Aguirre’s COUNT DRACULA’S GREAT LOVE [1973]) whose dark eyes shimmer like luminous moonlit pools, also puts in an affecting performance and is among the film’s more believable characters. Having previously appeared in Aldo Lado’s superb giallo WHO SAW HER DIE? (1972), Lazenby returns to Italy for some fast pasta money in what turns out to be one of his most obscure roles. Ruling with an iron-fist couched inside a velvet glove, Lazenby commits himself to the role of the self-centered prince who eventually drives home the script’s token messages – and recurrent motifs in most of Figueroa’s work - of greed and forgiveness.

 

Currently unavailable on North American disc, THE LAST HAREM was released on Japanese Blu-ray in 2024 through Anec, and even though no source is listed on the packaging, their “HD remaster” herein is excellent, which features solid black levels, fairly bold colours, and lots of appropriately warm flesh tones, which look especially pleasing in many of the film’s languid, slow-motion sex scenes. Also, unlike the earlier Japanese VHS videocassette from Tokuma, which blurred all below-the-waist nudity, Anec’s new Blu-ray is completely uncensored. Given the film’s customary post-dubbing (Lazenby’s lines were provided by English voice artist Robert Sommer), the LPCM English 1.0 mono audio also sounds fine, and draws attention to Stelvio Cipriani’s laid-back score, which perfectly encapsulates the film’s often pensive atmosphere.  The only extra included on Anec’s disc is the film’s English-language export trailer (2m47s), which includes a few snippets of footage and alternate takes not seen in the finished film.

 

Although most viewers may find themselves lulled to sleep by its surplus of talky drama, THE LAST HAREM is ultimately salvaged by the film’s good-looking cast and abundant nudity, and shall forever remain an interesting, if flawed, blip in the eccentric career of George Lazenby. Order the Blu-ray from Amazon Japan.