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OnePlusOne from Stockholm, Sweden
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This late-ish effort from Freda plays as a modern day (70's that is) Gothic thriller, but comes out short of thrills. Certainly it's not a dreadfully bad film, it's jut got that feeling which many of Freda's later films have of someone who has given up when he's seen the first daily's. It starts out good enough, almost giallo like in tone, then takes a turn into Gothic territories with a decent (albeit terribly cliche) set up. Then suddenly Freda seems to have lost interest in the film and all we get is prolonged shots of Camille Keaton and burning candles. Then circa an hour into the film we get some sort of violent climax with decent-to-poor special effects. This is followed by a slow paced outro with a very obvious twist ending (If it's even intended to be a twist?). And throw a few very halfhearted explanatory scenes along the way and you got Tragic Ceremony. Thus in parts it's got its qualities. But then suddenly stumbles and collapses in front of you. A pity.

btw stay away from the SHAROMA DVD, a useless murky pan& scan edition which kills of what could be a good visual experience.

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rundbauchdodo from Zürich, Switzerland
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This somehow odd film from Italian Cult Gothic Horror director Freda ("L'Orribile Segreto del Dr. Hichcock") is almost unknown and extremely difficult to find nowadays.

Made a year after his rough Giallo "L'Iguana Dalla Lingua di Fuoco" (see also my comment on that), the title suggests yet another Giallo (it means "Taken From the Secret Police Files of a European Capital" and fits perfectly into typical over long and wonderful Giallo titles like "Il Tuo Vizio e una Stanza Chiusa e Solo Io ne ho la Chiave" of the same year). But, in fact, this film is not a Giallo at all - but a Gothic horror story about a cursed pearl necklace and a strange Satan's Cult which gets confronted by a hippie quartet on a day out. The story sounds unique, and the film is it, too.

Made on a very low budget, Freda made more than the best out of it and created a strange movie with all the classic Gothic elements, and also boosts a handful of astonishing gore effects that echo the rude sequences of his Giallo a year before.

The cast is lead by Camille Keaton of "I Spit on Your Grave" fame, while Luigi Pistilli ("Reazione a Catena") delivers another neat performance as the leader of the strange Cult. The soundtrack is composed by Stelvio Cipriani and is cool as usual. A film worth looking for despite its rarity.

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ferbs54 from United States
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As I have said elsewhere, my abiding love for Italian actress Luciana Paluzzi has, cinematically, led me to some fairly unusual places. From my initial enthrallment with her Fiona Volpe character in 1965's "Thunderball" and on to such disparate fare as the British comedy "Carlton-Browne of the F.O." (1959), the Japanese sci-fi shlock classic "The Green Slime" (1968), the Jess Franco WIP flick "99 Women" (1969) and the blaxploitation actioner "Black Gunn" (1972), I have always found that a little Luciana makes any film go down easier. My most recent confirmation of this: the 1972 Italian supernatural cult item "Tragic Ceremony" (or, as it was called originally, "Estralto Dagli Archivi Secreti Della Polizia Di Una Capitale Europa," or "From the Secret Police Files of a European Capital"), in which Paluzzi's role is a small one, but one that adds immeasurably to the creepy proceedings.

In the film, four young adults (though referred to as "hippies" both in the picture itself and in most commentaries on it, in truth they are more like free-loving free spirits), needing shelter after their dune buggy conks out in a teeming thunderstorm, knock on the first door they come across. Unfortunately for them, it is at the mansion owned by Lord Alexander (the great Luigi Pistilli, who, that same year, starred in the wonderfully named and just plain wonderful "Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key") and his wife, Lady Alexander (our Luciana), a pair of Satanists, who that very night are preparing to convoke a Black Mass with a group of rather unwholesome guests. And before long, one of the quartet, Jane (played by Camille Keaton, who earlier that year had appeared in her first film, the classic giallo "What Have You Done to Solange?," and who six years later would star in the infamous "I Spit on Your Grave," a film that I've yet to muster the courage to watch), perhaps influenced by a pearl necklace with a supernatural history that one of the three guys had recently given to her, is seen somnolently floating toward that Satanic ritual. But the Mass ends in an over-the-top bloodbath, and the four flee for their lives into the night. But sadly enough, their nightmare is only beginning....

Directed with style to spare by Riccardo Freda, whose earlier horror films include Italy's first of the sound era, "I Vampiri" (1956), and the Barbara Steele vehicles "The Horrible Dr. Hichcock" (1962) and "The Ghost" (1963), "Tragic Ceremony" was one of this great filmmaker's final projects. Freda has incorporated modern, Gothic, Satanic and nightmarish elements into the film, in that order. The tragic ceremony of the title, the Black Mass in which all nine celebrants are butchered via beheading, face cleaving, shootings, knifings and a defenestration, is the literal centerpiece of the film, coming at the exact midpoint and separating the modern and Gothic sections from the nightmarish, supernatural tone of the second half. The Mass really is a bravura sequence. The celebrants truly do look evil; the dreary, dreamy organ music, black candles and pitch-black background create a chilling mood; the weaving, zooming camera creates an air of disorientation; the sight of Jane floating down a corridor, curtains billowing around her while she holds a candelabra aloft, is truly dreamlike; and the great and bloody carnage, accompanied by a lush piano-and-strings score by Stelvio Cipriani and abetted by gross-out touches by FX master Carlo Rimbaldi (of "E.T.," "Alien" and Andrzej Zulawski's "Possession" fame), is truly shocking. And Freda maintains the nightmarish, otherworldly feel of his film all the way to the end, as all four of our young protagonists begin to meet horrific ends (the sight of one of the four, his corpse countenance quite literally blue in the face, should linger in the memory for quite a while!). The film employs brief flashbacks and flash-forwards to accentuate the feeling of dislocation, and there is just no way for any viewer to predict what will come next, in this truly bizarre outing. Ultimately, the film just barely hangs together, with the question of that darned necklace still, uh, dangling before us; even a doctor's "explanation" of the wacky events we've seen, as the film closes, barely begins to cover it. I should add here that the thesping turned in by our young quartet is better than good, and needless to say, Pistilli and Paluzzi are just marvelous (sadly, the roles of both these two are decidedly brief). Paluzzi looks absolutely gorgeous, need it even be mentioned; this fact makes Fred's (one of the guys) statement that she has "a face like Dracula" only add to the film's strangeness!

Some further good news: The Dark Sky Films DVD on which "Tragic Ceremony" can now be found is a nice-looking one indeed, with excellent subtitling, a decent image, and one excellent extra: a 13-minute interview with the Camille Keaton of 2007, entitled "Camille's European Adventures." Better looking than ever, well spoken and articulate, with a sharp memory and a nicely self-effacing disposition, Arkansas-born Camille comes off as a bright, 60-year-old sweetie here. Certainly NOT like the kind of gal who'd participate in a Black Mass ceremony, that's for sure!

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bensonmum2 from Tennessee
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On the way home from a day at the beach, four young people seek shelter from a torrential downpour at the home of Lord and Lady Alexander after their car runs out of gas. They don't know it, but the house they're staying in is to be the site of a Satanic ritual. Jane (Camille Keaton), the only female of the group, is to be sacrificed. As her male companions rush to her aid, one of them accidentally kills Lady Alexander. Things really get out of hand and everyone else attending the black mass is also killed. The four try to make an escape, but soon discover there's no escape from what they've witnessed. One by one, they meet their fates.

Gong into Tragic Ceremony, I was positive I would enjoy it. Slow-burn Gothic horror is right up my alley. I'm also quite fond of some of Riccardo Freda's other movies like The Horrible Dr. Hichcock, The Ghost, and I Vampiri. Tragic Ceremony seemed to be a sure thing. Unfortunately, things don't always work out the way they should. The biggest tragedy with respect to Tragic Ceremony is the time I spent watching this mess of a movie. With a few minor exceptions, nothing about the film appealed to me or worked for me. The characters are unlikeable, the plot is incoherent and schizophrenic, and the pacing is terrible. There's a subplot about some cursed pearls that goes nowhere and only serves to confuse things even further. In addition, nothing interesting happens for most of the movie. By the time the four leads realize they're in danger, I was well past the point of caring. And I don't understand the reviews I've read that praise the acting of Camille Keaton. I suppose it's a terrific performance if you consider an emotionless daze to be acting. The three male leads are the very definition of nondescript. They do nothing to stand out. The supporting cast includes some genre favorites like Luigi Pistilli, Luciana Paluzzi, and Paul Muller, but none is given anything to do. In fact Muller's main contribution is a two minute long monologue at the end of the movie that attempts to explain what happened in the previous 80 or so minutes. It's a weak attempt to provide a wrap-up to a very weak movie.

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HumanoidOfFlesh from Chyby, Poland
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"Tragica Ceremonia En Villa Alexander" is a wonderfully creepy ghost story made by Riccardo Freda.Freda is the best known for his early Gothic horror movies like "I Vampiri" and "The Horrible Dr.Hitchcock".The film is well shot,with some gloomy atmospheric imagery and outrageously gory set-pieces.The acting is pretty good with Camille Keaton("I Spit on Your Grave")in the lead role.The soundtrack by Stelvio Cipriani is truly beautiful and haunting.The gore effects are pretty nasty and shocking,and the climax is truly eerie.The film is extremely rare and hard to find,so get the copy as soon as possible.The plot is as follows:a group of friends run out of gas in the middle of nowhere during the thunderstorm and find refuge in a villa.Little do they know that the owner is about to have a black mass in the basement!Soon the orgy of blood-soaked violence begins!

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Scarecrow-88 from United States
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Ricardo Freda, a well regarded director in the history of Italian cinema (along with contemporaries like Mario Bava who accepted assignments Freda left from), was responsible for this strange bit of hokum, with supernatural leanings, containing black mass devil worship, including a silly conclusion which lays out the demonic menace and what was plaguing lead actress Camille Keaton (who wasn't much of an actress but Freda seemed more concerned with her beauty and how to frame shots of her using candlelight, wind-rustling curtains, etc) via Hitchcock's Psycho (Paul Muller comes in, like Simon Oakland did in Psycho, explaining Norman's plight, talking about Lady Alexander and her relation to what is happening to Keaton throughout the film after the incident during the "tragic ceremony")in ridiculous detail (the one doing so hasn't been seen at all throughout the film and shouldn't have any knowledge whatsoever about any of what was occurring to Keaton), but if you like films that are "out there", maintaining an oddball mood, then perhaps "Tragic Ceremony" is your kind of entertainment. I have to admit that I thought it had some serious pacing issues, lulls at the beginning and shortly after the "big scene" (where the bizarre slaughter of the black mass cult assembled in the lair of Lord Alexander and Lady Alexander's castle, all killing each other (!) after a human sacrifice is interrupted takes place), but "Tragic Ceremony" allows Carlo Rambaldi to showcase his gruesome special effects which includes a sword splitting a face in half, a gunshot to the forehead, a decapitation, and a dagger stabbing (also we see a face with a missing lower jaw)to the stomach. The main cast couldn't act if their life depended on it, with Keaton (Day of the Woman) cold on screen, not any better than those around her. Luciana Paluzzi (Thunderball), as Lady Alexander, and Luigi Pistilli (Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key), as Lord Alexander, have minor supporting parts, but because of the limited screen time, they fail to add enough oomph to raise the quality of this rather hopeless exercise in futility. Some impressive visual moments with Keaton in the castle, along with Rambaldi's work, are about all this film has going for it. Once the film leaves the Alexander castle, I felt the film never quite recovers—it seems as if the film was built for the portion within the castle while everything else seems less inspired, although a subplot involving trust fund baby Bill (Tony Isbert) and his adulterous mom is given some time. Not sure what to make of Bill's fate, with the green make-up. There's also a weird additional character, a gas station attendant who might be more than he appears, who affects the lives of the twenty-somethings, responsible for leading them to the Alexanders to begin with. Máximo Valverde is Keaton's lover and Giovanni Petti is the tagalong guitar playing crooner of the foursome. Interesting footnote is the use of the Sharon Tate murders, mentioning the Manson cult, in dialogue of a news broadcast describing similarities to the black mass massacre at the Alexanders' castle.

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Jonny_Numb from Hellfudge, Pennsylvania
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Few international starlets have gained as much notoriety from such a limited filmography as Camille Keaton, and not without due cause: "I Spit on Your Grave" was made a must-see cult favorite by the condemnations of Siskel & Ebert, while her other films have remained in relative obscurity. "Tragic Ceremony" is an early Keaton offering, an Italian-made mindscrew that takes aim at the '60s hippie culture and the eccentricities of the bourgeoisie, while crafting a fairly suspenseful, surrealistic tale in the vein of Roman Polanski's "paranoid-apartment-dweller" trilogy and the art-drenched works of Mario Bava. The ringmaster of this free-association nightmare is Riccardo Freda, who uses a lot of avant-garde techniques (the shaky-hand-held motorcycle ride; the wide-angle 'ceremony'; low angles and long shots) to establish a purposely inconsistent mood--it's a disorienting experience that uses a cliche setup (freewheeling hippies vacationing in the country run afoul of rich Satanists) to subvert our expectations time and again; the 'climax' seems to occur midway through, and just when we wonder where else the story could possibly go, Freda extends his creepy surrealism right up to the end (even if the final scene is marred by an overly awkward explanation that isn't really necessary). Even the violent moments (while clearly the product of a low budget) transpire in a style that exists somewhere between reality and the exaggeration of a dream. And, of course, Keaton is wonderful to watch, possessing the kind of understated demeanor that made her signature performance in "I Spit" so memorable. Now that it's on DVD, there's not excuse for any fan of Euro-horror to miss this "Tragic Ceremony."

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revrommer from United States
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Markets of horror ideas move forward by bringing in discredited scholarly ideas, urban legends and the latest news. I've always suspected that the right turn in horror from lone psychos to satanic cults around about 1970 was motivated by fears aroused by the Manson Murder of Sharon Tate. Freda makes explicit reference to the similarity between Tate and the eight dead bodies in a mansion visited by a group of what are called hippies, though hair over the ear and a silk shirt does not a hippie make, when they watch the news on TV afterwards. Clearly then the movie implicates the innocent stumblers upon a satanic coven as guilty by association to what was going on in the news. Other than the frisson of a script trying to tease a story out of that possibility, however, this movie is pretty flat. Even the satanic rituals, though stylishly grounded in suits of armor, family crests, black everything, censers with airborne hallucinogens, and a helter skelter riot of murder, are bit odd. The setpiece of the movie is one acolyte getting his head sliced in half, and with a flashback we see that lovely moment five times. The connecting link is that the girl of the hippie group, played with eery awkwardness by waspy Camille Keaton, after they get in out of the rain at the castle, is lured by cellar chanting wetbreasted out of her bath and ends up horizontal under a sacrificial knife. The shot when she descends a grand staircase in steely blue billowing with stormtossed curtains communicates the terrible threshold (repeating an equally impressive grand staircase initiation shot in the same year's All the Colors of the Dark). The escape sequence , which also involves some deaths, is explained at the end. The chief priestess (Luciana Paluzzi) was stabbed, and is dying, but that is the point when extrasensory perception in a medium is at the utmost, allowing her spirit to jump into Keaton's body and then through Keaton have revenge and then when Keaton finally dies she is reborn. Why, this comes straight out of authentic Euro folklore going back to the third century, again explaining why its important to watch Italian horror. The fact that the movie is putatively set in Anglo Saxon locales such as Chelsea and that Scotland Yard shows up, when everything is obviously rural Italian, suggests how very strong the pull of Hammer England was to all Euro horror then (see also Seven Deaths in a Cats Eye).

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gavin6942 from United States
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Camille Keaton (best known for "I Spit on Your Grave") stars as Jane, one of four young people who run out of gas and are forced to spend the night at Lord Alexander's mansion. But Alexander and his wife are into some diabolical games -- Jane is hand-picked as a "virgin sacrifice". A ruckus ensues and the second half of the film has the gang of four trying to hide from police when they feel they might be implicated i na murder.

This film, more properly titled "From the Secret Police Archives of a European Capital" is considered by some to be a cult classic. I don't know why. It has some things going for it -- Camille Keaton, who is alluring in a strange way (she shouldn't be attractive but in some scenes has such an innocent face). Some of the deaths are incredible, such as a head split in two (though this is diminished when they flash back eight times). And the makeup is astounding, particularly on Camille later in the film (I won't give this away... wait for it).

But, overall, the film is nothing special. The camera work is awful ("shaky cam" all the time), the editing is very rough, with cuts tat don't line up right. And other than five minutes at Lord Alexander's mansion and the last few minutes, it's a boring plot. Mostly just kids sitting around and we're not really told their relationship to each other (Jane seems to be dating all of them). Oh, and plot holes. Who is the mysterious man at Bill's mother's house? What's the story with the pearls? Even the "twist" revealed later on has some hard-to-believe elements in it. Maybe I need to see it again, but I found most of this to be just a bit bland.

The best and worst of the film is with the gas station attendant. On the plus side, we have a gas station encounter leading to a murderous house. I have often given "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" credit for starting this trend, but this film has a contentious claim to it as well. Someone should explore the history of this more. Why is this also the worst? Because the attendant is said to be "a relative of the devil" or "a ghost" but this is never explained. If the writer of this film lives, I need to track him down and beat him until he gives me answers.

After these complaints, you'll be surprised to see me saying that you should see this film. But, if you like "cult films", Camille Keaton, old Italian movies or the 1970s approach to horror, this is a good title to be aware of. I do think it deserves a second chance from me... Oh ,and don't try to play the smoking game to this one (smoking whenever characters smoke) because you'll lose.

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The_Void from Beverley Hills, England
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Riccardo Freda may have a good reputation; but since we now that many of his best films were, in fact, directed by the late great Mario Bava; it's clear that he wasn't one of Italy's most gifted filmmakers back in the seventies. This film pretty much proves that as despite the simplistic plot; it's a sprawling mess and overall, I'd even have to go as far as to say that Tragic Ceremony is WORSE than Freda's insipid Giallo effort, The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire. Freda apparently disowned this movie, and I certainly don't blame him! The plot simply follows a bunch of kids that run out of petrol in the middle of nowhere. They happen upon a house while searching for fuel; but it turns out to be a bad choice, as the owner is just about to conduct a satanic ceremony...ho hum. The film features a lead role for Camille Keaton, who would go on to star in the exploitation classic I Spit on Your Grave some years later, but fails to make an impression here despite acting alongside a cast of talentless performers. The film features one decent gore scene towards the end, but this really isn't enough considering that it takes eighty minutes of tedium to get there. I have a high tolerance for rubbish Italian films that don't make sense - but even I couldn't stand this one. Miss it, miss nothing!

Riccardo Freda always resented directing the movie. The Spanish prints credit him as director though.
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doctor|unresolved ending|fog|sad ending|wind|falling into water|broken leg|lens flare|boat|day|gore|straight razor|fogged mirror|throat slitting|bare chested male|1970s|dream|nightmare|sleeping|kiss|kissing|handheld camera|watching tv|scream|television|shadow of a person|shadow on wall|hippie|news report|cb radio|policeman|police car|motorcycle|friend|mother son relationship|glasses|car headlights|spectacles|headlights|night|human sacrifice|ritual sacrifice|knife|gun|hiding|twenty something|blonde|spurting blood|decapitation|shot in the head|sword|stabbed with a knife|head split in two|shot in the chest|shot|orchestral music score|blood|music score features organ|broken pearl necklace|wainscoting|blue eyes|ritual|devil worshiper|devil worship|dark and stormy night|source music|woman smoker|lightning|storm|zoom|zoom lens|nipples|female frontal nudity|wide angle lens|lighting a candle|power outage|organ playing|organ music|organ|playing cards|brief nudity|gambling|taking a bath|bare breasts|female nudity|nudity|nipples visible through clothing|run out of fuel|hospitality|pumping gas|gas station attendant|smoking|lesbian subtext|car breakdown|car won't start|mansion|old dark house|raining|rain|thunder|thunderstorm|gas station|flashback|pearl necklace|running out of gas|music score features flute|gothic horror|surprise ending|

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