Murder Mansion (La Mansion De La Niebla) – 1972

Review by Steve D. Stones

Directed by Francisco Lara Polop in 1972, this Spanish-Italian production, Murder Mansion, was not released until late 1973. The film is not a great masterpiece, but it manages to be genuinely creepy and entertaining. 

The eerie music score by Marcello Giombini contributes greatly to the mood and atmosphere of the film. Lots of thick fog in a cemetery and an old mansion also contributes to the ominous atmosphere. This is not to be missed for any fan of 1970s European horror films. 

The film follows three groups of travelers who are on separate journeys but manage to all end up in the same place by the film's ending. A motorcyclist named Fred, played by Andres Resino, is being chased by a car in the opening of the film, which gets the viewer questioning why the two are chasing each other. The car, driven by a man named Porter - played by Franco Fantasia, pulls over to the side of the road to pick up a sexy, young hitchhiker in a skirt out in the cold fall weather. Fred was also hopeful of picking up the hitchhiking woman, for obvious reasons. 

Fred eventually makes his way to the same roadside restaurant as the driver and hitchhiker. Because the young woman experienced sexual advances in the car with Porter, she decides to leave with Fred instead. The two eventually get lost in a thick cloud of fog near a cemetery and end up on foot trying to find a safe place for the night. 

On their way they encounter a tall man dressed in black carrying a giant scythe. Later they also encounter a hysterical lost woman named Elsa, played by Analia Gade. Fred, Elsa and the young hitchhiker make their way to a fog-infested mansion in the middle of nowhere. Surprisingly, Porter answers the door with a gun in hand. He asks the three to enter the mansion. Here we see a middle-aged couple who also got lost in the fog and ended up walking on foot to the mansion. 

All the strangers are soon greeted by the young matriarch of the house and told they can stay the night until the fog passes. The film places much emphasis on the past of Elsa, with flashback sequences that show her relationship with her father and ex-husband. It is apparent from these sequences that Elsa has had great troubles with the men in her life. This maybe why she is so detached from the rest of the group in the mansion. She goes out of her way to avoid most of the strangers in the mansion, particularly the men. 

The matriarch of the mansion begins to tell her visitors strange tales about the history of the mansion, its former occupants and some of her family history of vampirism and witchcraft. Soon, the strangers are picked off one by one and murdered in the mansion. Watch carefully for the surprise, twist ending. 

If you are trying to seek this film out, I recommend a good print of it that can be found on You-Tube. Sinister Cinema in Medford, Ore., sells a DVD print of it, but the entire film looks as if it was drenched in green punch. The same Sinister Cinema print has been known to show up in a number of value-packed DVD sets. The film was also marketed at Maniac Mansion. Happy viewing.