Night of the Skull - AKA: Night of the Assassins (1974)

Another mixed bag by Jess Franco. It's generally well-written with good settings, costumes, and death sequences. It's not bloody and no nudity in the version I saw. There was some bad editing - you can never tell with these films whether scenes were cut out or if it's just poorly edited in general.

The acting is mostly average or bad. The cinematography and directing were disappointing with the exception of a final scene that takes place through a sheet which I thought was done quite well and helped elevate the film. But it really was too little too late.

Horror mystey about the residents of a luxurious mansion where are being killed one by one executed by a masked serial killer . At the beginning is killed the house owner , Lord Archibald Marian : Angel Menendez . When the family arrives for the reading of Marian's will , his wife : Maribel Hidalgo, is also murdered . As a group of potential heirs gather in the old house to learn which of them will inherite a fortune. Later on, they learn that a flesh-rending maniac is loose , carrying out a criminal spree . As a result , his will is structured in such way as to set up a dogfight between his potential heirs as to who will collect his fortune . More and more murders go on and a policeman : Vicente Roca and a Scotland Yard inspector : Alberto Dalbes investigate the stranges cases and along the way find out dark secrets . For God's sake , stay in your rooms and lock the Doors !

This scary film titled "Night of Skull" or "Night of the assassins" or "Suspiri" or "La noche de los asesinos" results to be a peculiar Giallo with a lot of murders , being regularly directed by prolific filmmaker Jesús Franco in his usual style . This mysterious film contains suspense , intrigue , whodunit , spooky atmosphere and bloody mayhem , being the essential question to find out : Who's the killer ? . The main interest resides in guessing what kind of murder is executed by the masked killer wielding an iconic skull mask , as a man is buried alive , another is stabbed , a woman is strapped to the face of a rock and drowned by the tides , while two Policemen investigating and discovering dark secrets in the family's past . Being inspired by prestigious writers as Edgar Allan Poe and Edgard Wallace , though actually based on a play titled "The Cat and the Canary" by playwright John Willard previously adapted on big screen in 1927 by Paul Leni and in 1978 by Radley Metzger with Honor Blackman , Michael Callan, Edward Fox . The cast of this atmospheric period piece is formed by Franco regulars such as Alberto Dalbes , Antonio Mayans who was Franco's habitual collaborator , the giant Luis Barboo , and Lina Romay , Franco future wife and his muse, who this time keeps her clothes on, and , of course, common cameo by Jesús Franco as a notary . Adding other actors customary players in Italian/Spanish B films as William Berger , Evelyne Scott , Yelena Samarina , Angel Menendez and Dan Van Husen who played several Spaghetti/Paella Westerns

While the atmospheric cinematography by Javier Zofio , being really necessary a perfect remastering , due to the images are very dark . Being shot on location in Orihuela , Alicante , Comunidad Valenciana . Adding adequate musical score by the Italian Carlo Savina that results to be intriguing and suspenseful. This Gothic flick was middlingly directed by Jess Franco , though it hasn't usual sleaze and depravity , Uncle Jess' regular marks . This hack director was an expert on exploitation movies , making all kinds of genres , such as : Terror : Miss Muerte, Gritos en la noche, Count Dracula, Vampyres Lesbos, Dracula versus Frankenstein , Jack the ripper , Los Demonios, Mansion of the Living dead and Orloff saga that includes : Secret Dr Orloff , Sinister Dr Orloff , Orloff's Invisible Monster , Faceless . Erotic : Justine , Eugenie of Sade , Venus in Furs, Female Vampire , Devil's island lovers . Adventure : Un Capitan de 15 Años , Lucky the intrepid , Fumanchu and kiss of death, Castle of Fumanchu . WIP subgenre : 99 women, Barbed Wire Dolls. Cannibal subgenre: Sexo Cannibal, Mondo Cannibale and Giallo : Bloody Moon , La noche de los asesinos , among others .

Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe*in the credits and Edgar Wallace in an interview Franco gave - well, we can say that for any krimini or giallo, hmm? - Night of the Skull has Jess Franco making a mystery movie that doesn't go fully into his usual perverted take on, well, everything. But there's still plenty of love in this.

No zooms, no wild moving camera, no plot that seems made up when the camera starts rolling, not even much nudity - but Lina Romay does get whipped and ends up dating someone who may be her brother, so yes, this is a Jess Franco movie.

Lord Marian (Angel Menendez) is reading from the Book of Apocalypse - again, not a real book, which is a Franco trademark as much as stolen diamonds and sex scenes - when he's attacked by a hooded menace and buried alive in mud, only his hands emerging and reaching for the heavens. Everyone thinks that his secret daughter Rita (Romay), so has been used as a servant and the whipping target of his second wife Cecilia (Maribel Hidalgo, Santo vs. Doctor Death) before the will states that she gets everything.

There's also another will and another family and everyone starts getting murdered by the masked killer, all in ways that reference the end of all things as well as the four elements. And hey - it's set in Louisiana, which is crazy because Scotland Yard has jusidiction there, which makes as much sense as anything Franco usually writes.

*The Cat and the Canary, which isn't by Poe but is a play by John Willard that became a 1927 silent movie and a 1939 Bob Hope-starring remake.