Evil Face
AKA La Mano che Nutre la Morte
Directed by Yilmaz Duru and Sergio Garrone
Released: 1974
Starring: Klaus Kinski, Katia Christine, Marzia Damon, Carmen Silva, Stella Calderoni, Alessandro Perrella, Erol Tas
Running Time: 89 minutes
DVD Studio: Mya Communication

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Professor Nijinski (played Klaus Kinski) is using the bodies of young women to restore his wife’s burned body. His wife Tanya (Katia Christine) hides under a veil and haunts their castle until he can fix her scarred face with his experimental skin grafting procedure. Staying in the castle under the pretense of writing a book about the professor is Katia (Marzia Damon). She is actually there to try and find out what happened to her missing sister who she fears may have been used in one of the professor’s deadly operations. Another guest of the Nijinski’s is Sonia the hooker (Stella Calderoni) who is paid to hang out until the not-so-good doctor can harvest her young flesh.

The professor finally gets a hold of the perfect face when a carriage accident strands newlyweds Masha (Katia Christine again) and Alex (Ayhan Isik). With the help of their brutish manservant (Erol Tas), the Nijinski’s attempt to steal Masha’s face right off her skull and squash the pesky Katia for snooping around their castle of horrors. Will these two ghouls be successful in their fiendish scheme or will Katia’s dopey fiancé Theodor finally convince the moronic police force that some hinky shit is afoot?

This Italian/Turkish coproduction is yet another version of Eyes Without a Face, this time with a gothic twist, and things are just a little bland. Though obviously shot on a small budget, directors Duru and Garrone make the best of the castle scenery and the actors on hand. The film’s score is a little old fashioned, making me think it’s probably some library music but the setting isn’t modern so it works. The special effects budget is also very lean as evidenced by Professor Nijinski’s hilarious scientific equipment composed of goofy instruments and gadgets that don’t seem to do anything.

Klaus Kinski’s contempt for the genre cinema he spent so much time in is well hidden here. His portrayal of Professor Nijinski, a man torn between fixing his broken wife and the ever so slightly less than ethical means he uses to accomplish this, is actually really good. Marzia Damon is quite good as Katia, the little snoop who gets way more than she bargained for while trying to solve the mystery of her missing sister. Her fate is actually quite sad and more than just a little disturbing.

Katia Christine (of Maurizio Lucidi’s The Designated Victim) pulls a Barbara Steele in this one with her dual role as both the innocent Masha and the twisted soul who is Tanya Nijinski. She does a great job in both roles but really nails it as the bad girl. I like the Turkish talent on board in Evil Face. Ayhan Isik is quite good as our unlikely hero even though he spends most of the film completely unaware that he and his wife are in mortal danger. Erol Tas is also worth mentioning as the limping Igoresque character who is tormented by Tanya Nijinski with the sound of a malevolent tuning fork thingie.

My biggest problem with this film is its blandness. The attempts at exploitation: an overlong rape scene (very unpleasant) and some pointless lesbian softcore sex (somewhat less unpleasant) don’t help matters much. The little details are nice though. Tanya Nijinski’s mirror painted black and the grave in the crypt that bears the name of actor Ivan Rassimov. Hmm, I wonder what that’s all about. Anyway, there is also a creepy doll which Tanya and the professor talk to. Did it belong to their dead child? Do they even have a dead child?

Evil Face is a pretty uneven gothic horror flick but is definitely worth a look for Eurohorrorphiles. The pacing is good thanks to editor Cesare Bianchini and the cheap gore by Carlo Rambaldi is nice and wet. If you can forgive the silly and confusing plot, this one will go down much smoother. There is fun to be had thanks to some pseudoscience, medical mumbo jumbo and the bubbling beakers of blood. Oh yeah, and that ending is pretty great too.

Quotes

“I feel stunned. These mysteries make me scared.”

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DVD Stuff

Mya Communication has released Evil Face and since it isn’t likely that a properly restored version of this film will be popping up anytime soon, this is the best way to view it for the time being. Their non-anamorphic widescreen print is scratched and the colors all over the place. This is definitely a watchable print but this is little more than a glorified bootleg. I’m totally okay with that. The only audio option is the Italian audio track with easy to read English subtitles. There are some pretty wild mistakes in the subs but they make sense most of the time. The only extra is a gallery of posters and lobby cards for Evil Face.