By Melissa Antoinette Garza
This film opens stating that it’s based on a true story. I don’t know how much of the plot really happened. I’m guessing around zero percent. Whether fiction or non, MACABRE (1980) is whacked out, strange fun, for all who have a twisted taste for Italian horror.
It opens with Jane Baker (Bernice Stegers) stepping out on her husband and two small children. She leaves the kids by themselves and meets her lover Fred (Robert Posse) at a weird boarding house where the elderly landlady bathes her adult blind son Robert (Stanko Molnar). Robert has the hots for Jane and intently listens while she and Fred make love. He wants her for himself. He’s honestly better looking than Fred and is a lot more interesting. Not to mention, he’s going to inherit a huge apartment building. Just saying, Robert isn’t the worst option.
Meanwhile, Jane’s young daughter Lucy (Veronica Zinny) is a psycho and drowns her younger brother Michael because she thinks it will bring the rest of her family closer. Upon hearing about Michael, Jane jumps in the car with Fred and the two get into a horrible accident that decapitates Fred.
Jane is sent to a mental institution for her anguish and a year later she is released. She ends up staying at the boarding house. Robert’s mom has passed away and good ol’ Robbie is at the helm . He kept her apartment ready and upon finding out she was staying, he shaved and dressed nice. He’s a classy dude.
Sadly, Jane is not over Fred. I don’t know. He must have had it going on in the bedroom because she goes to some extreme levels to keep that fire burning. She makes Frank from BEYOND THE DARKNESS (1979) look like a choirboy with ultimate restraint.
At first, she just touches herself while looking at some of his old pictures to candlelight. It’s actually quite romantic, but when her bathrobe falls to the ground she’s convinced Fred has come back to her. Robert hears her climaxing to the ghost and becomes increasingly frustrated.
On a visit with the ex, Lucy runs into Robert and asks him some questions about musical instruments he repairs. The visit sends Jane into a mild frenzy and she downs a few pills. She then goes out on the town. When she arrives back, she realizes that Robert had expected the two to have an evening in. She agrees to have a drink in her room with him. She gets into the bathtub and awaits his arrival. She invites him into the bathroom with her. She has fun toying with him asking whether he’s jealous and if he has a girlfriend. It’s very clear, however, that she is not interested.
Instead, she puts on a sexy nightgown, goes into her bedroom alone and starts getting creepy wild with some parts of dead Fred. How it must feel to be Robert losing out to a corpse!? Though it’s clear Robert knows Fred is deceased, there are times when Jane will act as though he’s alive and well in front of Robert. At one point, she declares “he’s here! Hello Fred.” It’s very unconventional and unusual, but it’s done extremely well.
Lucy begins visiting Robert. She tries to convince him to get her parents back together. He lets her go into Jane’s room while she isn’t home and when Jane finds out she flips her lid. She doesn’t want anyone to know of her tawdry love affair – especially her ex or her daughter. Though, she really could be quieter in the bedroom. That was bound to rouse Robert’s suspicion; but I believe she mistakes him for being helpless simply because he’s blind. She doesn’t think of him as any type of real threat and she views him as someone easily manipulated.
Jane goes up to Robert’s room and tries to take on the role of a flirtatious caretaker. She helps him make his bed and begins to undress him. He makes a move, but is instantly shot down. Robert’s curiosity grows as he tries to figure out whether she’s fantasizing, entertaining other men or something more twisted. It’s definitely the last one.
The desire to know the truth overwhelms Robert as he sneaks into her bedroom one night while she’s engaging in a bit of necrophilia.
When Lucy finds out the extent of her mother’s depravity, the two engage in a game of Who Can Out Psycho Who. It’s fucked up. This whole movie is fucked up. I love this movie.
Bernice Stegers owns the production as the nutjob nympho with an appetite so strong for her lover that death is not a deal-breaker.
Zinny more than holds her own when she starts turning on Lucy’s crazy to the max.
Lastly, Molnar is excellent in the role of Robert. Robert is a fine protagonist. He’s an odd duck, for sure. He could have used a matchmaker to find him a more suitable love interest, but he’s kind. He doesn’t get rough with anyone. When Jane tells him to stop, he stops. He’s just a good guy. Why couldn’t he just have had lesbian vampires board his house? They would have at least put a smile on his face before torturing him.
The last scene is god awful great. It doesn’t make sense. It’s silly. It’s stupid. The end scroll claiming it to have really happened is amazing. If only this was true, but I never saw it reported in the WEEKLY WORLD NEWS so I doubt its credibility. (Off topic, I miss the Weekly World News. What’s Bat Boy been up to anyways?)
Catch this one on AMAZON PRIME on the HORROR TV subscription if you have it. If not, give this one a rent, before the purchase. I like it enough to own it, but I’m a fucking weirdo.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7/10
