When poring over the impressively diverse range of genre
films from Antonio Margheriti, I realize there’s still a lot more I need
to see. I have more blind spots here than I care to admit. I plan on eventually
rectifying this issue in good time, maybe starting with some of the derivative
sounding ‘80s action/adventure stuff like The Last Blood (1983) or The
Ark of the Sun God (1984). I do have a soft spot for retro space movies, so
something like Assignment: Outer Space (1960), Margheriti’s first
full film as director, would probably make my day. I have been a big fan of Margheriti’s
exquisite gothic horror films for quite some time (no surprise there), and I’ve
been itching to review one of his least talked about (as far as I can tell)
gothic horrors, The Unnaturals / Contronatura. I thought this German / Italian
co-production kind of had a classic comic book feel to it (something kind of in
the vein of EC’s Crime SuspenStories). It’s also been compared to the krimi
thriller, with all the fixings of a crime fueled storyline, only instead of a
detective or Scotland Yard, the criminal foil and justice comes in the form of
the supernatural beyond. There’s also no denying that the 1920s setting,
primarily in a gloomy haunted mansion during a long meditative séance, hosted
by none other than Luciano Pigozzi, with a bunch of stranded shady
characters seeking shelter on a dark and stormy night is gothic horror as fuck.
This is the kind of gathering that I consider a good time.
