Silly, gory hokum from acclaimed gross-out maestro Lucio Fulci regarding a decrepit Louisiana hotel built on top of the seven doors to hell. In the opening of the film, villagers crucified an evil warlock named Schweick(Antoine Saint-John holing him behind a brick wall in the basement of the hotel. 50 years later, Liza(the lovely Catriona MacColl)inherits the hotel and decides renovations are in order. Her staff fall prey to supernatural evils when a plumber, inspecting leaky plumbing in the basement, knocks loose the wall holding Schweick at bay. With Schweick's rotted body set free all manners of grotesque violence occurs.
The plumber immediately gets his eyeball pulled out(Ouch!). The plumber's wife receives an acid face melting, Liza's hand discovers a blueprint to the hotel showing it's mysteries and in turn gets half his face ripped apart by tarantulas(!), several victims are possessed with white eyes confirming so, and..you guessed it..zombies rise from death to pursue Liza and a doctor friend named John(David Warbeck). The plumber even shoves the poor maid through a rusty nail with it knocking her eyeball out the other side. A specter named Emily(Cinzia Monreale)allowed to return from hell to warn Liza to depart from the hotel, informs her not to go into a specific room, once occupied by Schweick..and, you know what the idiot does? That's right Liza almost instantly makes her way into the warlock's room..sheesh. Oh, and John..he sure is a bright one. When the zombies are marching EVER SO SLOWLY towards him, he shoots a bevy of bullets riddling their torsos to no effect. Yet, when he shoots them in the heads they drop to the ground to harm no one anymore. But, does John realize this enough to aim for their heads every time? Nope. Even after he watches them drop with a bullet to the head, he STILL SHOOTS THEIR TORSOS! Emily gets perhaps the nastiest death when her trusty dog rips her throat out and ear clean off in gruesome, flesh-tearing, bloody fashion. Even a poor mortician gets shards of breaking window glass stabbed into his face and neck.
Should I go on? If what I've written above amuses you, then this Fulci gore-fest is up your alley. Abandon all hope for a clear story-line because the weird goings-on occur thanks to writing from this evil book called Eidon. The ending is particularly weird. Anyone familiar with special effects can clearly tell that the faces being torn apart are plaster casts of the actors.
The plumber immediately gets his eyeball pulled out(Ouch!). The plumber's wife receives an acid face melting, Liza's hand discovers a blueprint to the hotel showing it's mysteries and in turn gets half his face ripped apart by tarantulas(!), several victims are possessed with white eyes confirming so, and..you guessed it..zombies rise from death to pursue Liza and a doctor friend named John(David Warbeck). The plumber even shoves the poor maid through a rusty nail with it knocking her eyeball out the other side. A specter named Emily(Cinzia Monreale)allowed to return from hell to warn Liza to depart from the hotel, informs her not to go into a specific room, once occupied by Schweick..and, you know what the idiot does? That's right Liza almost instantly makes her way into the warlock's room..sheesh. Oh, and John..he sure is a bright one. When the zombies are marching EVER SO SLOWLY towards him, he shoots a bevy of bullets riddling their torsos to no effect. Yet, when he shoots them in the heads they drop to the ground to harm no one anymore. But, does John realize this enough to aim for their heads every time? Nope. Even after he watches them drop with a bullet to the head, he STILL SHOOTS THEIR TORSOS! Emily gets perhaps the nastiest death when her trusty dog rips her throat out and ear clean off in gruesome, flesh-tearing, bloody fashion. Even a poor mortician gets shards of breaking window glass stabbed into his face and neck.
Should I go on? If what I've written above amuses you, then this Fulci gore-fest is up your alley. Abandon all hope for a clear story-line because the weird goings-on occur thanks to writing from this evil book called Eidon. The ending is particularly weird. Anyone familiar with special effects can clearly tell that the faces being torn apart are plaster casts of the actors.