MACABRE (1980)
aka Macabro, Frozen Terror
Article 4582 by Dave Sindelar
Directed by Lamberto Bava
Featuring Bernice Stegers, Stanko Molnar, Veronica Zinny
Country: Italy
What it is: Horror thriller

An adulterous married woman spends a year in an institution after having been traumatized by a car accident in which her lover was decapitated. After being released, she moves into the apartment where she was meeting her lover, and continues with the affair…

This is the directorial feature film debut for Mario Bava’s son, Lamberto Bava. He does a decent job here, but he’s hardly the stylist his father was, and the movie suffers from some pacing problems; still, it is a solid debut. If you read the plot description above, you’re probably suspecting that there’s something distinctly unhealthy (to use the mild euphemism) going on in this movie, and you’d be right; however, I won’t go into any details because the whole thrust of the movie is to bring those details to light. Suffice it to say that it all has something to do with what is locked in the freezer door of a refrigerator. Incidentally, the woman is not the only character involved in sick behavior here; her daughter is proof that the nuts don’t fall too far from the tree, and you’ll see how twisted she is during the first few minutes of the movie. The movie is supposedly based on a true story that actually did take place in New Orleans (where the movie is set), and except for one last-second supernatural nod, I suppose it could have happened. But as for that supernatural nod, it can be either seen as pretty silly or weirdly logical depending on your mood; I could go either way with it myself.