NekoHomey Purely Joyful Movie!

Cleveronix A different way of telling a story

Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Michael_Elliott Night of the Skull (1973) *** (out of 4) Spanish giallo has a family brought together for the reading of a will only soon a maniac wearing a skull mask shows up and starts knocking them off. This is from Jess Franco and this certainly ranks as one of his better made films, technically speaking. Franco creates a very thick atmosphere that helps the film move quite nicely and the mystery is well written and plays out very well. The performances are a lot better than normal especially Lina Romay who's given the chance to act here. The first murder sequence is very well done and the look of the killer is nice. Not your typical Franco film but a good one.

Scarecrow-88 Relatives and hired help of murdered aristocrat(..and close to English Parliament making him quite the important man it seems)converge at his estate to hear if they receive anything from his inheritance as a notary is assigned to read his will. But, a killer donning a skull mask is murdering them one by one using a noted scripture from a book titled "The Apocalypse"("Earth to bury us. Wind to scourge us. Water to drown us. Fire to burn us.")as method of execution. A detective from Scotland Yard, Olive Brooks(Alberto Dalbés), who knows a lot of things about the murdered Lord Archibald Percival Marion that he shouldn't which in itself is mysterious, assists Inspector Bore(Vincente Roca)in the case to find the skull-masked assassin. The film opens the possibility of relative Mr. Tobias(William Berger)being the possible killer because of something his wife Marta(Evelyn Scott)says when they are in private. Lina Romay has the role of plain Rita, supposedly the abused daughter of the murdered Lord Marion, whose servant mother was his mistress.Secrets and red herrings abound as characters aren't who they appear and few can be trusted.Not your prototypical Jesús Franco flick operating as a psycho-thriller murder mystery as he uses lots of rain and noirish darkness to create atmospheric flourishes. He doesn't even use as much zoom lens, although he does often close his camera in on faces tight showing their expressions during key moments in the film. He also, every now and then, likes to implement images of a skull into the film at certain points as the plot thickens. I didn't think the film was mind-blowing or anything, but still fairly entertaining on a basic crime mystery level. You could call this Jesús Franco's Spanish equivalent of the Italian giallo, but I'd say "Night of the Skull" is more akin to Agatha Christie mysteries(..even if the film claims Edgar Allen Poe as it's source). The film doesn't even feature a reliance on nude flesh or sexual sequences ..and surprisingly Franco doesn't even exploit Romay's naked body, something he hardly ever passes up. Despite this being a psycho-thriller, the film isn't very violent..most of the murders are rather tame or occur out of focus(or blanketed in the dark such as when the dead Lord Marion's butler stabs a couple who are about to find out a damning secret). I think real die-hard fans of Jesús Franco will be rather disappointed with this film.

bensonmum2 It's difficult to know how to rate a Franco film. Do you compare his films with all other films, or do you just compare Franco's films with his other films? Compared with the entire population of movies, Night of the Skull probably isn't that good. But for a Franco film, it's not too bad. And when you consider that this is only one of ten films Franco is credited with directing in 1976, it's amazing that Night of the Skull is at all comprehensible.I haven't read this anywhere so I have no real basis for knowing this, but Night of the Skull seems to be Franco's attempt to make a Giallo/Krimi type film. A hooded, cloaked, skull-masked killer is offing the members of a wealthy family gathered together for the reading of a will. Almost everyone in the family is a suspect, that is, until they're killed. Some of the scenes are almost expertly handled like the first murder where the elderly patriarch of the family is buried alive with only his hands, which have been tied behind his back, sticking out of the ground. There are also very few scenes where Franco appears to lose his (and the camera's) focus and stays pretty much on course throughout. On the downside, the killer's identity is, unfortunately, too easy to guess and leaves little in the way of a surprise once he/she is finally unmasked. And, while the acting is never as bad as in something like Franco's Oasis of the Zombies, no one was going to win an award for their performance either.In the end, Night of the Skull is something of a treat for fans of Franco. Non-fans would probably be best advised to steer clear.

AS-69 The label "thoroughly average" is borrowed from the Aurum Horror Encyclopaedia and, for once, describes the movie very well.That does not imply that the movie is without interest. There are nice decors and several interesting scenes, e.g., a man is buried alive with only his hands, which are tied to the back, sticking out of the ground like a cry for help or a women is tied to the rocks and left to the tides. Of course, the movie features also Franco's usual dilettantism such as badly focussed shots.All in all, it is worth a try. No suspense or blood, though. So, watch it only if your are fully awake.The already quoted horror encyclopaedia contains a plot summary which differs slightly from what I have seen. This could mean that, as so often, there exist several different versions of the movie.