The Ogre – La casa dell orco (1988)

Directed by: Lamberto Bava | 94 minutes | horror | Actors: Paolo Malco, Virginia Bryant, Sabrina Ferilli, Stefania Montorsi, Patrizio Vinci, Alice Di Giuseppe, David Flosi, Alex Serra

A girl of about seven years old. Long, wavy, golden blond hair. Her blue eyes startled with fear. Eyebrows raised high, mouth wide open in horror. Sweat on her forehead, a gleaming face with exertion. Her teddy bear clung to her for apparent protection. Behind her a cellar covered in cobwebs; a scary, dark cave. But what stands before her is even more terrifying. Between her and the beast stands a closed gate. But in his large, completely hairy hand with gigantic nails, he holds the key. The drawn cover of Bava’s ‘The Ogre’ will certainly arouse interest. Still, the title on this cover was up for debate for a long time. Although ‘The Ogre’ was actually intended for Italian television, it was released as a film under the title ‘Demons III’. Although the title is now simply ‘The Ogre’, ‘Demons III’ caused quite a bit of confusion and disappointment. The film is not a sequel to the earlier ‘Demons’ films. It is reportedly only used as a lure to boost sales. Bava herself speaks of a misunderstanding.

However, that misunderstanding is not the only disappointment. The cover and summary give a distorted picture of the film. Although what it says is actually correct, all tension is missing and as a viewer you expect much more from this production than what you get. The movie gets off to a very slow start. It starts with Charel as a little girl and the filming of her nightmare. Already here as a viewer you get the feeling that it is not really about a horror. The lighting is way too bright, which completely wipes out all the tension. Even after this beginning, there seems to be no pace in the story. It goes on and on, making the whole thing very predictable and boring. Partly because of this, there is hardly a scare moment to be found. Furthermore, the acting skills are nothing to write home about and the characters are also extremely superficial. As a result, you as a viewer cannot identify and empathize. Everything is very exaggerated, especially the opinions of the two main characters are very black and white. Incidentally, there are very few characters to be found in ‘The Ogre’, which certainly does not benefit the story.

Although the ending gets a little better, it sometimes seems a bit more of a comedy than a horror. Especially the portrayal of the ‘monster’ is quite laughable. During the denouement there is a bit more tempo, but it still fails to involve and captivate the viewer. Since the storyline is certainly interesting, so much more could have been taken out of this. The location was good and even the music could go on as it still created something of an ominous atmosphere. Unfortunate. ‘The Ogre’ is not worth more than one and a half stars.