Mill of the Stone Women

Rating:
Summary: Darkly Poetic
Review: Mill of the Stone Women is a lush and lavish period piece in the vein of the classic Hammer horror days or the Roger Corman / Vincent Price / Edgar Allen Poe vehicles. Director Ferroni poetically melds heavy gothic overtones with turn-of-the-century science, medicine and experimental surgery, making for an awfully surreal cinematic experience.

Mill plays out a bit like House of Wax as a madman is keeping his ill daughter alive with the blood of freshly murdered women. The women are then transformed into statues resembling famous killers and their victims. The new creations are exhibited for the public in an ancient historical windmill. The exterior shots of this landmark backed by a dark blue sky help to create a most ominous atmosphere for the debaucheries within, especially when compared to the almost carnival-like museum in House of Wax. Even creepier are the sequences depicting the statues as they are in motion, zipping about the stage like a Tilt-O-Whirl gone awry. These scenes are particularly more effective than the purely static sculptures in House of Wax. Still with all of its borrowings Mill of the Stone Women stands soundly on its own as a wonderful horror film that effectively balances art with exploitation.

This brand-spanking new DVD version comes from Mondo Macabro (www.mondomacabrodvd.com) and is packed with some fantastic extra features including: Deleted and alternate scenes, 3 different audio tracks, theatrical trailer, poster/still gallery and production notes by Pete Tombs (author of Mondo Macabro and co-author of Immoral Tales). - C. Curry

Rating:
Summary: evocative Euro horror film
Review: The movie trailer tag-line for this film was "Why do warm-blooded beauties suddenly turn to stone?" Well, you can generally bet there is an evil scientist behind these to dos! This creepy Gothic tale is directed by Italian director Giorgio Ferroni, is also known by a passel of other names - Drops of Blood, Horrible Mill Women, Horror of the Stone Women, Le Moulin des Supplices, and has that spooky feel of the Mario Bava era. Hans von Arnam (Pierre Brice) arrives in the small town outside of Amsterdam, to research and write a story about a reclusive sculptor, one Prof. Gregorius Wahl (Robert Boehme). Wahl lives on an island in an old mill, the locals, in typical hushed tones, call the Mill of the Stone Women. Hans meets the professor's gorgeous daughter, Elfi Wahl (Scilla Gabel) and quickly falls in love with her (big surprise, yeah!). As Hans grows to know Wahl and his daughter, he learns the surreptitious Dr. Loren Bolem (Wolfgang Preiss) and Wahl are conduction some sort of experiments. As they putter in the lab, local women continue to disappear. The setting is very evocative of the black and white work done by Bava, and since I had seen this film only in B&W release, I was shocked to find it was actually in colour!

As Hans becomes aware of the secret behind the Professors "lifelike" statues, tensions mount. Like Vincent Price's The Tingler, it features an "acid trip", which is quite dated and comes off more humorous than scary.

It's a tad slow in places, and by today's horror standards very trite, but the fog-shrouded landscapes and sinister mill make this one enjoyable trip for connoisseurs of old horror films.

Rating:
Summary: simply stunning
Review: This was always an incredibly beautiful horror film and is now even more so with this gorgeous release from MondoMacabro. The image is just amazing with strong, rich colours and deep blacks.
The film itself plays like a favourite piece of classical music - it just washes over you, gripping you with a vice-like hypnotic hold.
Luckily, I haven't experienced any of the problems other reviewers seem to have had. If you're a fan of Euro horror from the 60's you simply have to get this disc.