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The Loreley's Grasp
[Deimos]
1974; color
Directed by Amando De Ossoiro
Starring: Tony Kendall, Helga Line & Silvia Tortosa
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As I have mentioned at least once on the BMB, I was late to discover the works of Amando De Ossorio, and was mainly inspired to seek out the films of this somewhat prolific Spanish director via a piece on his Blind Dead series, written by Dan "Dante" Taylor of Exploitation Retrospect / Hungover Gourmet fame, we ran in c14 a couple issues back. (Interested parties can read the aforementioned article on Dante's site here.) Today's subject, The Loreley's Grasp (aka Las Garras De Lorelei), focuses on a different kind of predator than the slowly moving, horse riding, sometimes goateed, living, dead, blind dead Templars we've come to know and love; but this predator changes back and forth from a green, scaly, talon clawed, heart-eating sea monster to a beautiful, scantily clad, redheaded sea siren (played by Helga Line) throughout the film so I doubt anyone reading this would complain. In the opening scene we see a brief exchange between a sheer white nightie clad bride-to-be and her window stone throwing Romeo. No need to learn too much about this lass though as, sadly, this lovely lady will never see her wedding day. Nor will she ever see her family, friends or fiancee ever again, as her heart now belongs to a weird looking green "Creature From The Black Lagoon" type creature - literally. (And, you now, with that nasty scar on her breast and without a properly beating heart what kind of wife would she make.) After this pre-credit plot establishing death sequence the viewer is treated to a brief visit to a local pub where we get a glimpse at the local angry-mob-to-be that makes up the bar's regulars. Here we also get the first glimpse of one of the main-characters-to-be, one of which is a sexy professor from the nearby academy for sexy Spanish schoolgirls who looks like a cross between Sharon Tate and an illustration from an old Frederick's Of Hollywood catalog. (Played by Silvia Tortosa.) She didn't show up at the bar looking to get sauced by the way, she' there looking for protection from the monstrous beast for her charges & fellow staff. Conveniently, her salvation comes in the form of an equally local rogue "experienced hunter" who is also suave and swarthy enough to serve as her love interest. (Played by Tony Kendall; previously seen in at least one other previously reviewed Ossorio film, Return Of The Blind Dead, as well as the Kommisar X series.) Not too long after he takes up his monster lookout post, conveniently located beneath the girl's bedroom windows, more people start mysteriously dying and he mysteriously meets a mysterious woman... and we all know where this is going, right? So it wouldn't spoil the whole thing if I told you the hot babe that lives under the sea and the hideous heart ripping ocean dweller are one and the same? (Um, and if it did, sorry.) Either way, getting there will be plenty of fun for the casual or seasoned Euro-trash fan so anyone who fits into that category might wanna hunt this down.
—Bunny
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