Embalmer (1965)

Yep this movie pretty much sucks. What we have here is an Italian horror/mystery and many refer to films in this genre as Giallo's but The Embalmer doesn't quite fit as far as I'm concerned.

The killer likes to abduct and kill young girls. "All the victims were seventeen and eighteen years old". He then embalms them (Hence the title) and preserves the corpses so he can stand them up right in his own private gallery. There is no talk of necrophilia but I personally feel that this pervy bastard is doing more then just admiring his work.

The police don't have any leads as usual and a man from the newspaper press takes the investigation into his own hands and eventually finds the disturbing truth about the killer.

The Embalmer is a little bit to soft for my liking. Sure it has its campy moments, with the Italian version of  Elvis Presley and gratuitous freeze frames on the (really old looking) youthful girls but we don't get any close looks at embalmings or any real blood for that matter, plus the killer is lame as can be through the majority of the film. Usually we see our killer in scuba gear because he kidnaps his female victims from the water. It doesn't quite work and it gets repetitive after a while.

The Embalmer picks up in its final reel when we get to see our madman in the skull mask that is flaunted on the poster art. He even has some nifty tricks up his (monk) sleeves and hides amongst other skeletons in a crypt. The crypt scenes are rather affective and give off a creepy vibe but when we finally find out who the killer is there is little to no interest.

True Giallo films like Bava's Blood And Black Lace offer up murder on a much more stylish level. Skip The Embalmer unless of course you really dig diving scenes and scuba gear. Check out The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave for a much sleazier time. Its is also an Italian horror film that offers up a killer in a skull mask but has much more to go along with it. You know... all the good stuff like Euro-boobs and blood. Even the story is much better.