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Released by: Screen Entertainment/Hardgore
Released on: 5/19/2003.
Director: Gianni Martucci
Cast: Gerardo Amato, Lara Wendal, Malisa Longo
Year: 1988
The Movie:
Made towards the end of the Italian horror boom in 1998, Red Monks is a rather worthless entry into the genre and really doesn't have much going for it to make it worth recommending.
The story revolves around a man named Robbie (Chuck Valenti of Bronx Executioner) who lives alone with his odd housekeeper (Malisa Longo, who had a bit part in The Violent Professionals). One day, while strolling through his grounds, he finds that his dog has chased a pretty young woman named Ramona (Lara Wendel of Dario Argento's Tenebre) up a tree. In this scene, one of the goofy looking spiders from Lucio Fulci's The Beyond makes a cameo appearance, but he doesn't actually do anything except strut along a tree branch before Ramona jumps to safety.
Anyway, the two fall in love and are married in the next scene and she moves into the mansion that he has been living in. Little does she know that the mansion holds an evil secret and a sinister cult of Templar's that are known as The Red Monks have a pact with her husband, who is to deliver them her blood within four days.
Considering Fulci's name is attached to the project, one would expect at least some quality gore set pieces, even if the film were a little light on the story. Well, this movie doesn't even have that going for it. The whole thing feels very much like a made for TV presentation, despite quite a bit of welcome female nudity in a couple of different scenes (which, as far as sleaze appeal goes, is the films only saving grace).
Other than the nudity and a couple of nice camera movements, Red Monks is pretty tame and sadly, quite dull. Performances seem almost phoned in and the effects, which Fulci is supposedly responsible for, are lackluster and quite tame overall.
Video/Audio/Extras:
While the colors on the 1.33.1 fullframe presentation are strong enough, unfortunately there are quite a few instances of nasty mpeg compression artifacts and some relatively fierce edge enhancement. The picture, thankfully, does not appear cropped and appears to have been shot open matte.
Red Monks is presented in an adequate Dolby Digital Mono track, dubbed into English. While the track is serviceable enough, the biggest problem is that there is quite a bit of hiss noticeable throughout most of the running time. Dialogue is pretty easy to follow though and the levels seem well balanced enough.
Included as extras on this release is a decent Lucio Fulci filmography, a stills gallery, and the films original theatrical trailer. There are also a few other trailers included for upcoming Hardgore titles, like I Spit On Your Grave and Andreas Schnaas' Demonium.
The Final Word:
While it's sometimes nice to see these more obscure Eurocult titles hit the market, this one is given a mediocre presentation as best and Red Monks is for completists only.