Blood and Black Lace: A Short History of the Italian Horror Film

With a name like The Washing Machine, I had no idea what to expect.

Absolutely a rewarding viewing experience!

Deodato's very decent late entry into the giallo genre

Mariangela D'Abbraccio in The Killer Is Still Among Us (1986)

Philippe Caroit and Barbara Ricci in The Washing Machine (1993)

Katarzyna Figura in The Washing Machine (1993)

Katarzyna Figura and Yorgo Voyagis in The Washing Machine (1993)

Barbara Ricci in The Washing Machine (1993)

Ilaria Borrelli, Katarzyna Figura, and Barbara Ricci in The Washing Machine (1993)

Philippe Caroit

Ilaria Borrelli

Katarzyna Figura

Luigi Spagnol

A police detective investigates the murder of a man found dismembered in a washing machine and is drawn into a web of deceit and murder by the dead man&apos;s lover, Vida, and her two sisters, Sissy and Ludmilla.

Ruggero Deodato

Vortice mortale

Deodato sets the temperature at &apos;HOT&apos;.

I recently watched Umberto Lenzi&apos;s TV movie House of Lost Souls, in which a boy is decapitated by a a possessed washing machine. Knowing nothing about Ruggero Deodato&apos;s The Washing Machine, I half expected a film full of such appliance-based craziness, but was surprised by a distinct lack of killer kitchen equipment. The washing machine in this late giallo from the director of Cannibal Holocaust remains lifeless and doesn&apos;t kill anyone; it is merely the receptacle for the dismembered body of a murdered man. Or is it?

Inspector Alexander Stacev (Philippe Caroit) is called to investigate the suspected murder of pimp Yuri Petkov (Yorgo Voyagis), as reported by luscious lush Ludmilla Kolba (Barbara Ricci), who claims that she saw the man&apos;s gory remains stashed in the washing machine in the apartment that she shares with her two sisters, buxom call-girl Vida (Katarzyna Figura) and seductive cutie Maria (Ilaria Borrelli). Of course, by the time Stacev arrives at the girls&apos; home, the body has disappeared, leaving the cop to believe that Ludmilla imagined everything, the hallucinations of an alcoholic. Ludmilla continues to press the cop to investigate, and not one to say no to a beautiful woman (or three), he does so, his police procedure involving having sex with all three Kolba sisters (not at the same time - he&apos;s not THAT lucky!).

Often, when a giallo goes down the sleazy route, there&apos;s some indication of the sordid content in the title: Strip Nude For Your Killer, Naked You Die, Perversion Story, French Sex Murders... you get the idea. Not so here... hidden behind a misleadingly innocuous title lies an endless procession of semi-clothed or naked babes, Deodato filling the screen with as much tempting female flesh as possible: barely a minute goes by without some kind of gratuitous nudity, whether it be from the three sisters, or one of the random strippers that plug the gaps. The film&apos;s twisty-turny plot is fairly routine for the genre, and there are no elaborately staged death scenes, so it&apos;s a real bonus that there&apos;s so much top-notch Italian totty on display, the raunchiness really helping to hold one&apos;s interest.

Towards the end of the film, Deodato throws in a wonderfully messy scene in which Vida hacks away at a mutilated corpse, shoving her hand inside to pull out its organs, which will go some way to satisfying gore-hounds, but this film is all about the sexiness, and in that it definitely succeeds.

7/10. Take it for a spin!

I recently watched Umberto Lenzi's TV movie House of Lost Souls, in which a boy is decapitated by a a possessed washing machine. Knowing nothing about Ruggero Deodato's The Washing Machine, I half expected a film full of such appliance-based craziness, but was surprised by a distinct lack of killer kitchen equipment. The washing machine in this late giallo from the director of Cannibal Holocaust remains lifeless and doesn't kill anyone; it is merely the receptacle for the dismembered body of a murdered man. Or is it?

Inspector Alexander Stacev (Philippe Caroit) is called to investigate the suspected murder of pimp Yuri Petkov (Yorgo Voyagis), as reported by luscious lush Ludmilla Kolba (Barbara Ricci), who claims that she saw the man's gory remains stashed in the washing machine in the apartment that she shares with her two sisters, buxom call-girl Vida (Katarzyna Figura) and seductive cutie Maria (Ilaria Borrelli). Of course, by the time Stacev arrives at the girls' home, the body has disappeared, leaving the cop to believe that Ludmilla imagined everything, the hallucinations of an alcoholic. Ludmilla continues to press the cop to investigate, and not one to say no to a beautiful woman (or three), he does so, his police procedure involving having sex with all three Kolba sisters (not at the same time - he's not THAT lucky!).

Often, when a giallo goes down the sleazy route, there's some indication of the sordid content in the title: Strip Nude For Your Killer, Naked You Die, Perversion Story, French Sex Murders... you get the idea. Not so here... hidden behind a misleadingly innocuous title lies an endless procession of semi-clothed or naked babes, Deodato filling the screen with as much tempting female flesh as possible: barely a minute goes by without some kind of gratuitous nudity, whether it be from the three sisters, or one of the random strippers that plug the gaps. The film's twisty-turny plot is fairly routine for the genre, and there are no elaborately staged death scenes, so it's a real bonus that there's so much top-notch Italian totty on display, the raunchiness really helping to hold one's interest.

Towards the end of the film, Deodato throws in a wonderfully messy scene in which Vida hacks away at a mutilated corpse, shoving her hand inside to pull out its organs, which will go some way to satisfying gore-hounds, but this film is all about the sexiness, and in that it definitely succeeds.

7/10. Take it for a spin!

A police detective investigates the murder of a man found dismembered in a washing machine and is drawn into a web of deceit and murder by the dead man's lover, Vida, and her two sisters, Sissy and Ludmilla.

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