The Last Wave of Italian horror took place in the late ’80s and early ’90s. Producers had major issues raising production budgets for movies in Italy. Cinema Culture was dying as more people in Italy stayed home and watched TV or movies on their VCR. One of the places where cinema directors found work was television networks needing movies of the week. The budgets weren’t big in TV, but the budgets for their cinema movies had shrunk considerably. This was “smooth” transition. At the end of the ’80s, a TV channel was eager to get legendary horror directors to create scary movies. They made a deal for Umberto Lenzi (Cannibal Ferrox) and Lucio Fulci (Zombie) to make 2 movies each for Houses of Doom anthology TV project. While other directors watered down their trademarks to make them TV safe, nobody warned Lenzi and Fulci. All four of their TV films had the gore and intensity of their regular films. This proved problematic for the TV channel. They couldn’t broadcast them in primetime. Years later, the films were released in theaters and on home video. Last year Cauldron released all four in a limited edition Houses of Doom boxset that sold out. Now all four films are arriving individually on Blu-ray. The House of Lost Souls is Lenzi’s film about a group of people who check into the wrong hotel. .
While on a geology expedition in the mountains of Italy, Carla (King Arthur‘s Stefania Orsola Garello) has violent visions of a Buddhist monk and others being attacked and attacking. She freaks out. Her boyfriend Kevin (The Slumber Party Massacre‘s Joseph Alan Johnson) gives her reassuring “The doctors gave you a reasonable explanation. They said you have psychic powers!” That’s got to be one of the greatest lines in cinema. It’s sells us that this is a world where doctors have the ability to judge if you have psychic powers. Between her seeing disturbing stuff and an incoming dangerous storm, the expedition crew packs up their camp and head down the mountains towards home. They stop for gas and hit the bar across the street where a TV news crew is filming a piece about nature and conservation and they’re warned to get a hotel before nightfalls since the roads might be treacherous if the storm hits. But they don’t listen. In the middle of the night, their trip comes to an abrupt end because the road is closed from a mudslide. They turn around and go back to a rather creepy looking hotel that is closed for the season. Except the quiet owner comes to the door and lets them rent a few rooms for the night. The place is rather dusty and full of cobwebs since it’s out of season. After lights out, Carla hears something and goes down into the hotel’s basement. Sees characters from her visions on a TV screen even though the set is unplugged. Then the wild stuff happens including a character being beheaded by as laundry dryer and an explanation about why she has the vision of the Buddhist monk.
The House of Lost Souls is an Umberto Lenzi film. You don’t have to imagine how Lenzi would make this movie if it was aimed for the theater instead of TV. He doesn’t hold back on the blood or body parts getting hacked off. The special effect of a character getting their head lopped off in a laundry dryer is pretty gross and not TV safe. Don’t scoff this film off as a lesser Lenzi. All the stuff you want in a nightmarish hotel is here. There’s crazed demons, ax murderers, a freezer of corpses, skeletons, surprises in the walls and even an exploding TV. Lenzi creates a great excuse why they would stay in such a disturbing hotel and not just keep going down the road. The film fits in with the Last Wave of Italian Horror even though The House of Lost Souls didn’t emerge from the vault until that wave had died.
The Video is 1.66:1 anamorphic. The 2K restoration makes the film look so much better than when it showed up on VHS. The Audio is DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono in both Italian and English. You’ll hear the screams clean in both versions. The movie is subtitled in English.
Audio commentary by Samm Deighan has her talk about Umberto Lenzi. She feels that the director needs a critical reappraisal. She thinks his ability to jump genres has made him not get the real attention given to Argento, Bava and Fulci.
Audio commentary by Rod Barnett and Adrian Smith has them explain how this film and the others were working off the La Casa film series that started with The Evil Dead being imported to Italy. The Italian title translates to House of Wandering Souls. They debate if a hotel is really a house. There’s talk about how the films in the series were made with the directors thinking they could deliver an R-rated cut to a TV station. They shot the films for around $700,000 each. We learn about the history of the hotel used in the film. It is probably haunted for real.
The House of Rock (14:21) interviews composer Claudio Simonetti. He describes how things worked with Goblin in the ’70s when they were doing soundtrack work for Dario Argento’s Susperia and George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead. The band broke up and Claudio began working solo with his synthesizers on other movies including more Argento films with a few ex-Goblin members. He goes through his other movie scores. He admits he never met Fulci and worked o the music through others on the film. He gets into working with Lenzi on this score. The interview appears to be before an outdoor live accompaniment to a movie concert. I’ve seen Claudio perform before Deep Red. If he comes to your neighborhood, you best go.
The Criminal Cinema of Umberto Lenzi: Career Spanning Interview (52:13) is a vintage talk that covers his cinematic career. He talks about his early years in filmmaking and going to cinema school in Rome. One of his instructors was producing a film in his area of Italy and hired him. He made Raw Wind in Eden with Hollywood stars and a friend of Orson Welles as director. Lenzi isn’t strictly a horror director. His career includes films for every major wave from Spaghetti Western to Giallo to Cops to Cannibals. If there was a budget, he was ready to direct. The clips seem to be from bad video dubs. Many of these films have been restored and upgraded to Blu-ray over the years.
Working With Umberto (18:37) interviews FX artist Elio Terribili. He talks about how working in the digital age versus film involves more takes with the digital camera since there’s no lab costs. He gets into how during the ’80s, his position didn’t talk directly to the director. He’d get messages from the first assistant director.
Cauldron Films presents The House of Lost Souls. Directed by Umberto Lenzi. Screenplay by Umberto Lenzi. Starring Joseph Alan Johnson, Stefania Orsola Garello, Matteo Gazzolo, Laurentina Guidotti, Gianluigi Fogacci, Hal Yamanouchi, Licia Colò, Costantino Meloni, Charles Borromel & Dino Jaksic. Running Time: 88 Minutes. Rating: Unrated. Release Date: May 13, 2025.
