ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

melvelvit-1 Sexy Marisa Mell stars as an American ex-pat whose new husband brings her back to his ancestral castle where she learns the family was cursed by a witch burned at the stake centuries before. She soon becomes pregnant and it's a ROSEMARY'S BABY redux (cashing in on THE OMEN's recent success) from here on out, only now the emphasis is on "erotic horror". Almost all the sex is gratuitous; Marisa's husband kills prostitutes in his spare time for no good reason other than to provide more nudity in a film already rife with it courtesy of Ms. Mell. Even the U.S. title, OBSCENE DESIRE, is only there to titillate. Since it's the '70s, an exorcism (sort of) was thrown in for good measure and although the whole thing is more than a little silly, it's a lot of fun anyway, the "bare" essence of "Eurotrash". But what was up with that ending? ***SPOILER***When Marisa and her baby (the son of Satan) board a plane for the U.S., one of the coven seeing her off smiles and says, "America needed that baby." ***END SPOILER***This was obviously a good-natured (?) zinger, unlike the Italian giallo's cumulative xenophobia. Most of them are exotic "travelogues" set in the various capitols of Europe and beyond but when seen collectively, the unmistakable (albeit unintentional) message seems to be, "This sick sh!t doesn't happen here", it's always somewhere else whereas nearly all Spanish gialli take place on their own turf. The still-gorgeous Marisa Mell was about 40 when she made OBSCENE DESIRE and her looks are a bit "hard" here, no doubt from a growing cocaine dependence. She'd been an international playgirl and tabloid darling for over a decade and was romantically linked to Alain Delon, Warren Beatty, Robert Evans, Roman Polanski, Alex Onassis, and the Shah of Iran among others but by the early 1980s the actress was reduced to posing nude in hardcore men's magazines. Destitute and alone, Marisa died a horrible death from throat cancer in 1992. "Movies are my life, and my life is a movie." -Marisa Mell

morrison-dylan-fan With still having good memories of being introduced to actress Marisa Mell by the overlooked Giallo Diary of an Erotic Murderess,I was pleasantly caught by surprise,when a very kind IMDb'er recently sent me a non-Giallo Mell title,which led to me excitingly getting ready to discover how obscene a desire could really be.The plot:Swept up in her holiday romance,Amanda decides that instead of travelling back to the US,she will instead live in Italy and get married to her boyfriend,Andrea.Taking Amanda to the mansion which his family have owned for 7 generations,Andrea is horrified to discover that his families most loyal butler has unexpectedly died.Attempting to help her new husband deal to deal with his grief,Andera soon makes Amanda pregnant.Initially thrilled about the pregnancy,Amanda soon begins to fear that Andera and the surviving staff of the mansion may be planning something that is far from being in the best interest of her,or her unborn child.View on the film:Despite disowning the movie later on,co-writer/ (along with Joaquin Dominguez and Piero Regnoli) director Giulio Petroni closely works with cinematography Leopoldo Villasenor to give the film an elegant Gothic Romance appearance,with Petroni using wide angles to show the Gothic mansion that is towering above Amanda and Andera,and also giving the movie a crisp,stylish sheen.Emphasising Petroni's style,film director Jess Franco, (not the dictator!) gives the movie an unexpectedly superb score,with Franco showing a real skill in knowing when to use a deep bass for the movie's Gothic Horror moments,and also knowing when to unleash the strings for the romantic moments in the film.Sadly,whilst Petoni,Villasenor and Franco give the movie a strong atmosphere,the screenplay fails to build any feelings of Gothic chills or psychological terror due to not allowing any details about the foundation of Amanda and Andera's relationship to be revealed,which leads to the Gothic Romance scenes in the movie to be rather dry,whilst the psychological Horror elements of the movie feel lack any sense of being connected to the roots of Amanda and Andera's relationship.Appearing in the opening of the movie by hanging around the corners of the mansion,Victor Israel gives a wonderfully deranged performance as the mansion's last remaining servant,with Israel giving the film a great shot of Gothic Horror by delivering his lines with a sharp twisted cackle,and also creating a strong sense that the servant may know more then he appears to.Contrasting Israel's high shrieks,the beautiful Marisa Mell gives an excellent performance as Amanda,with Mell showing Amanda gradually change from having a head filled with romance,to psychotically crumbling over fears of discovering the obscene desire which lurks within herself and the mansion.

MARIO GAUCI This is yet another ROSEMARY'S BABY (1968)/THE EXORCIST (1973)/THE OMEN (1976) clone – which I was unfamiliar with until a few months ago – and, again, one in which the possession is really by an ancestor (shades of BLACK Sunday [1960]) rather than the Devil himself. We still get the obligatory 'demonic' scenes, but these here are perhaps the tamest I have ever seen: the would-be exorcist (a disheveled Lou Castel) gives up immediately after the 'victim' (Marisa Mell, past her prime but still looking good in the nude) spits out a host he had just fed her – retreating in a room to pray, where a gust of wind turns a hanging cross upside down, he runs hysterically out into the streets soon after only to be run over by a truck! Similarly, the climax sees the trio of devil-worshippers sent to protect the unborn Devil's spawn (including an unhinged elderly gardener) struggle with and eventually set fire(!) to Mell's husband (whom she had earlier spied in an orgy with two of them – or was it just her imagination? – and is even revealed to be a serial killer on a 'mission' to cleanse the world of sin)!! Following this, in a typically cynical conclusion, Mell boards a plane bound to spread evil in the U.S. The film, then, is muddled in plot development (as if Spaghetti Western exponent Petroni was wary of the material, or presumably lost interest when the producers insisted on adding softcore scenes – in fact, he subsequently disowned the film!) and typically listless in pace…but it nevertheless remains engrossing throughout, aided immeasurably by Carlo Savina's moodily romantic score. By the way, this was originally released as LA PROFEZIA i.e. THE PROPHECY.

rundbauchdodo This post-"Exorcist" and "Omen" possession film is quite odd. It has some typical Giallo elements and until the second half of the movie, it is left unclear whether there is something supernatural going on or not.The film also boosts some strange characters that sometimes get a little bit overacted by the actors. But the main problem of the film is that it makes the impression of coming about ten years too late. It is too old fashioned to be a typical horror film of the late 1970s (there are many classical Gothic moments in it), and on the other hand it is too graphic to be a late Gothic horror film (two gory scenes and plenty of nude female flesh).All in all, it's an enjoyable if not amazing little film, and the climax delivers an unexpected downbeat twist to surprise the audience. If "L'Osceno Desiderio" (my preferred title) would have been directed by a more gifted director, it would surely be a remarkable sleeper.