Predictable but highly watchable tale of a mad sculptor who is trying to keep his daughter from dying from a horrible disease by giving her a blood transfusion. Donors are in short supply, so the guy has to 'volunteer' women to give their blood, turning the exsanguinated bodies into bizarre wax figures for display to the general public - in a windmill.This weird set up barely functions as it is, what with the sculptor's doctor buddy totally in love with the daughter, and the daughter totally in love with the new guy hired to work in the library. He's in love with a childhood friend, although he does realise this after bedding the crazy guy's daughter, and he declares his love for her right in front of the sick girl. Pretty tactless. His mate, by the way, is concerned that his model friend has mysteriously disappeared - guess where she's currently tied up?Things get slightly less predictable when the hero Hans does a really bad job of giving sick girl the brush off and she seemingly dies, but when he goes to confess to her dad the doctor gives him LSD! He spends a good portion of the film tripping out his head and seemingly talking to people who aren't there. After that, things get back into the 'rescue the girl from the mad doctor plot' but filmed very well, especially the shots of the melting wax 'models' at the end.Was Mario Bava involved? Who knows.

(some spoilers follow) All right, I'll admit it - I just can't resist reviewing something called "Mill of the Stone Women"! Sadly, the film sort of fails to deliver on the promise of that title. But it's still pretty interesting.If you're a big enough horror fan to have heard of this movie, you'll probably like it. It's a slow-paced Gothic piece, in the same tradition as the British Hammer movies. It even has the standard cast of characters for a Gothic horror - a sinister doctor, a corrupt professor, an earnest young man, a sexy mystery woman, and a wholesomely pretty nice woman. This kind of stuff is so familiar to me at this point that it feels like a comfy old security blanket.The best part of the film is the first half, when the goings-on at the mill are still cryptic and unexplained. The second half gets a little predictable and lurid, and there are a few too many scenes of women getting strapped to tables and menaced with needles. Dare I say this kind of stuff is sexist? Erotic, sure, but also sexist. And, in a very strange and somewhat disappointing twist, the villains pretty much defeat themselves! Despite my reservations, this is still a decent film, thanks to some atmospheric sets and unusual ideas. As I said, if you're enough of a horror buff to have heard about it, you should definitely check it out.

A young artist named Hans is hired to do a study of a famous local landmark,a windmill that contains stone statues of notorious female monsters of the past.One day he meets a mysterious,dangerously beautiful woman at the mill.Before long,he is drawn into her clutches.Giorgio Feronni's gloriously colorful horror film "Mill of the Stone Woman" is obviously influenced by Georges Franju's horror classic "Eyes Without a Face" and Mario Bava's "I Vampiri".Admittedly the first half of the film is pretty slow and rather confusing, however there is enough eerie moments to satisfy fans of early 60's Italian Gothic horror.The location sets are truly atmospheric,for example the crumbling mill of the film's title is a decrepit place,filled haphazardly with ominous statuary and ancient religious icons.So if you are a fan of Italian horror you can't miss this gorgeously photographed gem.9 out of 10.

Neatly expressionistic mood piece about a mad scientist/sculptor trying to keep his afflicted daughter from turning to stone by transfusing her with the blood of local babes. The storyline (a favorite of European horror films - THE AWFUL DR. ORLOF and EYES WITHOUT A FACE also had to do with a mad scientist trying to save a deformed daughter at the expense of anyone within reach) has holes thick enough to bowl a woman's severed head through, but the film is great on atmosphere and ambiance. Completed without credit by Mario Bava after director Giorgio Ferroni began it, the Mondo Macabro DVD version includes the uncut French edition (massacred in bad US VHS prints till now). This film was one of two that reportedly started the Eurohorror boom of the '60s and '70s, of which Bava was a primary maestro.