Giallo involving a somewhat detached Klaus Kinski, who barely takes the time to remove his hands from his jacket pockets. For such an insanely powerful actor, he isn't allowed to do a great deal here, but that's because he's the mysterious masked killer. Isn't he?Also featured here are British actress Margaret Lee (as Cheryl Hume) and giallo legend Rosalba Neri (as Anne Palmieri). Also known as 'Cold Blooded Beast' and 'Slaughter Hotel', 'Asylum Erotica' is a fairly enjoyable thriller/horror/whodunit involving a murderer lurking around the grounds of a stately mental hospital. The location is tremendous, full of long and clinical rooms and corridors in which various graphic killings take place.There are some interesting directorial flourishes from the prolific Fernando Di Leo which especially enliven the more gruesome sequences. We get tantalising glimpses of bloodied corpses, mangled inmates and staff, and convincing stab wounds - so brief are these glimpses, that we are not quite sure what we have seen.This certainly doesn't push the boundaries of what can be achieved in this genre, but what it does, it does well. It would have been nice to have featured more of Kinski. With his wild and striking looks only barely made respectable by a white doctor's coat, you know his character Dr. Francis Clay might well be capable of crazed antics. Don't you?

Well, yes, this is a pretty bad Euro-sleaze picture that has liberal doses of blood and murder but far more nudity and sex. Not really all that bad a combination is it? We get an asylum for rich women relaxing, playing croquet, and having fun - only to be visited by a masked, heavy-breathing murderer wielding a variety of medieval weapons. If you are looking for cogent and coherent story here, pass, BUT if you are looking for one of those classic entertaining, sleazy pictures that you could only get from the 70's(and in particular Italian cinema) then sit down and enjoy. The film has a pretty impressive cast from that era of "genre" stars like Klaus Kinski. He does virtually nothing in the movie and I barely noticed he was in the picture at all. True, most of my attention was focused on the female cast, but Kinski does nothing with his role of a doctor helping these women cope with their problems(he does start an affair with one later though). John Karlsen as Professor Osterman does a far better job engaging the audience with his acting skill as the man seemingly running this institution. But make no mistake, it is the female cast that is a veritable buffet for the eyes. First, there is Sara Bay - Rosalba Neri - she went by Bay in the classic sleaze-fest Frankenstein' Daughter where she played a nymphomanical scientist out to create the perfect lover to satiate her carnal desires. She disrobed frequently in that film and does so here. Guess what? In this film she plays a patient with a seemingly incurable disease - nymphomania! What acting range! Who cares. Just look at that black outfit she wears through most of the picture. Then there is Margaret Lee - a beautiful Englishwoman who is no stranger to these types of films and is very integral to the revelation of the denouement. Next we have beautiful blonde and buxom Gioia Desideri as a woman who tries to kill herself(fortunately she later gets some much needed help). There is a hot, steamy shower scene with Neri, but hands down the most erotic aspects of the film deal with a bizarre relationship with Nurse Helen and patient Mara. The way Nurse Helen - Monica Strebel - seduces and ravages Mara with just her delicious blue eyes is a real treat to see. She is so blatant that I was laughing. Then we get the massage scene where Mara has her exotic buttocks caressed for what seemed like twenty minutes. There is more. Both girls are pretty, and we even have Mara do one of her homeland tribal dances or something along those lines. But I digress from the horror of the film, for it does have some. No one dies until 30 minutes into the film. But the opening SUGGESTS a murder will take place. The deaths are interesting though we never really are given a real reason for why they happened. We get sword deaths, death by iron maiden, a crossbow, an axe, and even a scythe. The ending is very bloody and very surrealistic almost as a mace is used with frequency and energy - like the energizer bunny it keeps going and going. Look, this is no great film by any means. It is fun though(on many levels) and somehow keeps your full attention. It does have great atmosphere. It does have lots of eye candy. It does have some wonderful Euro-sleaze music. Before I set down to write this review, I gave it a 5...I have now convinced myself to give it a 6. It might be worthy for you to take a peek.

Fernando Di Leo (known primarily for his Italian crime action thrillers) directed this exploitation flick, set in a posh "asylum" where wealthy wives are "put away" to "get better" by their "concerned" rich husbands. I guess many will consider "The Cold Blooded Beast" (its alternate title is "Slaughter Hotel", which I think is not accurate and misleading) a giallo of sorts. A killer, wearing a black cloak and ski mask (Di Leo mostly shoots him in shadow and off to a distance), is selecting patients to murder and it is up to the viewer to decide who this mysterious psychopath is. Could it be the enigmatic, man-of-few-words Dr. Francis Clay (Klaus Kinski, just as fascinating and tight-lipped as he normally was back during this time in his career), adored by the neglected patient, Cheryl Hume (Margaret Lee)? Could it actually be someone with a deranged psychosis that causes him to lash out at women? The bevy of beauties who populate this locked down institution include Rosalbi Neri (stealing the film as the sultry nymphomaniac, Anne Palmieri, whose illness could derive from her husband's impotence towards her), Jane Garret (as Mara, pretty much abandoned by her parents), and Gioia Desideri (as Ruth, a patient with suicidal and homicidal tendencies). The institution, which looks more like a fashionable resort than a den for lunatics, has medieval devices (not sure why these weapons are used as décor for a place dedicated to wealthy, but troubled wives) the killer will use throughout, such as a dagger, sword, crossbow, iron maiden (!), and spiked ball (used to bash the heads of nurses in one hurried assault as the police are after him!). The violence, to be honest, is off-screen and edited in a fashion not to detail the kind of savagery that seems implied (to be honest, when Di Leo shows the results of the killer's savagery, they are less gruesome than it might appear, such as Rosalbi's fate).This film also features (much to my pleasure) a blossoming lesbian romance between a nurse (the gorgeous, petite red-head Monica Strebel)and her favorite patient, Mara, including a massage and bathtub rub-down, climaxing in a dance and brief, but titillating, love-making session. I was a bit frustrated that Di Leo pulls away from their climax just as it was getting good, but the whole film seems to shy away from "going too far" (all though there are plenty of female crotch shots to our disposal). Neri, to tell you the truth, is the reason to seek this one out—she smolders seductive power and makes love to us through the camera. I tell you I worship every inch of this woman's tantalizing body. Who can fault the gardener for not rolling around with her in the greenhouse?!?! Again, their sex scene only goes to a specific "safe" point, without becoming too softcore. Margaret Lee, who certainly isn't a slouch, also has a scene similar to Neri's final scene, where she writhes in ecstasy on her bed, naked and in a state of bliss, seemingly caught in a fantasy dream. If you like this, then Di Leo doesn't disappoint you. Neri practically makes love to her bed, masturbating, and wallowing around in her sheets like a pig in slop; it is spellbinding if you love the female form. Kinski is as odd in behavior and strange as he needs to be to possibly convince an audience of his perhaps being the killer. With John Karlsen as the chief of the institution, Professor Osterman.

"Slaughter Hotel" is quite a perplexing film experience… Not so much because of its brilliance, uniqueness or professionalism but because it's so damn addictive despite being one of the most poorly scripted horror film ever made. This is one giant trashy mess in which story-logic, atmosphere and character drawings have all been skipped in favor of more luscious nudity and sleaze. We're welcomed in a resting home for hot & wealthy ladies, with mental problems going from burnouts to nymphomania. There's a team of strange doctors, unprofessional nurses and even a hunky gardener at these ladies' service to help them get over whatever problems they got. In order to make "Slaughter Hotel" at least somewhat resemble to a giallo, director Fernando DiLeo also introduces a mad-raving murderer, typically dressed in black and using the institution's old-fashioned armory decoration as slashing tools. All put together, this results in extended sequences of females having any form of sex (masturbation, lesbian action or actual sex) before brutally getting killed. The basics of exploitation cinema, maybe, but nonetheless a bad movie with too many tedious moments and totally wasting a great cast. I don't think you're meant to care for the killer's identity as his/her motivations largely remain unexplained at the end. There are a lot of things that don't make the least bit of sense (butt-massages??) and the girls, for some reason, all have extended flashbacks with completely irrelevant contents. I suppose that was done to reach a playtime of 90 minutes. Klaus Kinski looks terrifically vicious with his long blond hair but even his presence can't bring much redemption. The murders are gory (especially the grand finale!) but not the least bit disturbing. "Slaughter Hotel" is worth watching for fans of Italian horror but I'm sure everyone will acknowledge that it's nothing more than a poor man's Sergio Martino, Dario Argento or Mario Bava.