Riccardo Ghione's amusing and self-aware black comedy takes a rather wry look at a very real concern in the early 1970s-Alvin Toffler's "Future Shock" was required reading on college campuses back in 1972 and the alarmist book "about the future and the shock that its arrival brings" was only a forerunner of the fears the "Me Decade" grappled with, especially on screen with nightmarish fare like WESTWORLD and DEATHRACE 2000. Two other 1973 cautionary tales, SOYLENT GREEN and TRAITMENT DE CHOC, also envisioned a cannibalistic future but THE BLOODSTAINED LAWN, the third in this futuristic triptych, goes "where no man has gone before" by making light of the rampant paranoia.Amoral aristocrat Nina Genovese (Marina Malfatti, who looks a bit like Sharon Tate), her mad scientist husband (who looks a lot like Soupy Sales right down to the big bow ties), and the brother she's in love with bring a drunk, a hooker, a gypsy, and a pair of hippies back to their ultra-modern estate for some dope, orgies, and music but soon the guests disappear one by one to become the secret ingredient of a rejuvenating wine the depraved trio bottle and sell. Meanwhile, "special guest star" Nino Castelnuevo (Nino Newcastle??), he of CAMILLE 2000 fame, plays a UNESCO agent hot on their trail of blood...Nina, dead serious about a superior race, makes good use of society's "disposables" in an increasingly over-populated world and insists to her love-struck brother that "only money brings happiness" as the decadent rich get yet another roasting, only this time on the lighter side and very well done. Director Ghione also has fun inverting "happy" clichés like lovers (in this case, the hippie couple) running in slo-mo over hill and dale (twice!) and the life-size "Robbie The Robot" gadget the villains use to extract their victim's lifeblood is more ridiculous than anything else. The hip-and-happening score is oh so "of its time" and the garish decade's flashy fashions and decor also serve the story well. It's (kind of) classy Eurotrash that doesn't take the doom-and-gloom predictions about the future too seriously and does for the wine industry what DEATH LAID AN EGG did for poultry farms.

Reading a fellow IMDb'ers reviews a few weeks ago,I stumbled upon a review for a title that an IMDb'er had highlighted to me during the IMDb's Horror board's October Challlenge,thanks to the movie having a wicked sounding Black Comedy streak.Gathering up films to view for IMDb's Classic Film poll for the best titles of 1973,I was delighted to see that 1973 was the movies release year,which led to me excitingly getting ready to get the lawnmower out of the shed for the first time in years.The plot:Driving round on the lookout for the 'lowlifes' of society,socialite Nina Genovese and her scientist husband Dr.Antonio Genovese spot a hippie couple looking for a hitch-hike. Generously giving the hippie couple the chance to sleep at their villa for the night,the couple are delighted to discover that the Genovese's are the leading wine makers of the town.Thrilled at finding wine flowing from every part of the villa,the hippie couple begin to seriously wonder if they could ask the Genovese's if it would be OK if they could stay with them for a few days.Finding that the wine has an oddly unique 'kick',the couple decide to look round the villa to discover the special ingredient which gives the wine its distinctive taste,which will lead the couple to discover to their horror the Genovese's deep desire to drain the poor.View on the film:Despite the only version that I could find of the title being one that took some shine off the title, (thanks to it being an old fullscreen TV print)the screenplay by writer/director Riccardo Ghione still thankfully contains a vicious bite,with Ghione taking sleek satirical Black Comedy shot at the upper-class of Italy,with Ghione showing the Genovese's firm belief that the poor are dirt on their shoes and need to be drained of what little 'life' they have. Complimenting his swipe at the upper- class,Ghione shows the low-life's of society to be filthy hippies who cant see danger coming towards their peace & love blinded eyes.Placing most of the movie in one location,Ghione gives the Genovese's Villa a charmingly off-beat feel by making each of their extreme wine making machines being ones that are wonderfully low-tech,which appear to have been borrowed from a cheap Sci-Fi film.Giving this very interesting Horror title an added dose of weirdness,Enzo Tarascio gives a wild performance,with Tarascio showing Antonio's love for his wife Nina, (played by the pretty Marina Malfatti-who had earlier teamed up with Tarascio for the Giallo The Night That Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave)to be so draining on him,that he will be prepared to drain the poor of their only valuable commodity,their blood.

This very odd Italian movie is a horror movie with a social commentary of sorts. It's basically about a group of rich, decadent people who pick up various less fortunate people and take them to their remote luxury villa. The aristocrats entertain this assortment of poor people with a wild orgy and plenty of other sensual pleasures. There is a catch, of course. And that catch is that these poor fools are to have all their blood drained from their bodies via a strange machine built by the resident scientist. Their blood is then sold in wine bottles for a tidy profit.The idea of the rich leeching off the poor is the social commentary. It adds an unusual dimension to what is a quite strange film to begin with. The blood-draining machine and the other bizarre devices in the house give the film a slight science fiction element which is not exactly typical for a film of this type. I wouldn't really go as far as to say that this is a particularly good film though. It's a bit meandering and unengaging a lot of the time. But, as I say, it does have its eccentricities and that is a plus point. It stars Marina Malfatti as the chief ice blonde. She starred in a number of gialli such as All the Colors of the Dark and The Red Queen Kills 7 Times. This film is definitely not up to the standard of those but at least Malfatti gets a more central role in this one.It's a bit different and it is a definite obscurity. But it's not essential though.

This is a hallucinatory, somewhat drug-abuse themed horror movie which is kind of an Italian version of a "Coffin Joe" film like "Awakening of the Beast", and with the same subtext of social commentary. It's about a group of aristocrats (a husband, a wife, and the wife's brother) who are literally draining the blood of the people. They pick up the dregs of society--prostitutes, homeless hitchhikers, etc--and take them back to their isolated villa with its weird crimson-colored "bloodstained" lawn. They feed them drinks and weird drugs and engage them in wild orgies before hooking them to a strange machine which drains all the blood from their bodies,which they then package and sell in wine bottles! This is an genuinely creepy movie. I know little or nothing about the director Riccardo Ghionne, but he definitely does a pretty effective job here. Enzo Tarascio, who plays the husband, is very creepy looking, especially during the orgy scene where he wears a bizarre, over-sized blue bow tie (which like the red lawn is a very off-kilter and disturbing image). His hard-as-nails wife is excellently played by Marina Malfatti, who was in a number of Italian gialli, usually as the second banana to more famous actresses like Edwige Fenech, Barbara Bouchet, or Erica Blanc. This is is one of her few leading roles and undoubtedly her best. The victims as per usual are a pretty hapless lot. Dominique Broschero plays a prostitute--she was a pretty prolific actress during this period, but I'm not very familiar with her previous work. The busty Barbara Marzano plays a female hitchhiker. She mostly did numerous, usually topless cameos in movies like "Torso", but her most famous role was probably in Ferdinand DiLeo's "The Seduction" where she played the sexually curious best friend of the teenage daughter of the girlfriend of the male protagonist, who he cheats on the teenage daughter with AFTER he cheats on his girlfriend with her daughter! Naturally, she's pretty desirable.The statement this movie makes about the bottomless appetites of the Italian upper classes and the mindless pleasure-seeking of the lowers classes and the aimless youth is pretty blunt and obvious, but effective nevertheless. I was lucky enough to see this obscure but very rewarding movie with English subtitles, but the dialogue is probably the least interesting thing about it. Definitely recommended.