Dino Tavella's "Monster of Venice" is another would-be shocker.This one has a killer who wears scuba diving gear abducting beautiful women in Venice.The main source of fear in horror films - the moment of the actual murder - is deprived us in this one and we are just left to assume that the women die from drowning.The killer looks absolutely ridiculous and not in the least terrifying in the diving suit, padding around like a frogman. There is nothing scary about a man in scuba diving costume.The movie also lacks a single interesting character, or scene.

Low budget thriller concerns the disappearance of young women in Venice, prompting a dapper investigative reporter (and ladies' man) to suspect that it's the work of an aquatic monster who lunges from the city's canals snatching his victims and taking them to a watery grave. The audience however knows this isn't the case, the culprit a mysterious madman whose underwater access to a secret mausoleum conceals a morbid treasure trove of beautiful mummies to indulge his sick, private fantasies.Predictable, though not unwatchable, it's a beatnik-inspired Venetian affair with lots of acoustic guitar and jazzy ensembles, underground clubs, pointless dancing and a window into the care-free 60's pop-culture scene that inhabited Italy at the time. The dubbing is typically facile and so it's difficult to gauge whether the acting is any good, though it doesn't necessarily diminish the movie, assuming you don't have high expectations of this bloodless, though still somewhat ghoulish Italian horror movie.

A ghastly murderer is on the loose in Venice.He stalks women,kills various beauties and embalms them for his collection of beautiful cadavers.A young reporter tries to stop this crazed embalmer.The killer hides in the ruins of an old decayed monastery.He attacks his victims in scuba gear a la Dick Maas "Amsterdamned" and uses Venetian canals to leave the place of the crime.During the climax he is dressed as a monk with a skeleton mask."The Embalmer" by Dino Tavella is an enjoyable slice of an Italian proto-giallo with sluggish pace and unneeded comic overtones.The film has its share of effective and suspenseful moments and the script is positively macabre and downbeat.7 embalmers out of 10.

The idea behind this film is pretty original and very frightening. There's a psycho in Venice who kidnaps beautiful women and then embalms them to put in his private collection! However, despite this really cool plot, the overall film really wasn't very good--especially in the final 20 minutes. That's because in order to make the film work, the writers have the characters make so many brainless mistakes that the film comes off poorly. Here are some of the major plot problems: 1. A lady discovers that the hotel manager is, at the very least, a sex pervert. Instead of telling the police, she goes to the manager's apartment. When he isn't there, she lets herself in and looks around. When she "accidentally" discovers a secret panel to an underground lair, she investigates it on her own--never going for help!! 2. When there is a big fight between our hero and the murderer on the early streets of Venice, not once does the hero call out for help--even though he has many opportunities. When the murderer starts to win in their fight, the guy STILL doesn't call for help nor did he arrange for any backup. Apparently, like the stupid lady in #1, he is too cool to get help.This is an Italian-made horror film that was dubbed into English. Oddly, while the lips, of course, aren't in sync when everyone is speaking in English because of the dubbing, even the part where a guy sings in Italian is way out of sync--which is just odd.Despite these brainless problems with the film, the coolness of the plot makes up for a lot of this. While it certainly ain't "art", it is a reasonably decent time-passer.