Francesco Barilli's latest giallo thriller, "Pensione Paura," is a fascinating Italian-Spanish film that takes place in Northern Italy during World War II. Set in a family hotel, the film follows Rosa (Leonora Fani), who helps her mother run the hotel while awaiting her soldier father's return from the front.
In this Barilli film, nothing is as it seems. Before long, Mom (who is sleeping with a traitor she's hidden in the attic) is murdered. Then poor Rosa is raped by two of the guests, who also are murdered. As she hides the bodies, Rosa is forced into an orgy by all of the other guests. But before the guests get to far, a mysterious man enters and shoots all of them. Who is this mysterious man and what are his intentions for Rosa?
Like all the best gialli, "Pensione Paura" completely dispenses with logic early on, elevating weirdness to nearly operatic levels while absorbing the viewer in a thick and spellbinding atmosphere of mounting dread. Francisco Rabal co-stars with Luc Merenda, Lidia Biondi, and Jose Maria Prada.