Tragic Ceremony backdrop
Tragic Ceremony poster

TRAGIC CEREMONY

Estratto dagli archivi segreti della polizia di una capitale europea

1972 • IT HMDB
December 20, 1972

After a peaceful sailboat ride, four young people, including rich kid Bill, Joe, Fred and Jane, knock on the door of a secluded villa after their dune buggy runs out of gas. Earlier in the day, Bill had given the lovely Jane a pearl necklace with a supposedly paranormal history, and this later opens up a can of worms. They are invited to spend the night at the mansion, owned by Lord Alexander and Lady Alexander, who happen to be hosting a strange ceremony that night attended by a group of eccentrics in black robes. During the evening, Jane exits her sleep chamber, seemingly in some kind of trance, and is lured to a sacrificial alter where the robed houseguests are hovering over her. As a knife is about to be plunged into the young lady, her three friends come to the rescue, but they are also witness to a chaotic mass murder catastrophe in which they flee with feelings of guilt and uncertainty.

Directors

Riccardo Freda

Cast

Camille Keaton, Tony Isbert, Máximo Valverde, Luigi Pistilli, Luciana Paluzzi, José Calvo, Giovanni Petrucci, Irina Demick, Paul Müller, Beni Deus
Horror

REVIEWS (1)

AC

As Chianese

•
In Spain, some young people decide to make a crazy nighttime race through the countryside. Victims of an accident, they are forced to ask for help from the owner of a villa who was meanwhile preparing to perform some satanic rituals... when the police arrive at the scene the next day, alerted by an anonymous call, they find the bodies of the young people horribly massacred. Clumsy and lengthy title for a thriller that closely follows the exorcist-demonic trend that will know great success a year later with "The Exorcist" by Friedkin and Blatty. A film definitely worth rediscovering, with a Luigi Pistilli out of the ordinary and a setting worthy of the best made-in-USA films. Extra doses of chills with an inspired and tense direction. It is worth noting how Spain is considered "satanic land" by our horror directors: Bava set "Lisa and the Devil" (a.k.a. "The House of Exorcism") in the same year.