What is it about Rosalba Neri? Alongside the equally fascinating Edwige Fenech, Neri (or Sarah Bey as she is sometimes billed), Neri rules the screen whenever she is on it. Her combination of sexuality, intensity, deportment, acting and sense of presence ensures that whomever shares a scene with her, it is Rosalba that holds your attention. So it takes a certain skill to cast her in a film that is as drab as this. Right, with that out of the way, here she plays scorned Shaheen who has a sordid relationship with white planter Clive Dawson (a commanding performance from Antonio Molino Rojo), only to be discarded in favour of new bride Brenda (lovely Mary Maude). This rejection pushes Shaheen to suicide, but not before she curses the mansion in which they live.
José Ramón Larraz, who brought us cult favourites 'Vampyres' and 'Symptoms' (both 1974) and 'Deviation (1971)', here fuses footage from India (although not, as the subtitles tell us, from 1930) with Spain with moderate results. Much spliced wildlife is on display, but it never poses a real threat to the characters, who are clearly in a different country! Also, the footage is often intrusive and usually inserted at moments of great drama destroying the potential excitement and interest generated.
As a story (written by Larraz), this is really thin on the ground, with Dawson hearing Shaheen's distinctive footsteps fairly regularly throughout. They don't exist as a premonition of anything else happening, so simply provide a ghostly reminder of the curse. And sadly, for at least two thirds of 90 minutes running time, that's all that happens. An attempt to spice up events comes with Dawson's pretty son Rupert (Curi Rafaelle) and his rather dull libido. Despite Neri's presence, this is routine at best.
José Ramón Larraz, who brought us cult favourites 'Vampyres' and 'Symptoms' (both 1974) and 'Deviation (1971)', here fuses footage from India (although not, as the subtitles tell us, from 1930) with Spain with moderate results. Much spliced wildlife is on display, but it never poses a real threat to the characters, who are clearly in a different country! Also, the footage is often intrusive and usually inserted at moments of great drama destroying the potential excitement and interest generated.
As a story (written by Larraz), this is really thin on the ground, with Dawson hearing Shaheen's distinctive footsteps fairly regularly throughout. They don't exist as a premonition of anything else happening, so simply provide a ghostly reminder of the curse. And sadly, for at least two thirds of 90 minutes running time, that's all that happens. An attempt to spice up events comes with Dawson's pretty son Rupert (Curi Rafaelle) and his rather dull libido. Despite Neri's presence, this is routine at best.