LARA WENDEL AND MALISA LONGO HAUNTING 'THE RED MONKS'

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS Year: 1988 Rating: ***

Since low-budget horror movies began, there's always been certain locations where it's obvious the entire script was based around — find the place first and write the script later... 

Which has never been as impressive as the otherwise mostly unimpressive Gothic horror THE RED MONKS, where two generations of dark-haired men inherit a castle where the interior is an almost endless maze of Medieval corridors... 

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Harboring controversial European starlet Lara Wendel, a child actress turned preteen/teenage exploitation ingenue, here at her most twenty-something beautiful (resembling a cross between Carrie Fisher, Linda Blair, Maribel Martín, Melissa Gilbert, Emily Longstreth and Jamie Lee Curtis): once again playing a final girl...

Or so the audience and her turn-of-the-century heir/husband thinks, scolded by the titular torture chamber basement-dwelling RED MONKS to  keep this newly-married young wife virginal for an anticipated sacrifice...

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

That follows slow-paced body-count death sequences, all involving decapitation in the usual cheap low-budget Italian-horror style — where any and all big money was spent on the place instead of the script or actors...

Including gorgeous middle-aged Malisa Longo, the Hammer Films-style mysterious castle caretaker, with more edgy chemistry between both wooden handsome Gerardo Amato and Lara Wendel herself: the latter bearing all (despite a horrible English dub) for a genre she'd given most of her life to.

Malisa Longo in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel and Gerardo Amato in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Malisa Longo in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Gerardo Amato in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel and Mary Maxwell in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel and Malisa Longo in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Mary Maxwell in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Malisa Longo in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Lara Wendel in THE RED MONKS

Gaetano Russo in THE RED MONKS

Gaetano Russo in THE RED MONKS