Die Säge des Todes


Title: Die Säge des Todes (aka Bloody Moon) (1981)
Rating: 2.5/5
Genre: Horror
Starring: Olivia Pascal, Nadja Gerganoff, Alexander Waechter
Director: Jess Franco
Duration: 81 minutes
Country: (West) Germany

Five years after he murdered a young girl at a party, incestuous and deformed Miguel is released to his sister, Manuela, and his paranoid contessa aunt in time for their opening of a new boarding school for foreign language. With the school soon populated by nubile young adults, a series of brutal murders are coincidentally breaking out on and off campus. But who could be the killer? The not-so-rehabilitated Miguel? The voyeuristic retard? The ladies man Antonio? Manuela, who is openly despised by her aunt? Or could this all be in the imagination of student Angela?

Die Säge des Todes (The Saw of Death) is a film by the Spanish master of sleazy erotica and zoom lenses, Jess Franco, made to cash in on the American slasher movie craze that was exploding during this part of the 1980’s. Like many European low budget horror films, Franco’s take on the genre is just a little bit stranger than its U.S. counterparts. For instance, the location is a young adult boarding school for foreign languages that also provides its students with tennis, roller disco, and nude sunbathing. No wonder so many Europeans are bilingual! Okay, so the setting is a tad, shall we say, off. With this cast aside, the locations used in this film are beautiful with the stellar photography complimenting them even more. And while zooming may still be Franco’s favorite camera feature, he uses it more discriminately and intelligently in Bloody Moon, showing that his directorial skills are reaching an all time high. Now if only the subject matter, script, and overall appeal of the movie were up to par with the maestro.

All things considered, Die Säge des Todes is a fairly typical European slasher movie, more reminiscent of films by Argento, Lenzi, and Fulci at times, as those names were among the top echelon of Euro horror and no doubt big influences (along with American filmmakers like Carpenter and Cunningham). However, it is not typical Franco. In contrast to his Marquis de Sade inspired erotica with sex as the main focus, his 1981 tale of the macabre offers but a few topless shots and a couple scenes of sexual tension. But for the most part, the eroticism is drastically toned down to give way to suspense and violence. In these two areas, the delivery is both good and mediocre. The suspense throughout most of the picture doesn’t quite work. The violence is a little better, including a scene where a woman is stabbed through the back and out the breast, another featuring toddler road kill, and of course the immaculate “Saw of Death” scene. The latter is an exercise in maximum build-up with a excellently gory payoff. The stuff nightmares are made of. Wunderbar!

It’s a little bit hard to gauge how cheesy this movie really is with the awkward English dubbing over the original German soundtrack, so let’s just say that this film contains a “normal” amount of cheese for low budget Euro horror. The cast is filled with sexy young talents. However, I’m using the term “talents” loosely. Also, we pretty much know exactly who the culprit is from the get-go, yet the film tries its hardest to keep you guessing until the very end which takes away from any suspense that could’ve be gathered if it had been successfully kept a mystery. The ballad-like theme music played everywhere during the course of the film is actually kind of pretty and almost hypnotic. Perhaps not the best choice for creepy ambience, but theme music is always a good thing for a small film to have, making it all the more memorable when the action onscreen turns bland.

With almost 200 films under his belt, Jess Franco dabbled in just about every genre (yes, he also did some pr0n), so it makes it hard to compare Die Säge des Todes to his other films accurately. So I guess a superficial opinion is what you’ll get. There are times when the movie drags (it seems longer than 80-something minutes), but it is completely enjoyable in the right mood and shows that Franco is just as fine a horror filmmaker as any. If you’re interested in this one, be sure to look out for his 1987 tour de force Faceless.

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