The Loreley's Grasp (1974)

Fortunately my simple October "horror-fest" of reviews allows me to continue to delve into some more Helga Liné treasures that I've recently discovered. One that has been sitting on my watch list for sometime is The Loreley's Grasp, an Italian horror that sees Miss Liné in the role of the film's antagonist, the unearthly being known as Lorelei.

The legend of the Loreley has been passed down for thousands of years. She's a beautiful siren, one of the Rhine Maidens, who used her beauty and voice to lure sailors to they're doom. Now in the present day with a week of full moons the Loreley is awaken and transforms into a hideous reptilian creature. To return to her slumber beneath the Rhine river and to survive she must consume human hearts for the period of the full moon.

The nearby woman's boarding school begins to grow nervous as the attacks begin to occur. To protect themselves they enlist in the services of a hunter by the name of Sirgurd. While Sirgurd is able to keep the women safe for a time, the wrath of Lorelei continues to be felt throughout the village. Sirgurd, like many others, is not convinced the murders are by the hands of the mythical creature, but does begin to have doubts when he discovers a beautiful woman on the shore of the Rhine who claims to be named Lorelei. Sirgurd is instantly consumed by Lorelei's beauty, and is chosen by her to be her mate. As her grasp becomes stronger he begins to lose focus during his guard at a the boarding school, resulting in two near successful attacks by the Loreley. With only a day or so left before she returns to her slumber, Sirgurd must travel to Lorelei's lair beneath the Rhine and destroy her before she can kill again!

As an Italian horror The Loreley's Grasp is far from scary, but it is a fairly decent monster film which delivers a fair amount of gore, action, and gorgeous ladies. Of course my own reasons for watching this film are obvious, The Loreley's Grasp happens to be one of the few films where Helga Liné plays a somewhat leading role. I say somewhat because even though she is technically the main character of the film her on screen role is limited to the scenes where Lorelei isn't a scaly beast. But her appearance was long enough for me to consider the film worth while, and definitely worth viewing if your a fan.

Another reason to watch the film is the lovely Silvia Tortosa, who plays the professor at the woman's boarding school. Ironically Silvia has appeared in a couple other films with Helga Line, The Loreley's Grasp, Horror Express, and a Spanish comedy I stumbled upon. But while her filmography seems to be quite vast, I doubt you'll be seeing many more reviews of her films here, I've had no luck, not even the vault where I found my stash of Helga Liné films has much! So I'll have to enjoy The Loreley's Grasp, which seems to be her largest role available to me on DVD. If your into Italian horror this is readily available on Netflix, again it's not the greatest but for the time being it ranks among the best of the very few Italian horror films I've seen.

6/10