If you're a horror hound, you'll enjoy watching the facial transplant sub-genre oeuvre of Georges Franju's "La Yeux Sans Visage" (aka, 1960's Eyes without Face, aka The Horror Chamber of Dr. Faustus), Jess Franco's "remake" with "The Awful Dr. Orloff" (1962), and his racier-gorier sequel-remake of that, with "Faceless" (1988). Then there's Hiroshi Teschigahara's Asian take on the genre with "Tanin no Kao" (aka, 1966's The Face of Another). Then there's Robert Hartford-Davis's take with the Derek and Donald Ford-penned "Corruption" (1968) starring Peter Cushing. One may also call up John Frankenheimer's "Seconds" (1966) with Rock Hudson, but that's a suspense thriller, not a gory-horror film -- and if you replace Rock with the Cage, and add over-the-top action, you'll get John Woo's "Face/Off" (1997).
Then there's this face ripper by Italian (sometimes Spaghetti Westerns) director Sergio Garrone -- a Turkish co-production alternately titled "Evil Face" -- that can easily be mistaken as the same old slash n' cheeks peel. Oh, but this face-cutting entry has two things going for it: the nudity and gore that's absent from its surgical precursors (well, expect for "Corruption"), and always-worth-the-ticket-price Klaus Kinski as its star. We know the drill with Kinski: Klaus is an all-in-or-nothing actor: for he was Nicolas Cage before Nicolas Cage. And Kinski never met a character with a kink he didn't like. And if not possessed with a psycho-sexual glitch, Klaus Freuds' em up, himself: for even though he referred to most of his horror oeuvre as "horrible movies," he still gave them his all.
Garrone utilized the Roger Corman-ethos of filmmaking with "The Hand that Feeds the Dead": he shot it back-to-back with "Lover of the Monster," his other, similar 1974 Kinski-Christine starrer. And as with the many Corman productions: you'll notice both Garrone-Kinski horrors utilize the same sets and actors, as well as a few scenes that are shot-for-shot identical. Not that it matters, since it's unlikely most people -- as with Corman's celluloid recycles -- seen both films back-to-back during their initial 1974 drive-in days.
THE PLOT
After world-renowned surgeon Baron Ivan Rassimov suffers a horrifying death in a laboratory fire, Tanja, his daughter (the makes-your-heart-weep Dutch beauty Katia Christine, adored for her many French and Italian films from the '60s through the '70s for the likes of Gordon Hessler and Louis Malle), lives in seclusion and wears a veil to conceal her own facial mass of scars.
An ex-student of her father's, Professor Nijinksi (Klaus Kinksi), married Tanja (out of loyalty; but also of kink) and carried on Rassimov's skin-grafting experiments -- with the goal of restoring Tanja's face. However, as with most of these mad-doctors restoring beauty or reanimating the life of a loved one: the flesh, the blood, or some mixture of bodily fluids from beautiful (never the physically unblessed, natch) victims are needed to complete the experiments. To that end: Kinski and his "Igor" venture into the local village to kidnap women and peel off their faces (via graphic, and very impressive, in-camera effects by the great Carlo Rambaldi of "Alien" and "Dune" fame).
WRAPPING IT UP
"The Hand that Feeds the Dead" is easily found as a Blu-ray/DVD released in August 2020 through Charles Band's Full Moon Direct imprint. That cut is now easily streamed on your favorite platforms.
If you peek under "critic reviews," you'll find my impressions of Kinksi's '60s horror films "Double Face" and "Slaughter Hotel" (both 1968), and his later sci-fi'er with Harvey Keitel, "Star Knight" (1985). While at B&S About Movies, search for my Kinski tribute features "Drive-In Friday: Klaus Kinski vs. Werner Herzog" and "Drive-In Friday: Kinski Spaghetti Westerns," for a night of viewing.
Then there's this face ripper by Italian (sometimes Spaghetti Westerns) director Sergio Garrone -- a Turkish co-production alternately titled "Evil Face" -- that can easily be mistaken as the same old slash n' cheeks peel. Oh, but this face-cutting entry has two things going for it: the nudity and gore that's absent from its surgical precursors (well, expect for "Corruption"), and always-worth-the-ticket-price Klaus Kinski as its star. We know the drill with Kinski: Klaus is an all-in-or-nothing actor: for he was Nicolas Cage before Nicolas Cage. And Kinski never met a character with a kink he didn't like. And if not possessed with a psycho-sexual glitch, Klaus Freuds' em up, himself: for even though he referred to most of his horror oeuvre as "horrible movies," he still gave them his all.
Garrone utilized the Roger Corman-ethos of filmmaking with "The Hand that Feeds the Dead": he shot it back-to-back with "Lover of the Monster," his other, similar 1974 Kinski-Christine starrer. And as with the many Corman productions: you'll notice both Garrone-Kinski horrors utilize the same sets and actors, as well as a few scenes that are shot-for-shot identical. Not that it matters, since it's unlikely most people -- as with Corman's celluloid recycles -- seen both films back-to-back during their initial 1974 drive-in days.
THE PLOT
After world-renowned surgeon Baron Ivan Rassimov suffers a horrifying death in a laboratory fire, Tanja, his daughter (the makes-your-heart-weep Dutch beauty Katia Christine, adored for her many French and Italian films from the '60s through the '70s for the likes of Gordon Hessler and Louis Malle), lives in seclusion and wears a veil to conceal her own facial mass of scars.
An ex-student of her father's, Professor Nijinksi (Klaus Kinksi), married Tanja (out of loyalty; but also of kink) and carried on Rassimov's skin-grafting experiments -- with the goal of restoring Tanja's face. However, as with most of these mad-doctors restoring beauty or reanimating the life of a loved one: the flesh, the blood, or some mixture of bodily fluids from beautiful (never the physically unblessed, natch) victims are needed to complete the experiments. To that end: Kinski and his "Igor" venture into the local village to kidnap women and peel off their faces (via graphic, and very impressive, in-camera effects by the great Carlo Rambaldi of "Alien" and "Dune" fame).
WRAPPING IT UP
"The Hand that Feeds the Dead" is easily found as a Blu-ray/DVD released in August 2020 through Charles Band's Full Moon Direct imprint. That cut is now easily streamed on your favorite platforms.
If you peek under "critic reviews," you'll find my impressions of Kinksi's '60s horror films "Double Face" and "Slaughter Hotel" (both 1968), and his later sci-fi'er with Harvey Keitel, "Star Knight" (1985). While at B&S About Movies, search for my Kinski tribute features "Drive-In Friday: Klaus Kinski vs. Werner Herzog" and "Drive-In Friday: Kinski Spaghetti Westerns," for a night of viewing.