Scorpion with 2 Tails

Assassino Al Cimitero Etrusco

Sales Title: The Scorpion with two tails

Italy/France 1982

D: Sergio Martino

P: Luciano Martino for Dania Film, Medusa Distribuzione, Imp. Ex Cl. Sa, Les Filmes Jacques Leitienne (P Manager: Sergio Borelli, Maurizio Pastrovich)// St & Sc: Ernesto Gastaldi, Dardano Sachetti, Maria Chianetta & Jacques Leitienne//DP: Giancarlo Ferrando//E: Eugenio & Daniele Alabiso (Asst: Teresa Negozio)//M: Fabio Frizzi//Art D: Antonello Geleng// Make up: Franco & Giovanni Rufino//Color

Cast: Elvire Audray, Paolo Malco, Claudio Cassinelli, Marilu Tolo, Wandisa Guida, GianFranco Barra, Mario Cecchi, Franco Garofaolo, Maurizio Mattioli, Carlo Monni, Anita Sagnotti Laurenzi, Jacques Stany, Luigi Rossi and John Saxon and Van Johnson.

Joan is haunted by dreams of ancient Etruscan ceremonies. One night she receives a frantic phone call from her arcaeologist husband Arthur, informing her of a fantastic find involving an Etruscan tomb. Soon after he turns up dead, with his dead turned facing backwards. Meanwhile, Joan's father Mulligan, is waiting for a special crate Arthur was to deliver. Joan and her assistant Mike, soon head off to Italy to claim her husband's body and is led to the tomb by a mysterious man. She locates a crate full of heroin (her father is actually a drug smuggler) and is soon kidnapped by a gang looking for the drugs. Mulligan follows Joan to Italy and is involved in her rescue. Unfortunately he is killed during the melee, leaving Joan on her own to solve the crime. Everyone who comes in contact with her are soon found with their necks twisted around. She teams up with Paolo, a local archaelogist and together they locate the tomb's central burial chamber. The killer is also there and before he can kill Joan, she is saved by a mysterious figure (we only see his huge hands) who gives the murderer a taste of his own medicine.

Unlike the other Giallo directed by Martino with Scorpion in the title, this film comes no where close to that film's majesty. The Scorpion With Two Tails is mainly a crime/revenge film with the red herring of an "Etruscan" maniac possibly on the loose. Much like Armando Crispino's The Etruscan Kills Again, it's merely a plot device to hide the really boring concept of an all too human adversary. The film also appears to be a schizo affair (rumor has it that this film was originally a TV miniseries) as halfway into the film, most of the supporting cast is killed off and a brand new one introduced. Elvire Audray (star of Mario Gariazzo's entry into the Cannibal sweepstakes, Amazonia/White Slave) gets points for handling a pile of maggots, but she has microscopic appeal as a character. John Saxon & Van Johnson have little more than cameo appearances,and seem to have showed up just long enough to cash their paychecks. Paolo Malco (NY Ripper) and Claudio Cassinelli help out at the film's climax, but by then, it's too late. The score by Fabio Frizzi is comparable to the work he was doing on Fulci's The Beyond and Fear in the City of the Living Dead, which makes the fact that he also lifted huge portions of those films' scores for this effort, all the more disappointing. The true failing of this film was the decision to make it more of a crime film rather than a horror one. That's not what fans of this genre want to see.

http://www.eurotrashcinema.com/