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Too much of everything

Powerful

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Excellent but underrated film

Amando de Ossorio's "The Loreley's Grasp" is a nice mix of art and exploitation, a flavourful and atmospheric tale of a legend proving to be all too real. In Germany, a horrible reptilian beast is on the loose and tearing out hearts from assorted victims. A girls' school hires rugged hunter Sigurd, played by studly Tony Kendall, to act as security guard and beast slayer. However, the beast also takes on a human form, played by the ravishing Helga Line, and Sigurd finds himself drawn to her, even as he sets off sparks with uptight professor Elke (Silvia Tortosa).De Ossorio, best known for the "Blind Dead" series, does a bang up job with this entertaining terror tale, which has an old fashioned sort of story but is set in modern times. This blend of old and new is another element that makes this irresistible, and contrasting each other are the variations in the music score; sometimes it's funky psychedelic stuff, sometimes it's ethereal stuff with mournful chanting on the soundtrack. Adding an interesting touch is the presence of a scientist (Angel Menendez) who's determined to put an end to the legend using scientific means.The cast does good work, especially Line, who would be hard to resist for most any man. The monster itself is especially creepy, and commendably, we never get too good a look at it, but bits and pieces and brief flashes. We also get some juicy bits of gore as the hearts are ripped out, and there is absolutely no shortage of smoking hot young ladies to ogle; the character of Martha is particularly luscious.One thing that really makes this film work is its aura of sadness as the relationship between Sigurd and Loreley plays out; the ending is quite poetic. This film comes highly recommended to any fan of European genre cinema.Eight out of 10.

In a small town by the Rhine river young women are being savagely butchered by having their hearts ripped out. Macho hunter Sirgurd (nicely played by the hunky Tony Kendall) is hired by the faculty of an all girls school to find and dispose of the killer, which turns out to be a lethal, but alluring sea siren of local legend called the Lorelei (exquisitely embodied by the stunningly gorgeous redhead knockout Helga Line). Director Amando De Ossorio relates the compellingly offbeat story at a steady pace, does an expert job of creating and maintaining a spooky atmosphere, and stages the brutal murder set pieces with ferocious panache. Moreover, the grimly serious tone, Miguel Fernandez Mila's striking, picturesque cinematography, the nasty'n'ugly monster, a bevy of beautiful babes (Betsabe Ruiz is especially delectable as an ill-fated bride), the breathtaking coastal scenery, Anton Garcia Abril's eerie, yet lush and melodic score, the solid acting from a capable cast (the lovely Silvia Tortosa gives a fine performance as uptight Professor Elke Ackerman while Luis Barboo essays the role of the Lorelei's sadistic guardian Alberic with fiendish relish), and plenty of grisly gore further enhance the overall sound quality of this fun and worthwhile fright feature.

"The Lorelei's Grasp" is sadly hard to find at the moment. The awful re-release "When The Screaming Stops" makes a mockery of the heart of the film, dressing it up as drive-in trash. In it's original version, it's still a bit cheesy, but I think it's a pretty good horror film. The plot centres on beautiful girls at an exclusive school who are being terrorised by a killer...some of the girls are already dead and so the school calls on the help of a handsome bodyguard called Sirgurd to protect the rest of them. Sirgurd has his hands full as all the schoolgirls soon develop a crush on him, but he also has to work out who is responsible for the gruesome murders.Although the English version has terrible dubbing and most available versions are bootleg copies with a poor picture, it's possible to see that there is a good film hiding in here somewhere. The Lorelei creature itself is a bit hokey, but it doesn't hold back on the violence, with lot's of gory chest ripping shots(the Lorelei likes to rip people's hearts out). It also features some beautiful actresses of the period, notably Silvia Tortosa as the heroine, and the fabulous Helga Line as the mysterious beauty who seems connected with the murders somehow. It also has a poetic ending of sorts, and a great dreamy musical soundtrack. This film could gain a lot more appreciation if it was given a re-mastered DVD release. As they have recently done a make-over for the director Amando De Ossorio's "Blind Dead" series, maybe this one could be next?

This may not be as good as D'Ossorio's atmospheric and grotesque BLIND DEAD series, but it's also light-years ahead of his execrable DEMON WITCH CHILD. Supposedly based on a German folk legend, WHEN THE SCREAMING STOPS deals with a murderous rampage by the Lorelei, a female were-lizard with a penchant for ripping out human hearts. She sets her sights on a girl's school--where all the pupils are beautiful, of course--and the carnage begins. The authorities call in one of your Great White Hunter types to stop the slaughter. He's supposed to be great, but he's not so competent that a few more bodies don't fall before the end. He also has a lack of fashion sense that's amazing even for the early 1970s. The issue is not so much whether he'll be seduced by the Lorelei in her fetching human form as whether she'll die laughing at the sight of his tacky striped pants. In American tapes you could always tell when somebody was about to get shredded because the screen would turn red for a few seconds before each murder. Add hit-or-miss gore effects and the usual lousy dubbing and you're in for a real fun time.