Carlo Ausino — Charles Austin — started his directing and writing career with La città dell’ultima paura, which he followed with Double Game, which also has Annarita Grapputo in the cast. As you can guess, it got this title when released in other countries, as it’s called La Villa Delle Anime Maledette (The Villa of the Cursed Souls) in Italy.

In 1955, two men are fighting. One kills the other with a knife, then a woman grabs the knife and stabs the killer. She runs into a cemetery where she’s dragged into a grave by a demon’s hand. This is called how to start a movie in a great way.

Years later, her daughter Elisa (Grapputo, who is also in Magnum Cop and Like Rabid Dogs) is at a seance when she hears her dead mother warn her to never go to the villa.

So she goes to the villa.

That’s because she and her cousins Bruno (Fausto Lombardi) and Tony (Antonio Campa) inherit the place and are told they can never sell it or rent it. They have to keep on the caretaker (Paul Teitcheid), and all move in. Bruno even brings his wife Sonia (Ileana Fraia, The Killer Nun), who is the first to die when she’s hit by a car. At this point, both Bruno and Tony realize that they’re in an Italian exploitation movie and decide to have sex with their cousin, who is a virgin. Not at the same time. I mean, they may be incestual, but they have some morality. Well, not Bruno, who has to have a heir and who always believed it was his wife’s fault he didn’t have a child, so he tries to assault Elisa, who has learned that she’s of the seventh generation cursed by the house, thanks to a diary.

While all that’s happening, the lawyer who read the will has a secretary who used to be his lover named Martha (Beba Loncar, Interrabang) who is also a student of the occult. When her lover Ugo (Jean-Pierre Aumont, Cauldron of Blood) dies, she also comes to the villa.

There’s also a giallo killer wandering outside, as well as lots of fog inside. I have no idea what the curse on Elisa was other than she’s in a haunted house. Then again, this has a great tagline, “Ashes to ashes, dust to dust — but not for long!” As you can see, that also sounds good and makes no sense. Maybe that’s why I like this movie. It’s an Italian Gothic, which means it’s probably not going to be logical and this movie just totally overachieves on that.

I love this movie but you’re probably going to hate it.

You can watch this on Tubi.