Horrorfest 2017: Slaughter Hotel

Quentin Tarantino is probably the filmmaker working today, or any other time, most vocal about the importance of his influences and most known as an artist who uses his influences to help fuel his creativity. With that in mind, I was interested to check out a couple of his horror favorites. On the other hand, I'm aware he leans towards the realm of exploitation (like Eli Roth), so I was prepared for his favorites to suck.

And boy do they! First on the list is SLAUGHTER HOTEL. You might think this 1971 slasher from Italy (directed by Fernando Di Leo) is about a hotel where people are slaughtered, but you'd be wrong. There's no hotel in the movie! Instead, it's an insane asylum for well off women. Most of the women are not insane, though – unless you count INSANE WITH LUST. Seriously.

Anyway, someone in a mask and a cape is murdering the patients. Since Klaus Kinski is the only big name in the movie, you think it might be him. You also might think, "Hey, he's a good actor, this can't be all bad," but again you'd be sadly mistaken.

I kept myself engaged for keeping an eye out for anything Tarantino might have grabbed for himself and used in his bag of tricks. Just when I was giving up home, a scene came along where one of the patients (Jane Garrett) dances with one of the nurses (Monica Strebel). In this scene, the patient's dance moves are clearly the inspiration for Uma Thurman's famous twist embellishments in PULP FICTION. So the movie has that going for it, which is nice.