Il fantasma di Sodoma (1988 Video) User Reviews

Who Makes The Nazis?

[Bezenby · 5/10 · 11 December 2016]

Who makes the Nazis? I'll tell you who makes the Nazis.

All the Os. Lucio. Who makes the Nazis? Not-bad movie.

Who makes the Nazis? Mugging Smirk actors. Haunted house antics. All the ghosts.

Who makes the Nazis? Fulci's a long gone...long gone breed. Long gone...long gone breed.

Remember when I used make great films babe? Before I was laid low with diabetes?

Who makes the Nazis? House with Nazi spirits. Who makes the Nazis? Lost tourist in jeeps, laughing. Who makes the Nazis? This film is real weird. Real Johnson Allan, Joe. Joe is as good as gold. And all the ghosts in the Nazi hotel. The real mould.

AL CLIVER'S COBWEB EYES!

Who needs the Nazis? Bad-ass movie? Rai-Uno, Shirley Jackson, haunted police.

Italian directors are a long gone, long gone breed, long gone, long gone breed.

Who makes the Nazis? Not bad Movie? Here's a word from Ful-ci:

"When you're out of horror, just give them real boobs. Mattei's not your enemy, Argento's your enemy. At least I don't murder bush monkeys (like Umberto Lenzi)."

Long gone, long gone breed. Who Makes the Nazis?

Di-dit-dit-dit. Dit-dit-dititititit.

So - Late eighties Italian horror time again, and the same old premise as Graveyard Disturbance, House of Lost Souls, House of Clocks, Ghosthouse etc etc. Bunch of youngsters end up in haunted house and are terrorised on a really low budget. This is a late era Fulci film too so you can throw logic right out the window.

Negatives are the crappy story, crappy pacing, lack of gore and stupid ending. Positives are Al Cliver as a coke snorting Nazi having a chug during the orgy at the start of the film! It's also got Joseph Allan Johnson in it from House of Lost Souls (love that one), Berzerker and Slumber Party Massacre. He gets to act drunk and play Russian roulette in this one, so that's a plus.

Other pluses are the avalanche of boobs in just about every scene and Fulci's bizarre take on what constitutes a horror movie that basically plagues his last six or seven films. Doctors recommend that you don't think about the plots of this, Demonia, Cat in the Brain, House of Clocks, Touch of Death and especially Sweet House of Horrors as they will cause permanent brain damage. I've watched all of these and there nothing me watched these all me wrong. You won't catch me with my trousers! This is on YouTube so you can watch it for free anyway. Not sure what the score would have been if I'd forked out cash for this.

This just makes me sad

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 27 February 2018]

There's a scene in A Cat in the Brain where Fulci directs a Nazi orgy like a deranged madman. The results are what opens Sodoma's Ghost, as a group of Nazi deserters and prostitutes are at play while Willy films the proceedings. Everyone dances to strange jazz music and claps their hands while watching films of the war, then the bombs fall. When you combine this intriguing beginning with a great movie poster, you can see why I picked Sodoma's Ghost for a 3:25 AM viewing.

Years later, six American students - Mark, Paul, John, Anne, Celine and Maria - are traveling to Paris when they find the house we just saw in the opening. It's abandoned but fully furnished, and by fully furnished, I mean it's packed with all sorts of pornography on the walls. And oh yeah. It's also duly appointed with Nazi ghosts.

Also, there is a flea market here, the Rossi Pop Up Market, that used to be a movie theater. You walk from theater to theater, some of which are turned into stores and some of which I am certain are now places where hoarders live during the week. This Nazi house looks like one of those theaters, with the seats all ripped out and a man in rags ready to surprise you as you search for old DVDs and only find his collection of old bags of Wonder Bread and stacks of old copies of Grit.

Is it politically correct of me to say that I would like to think that sex-crazed Nazis would have had better taste in decoration than this?

Also: It's 21 minutes into a Fulci film and no one has lost their eye yet.

That night, Anne sleeps alone in a room when the ghost of Willy returns and slaps her around, bloodying her lip. He then licks the blood off and they have the most awkward kiss ever while the worst background music ever created plays and she bleeds all over the place. Evil Nazi ghost Willy is also a worse kisser than Randy West. He makes her confess that she loves it. She then wakes up all alone again, as it was all just a dream.

Every time the kids try to leave, they get stuck. The roads all lead back to the house. The car breaks down. The police station answers with evil voices. The phones are cut. And then they're locked in the house. As cabin fever sets in, Maria starts to lose her mind.

Mark, drunk and wandering, finds some Nazis playing cards. He joins them only to play Russian roulette for Willy, which he survives and is rewarded with a prostitute. As he starts to touch her, his hands go right through her body and he's covered with blood. He runs away and sees Paul as a Nazi, then tumbled down the steps to his death.

Maria then is seduced by a prostitute - who is also a ghost - who tries to turn her against her girlfriend Anne, who she claims is cheating with Celine. Speaking of Anne, a possessed version of her tries to get with Paul before turning into a corpse. Sex hijinks amongst friends was never this gory. Or ridiculous.

Paul and John find the film of the Nazis as Mark's corpse begins to rot. They play the film and just as the ghosts arrive, the bomb drops again and the screen goes to black.

When everyone wakes up, Mark is back alive and it's all a dream. The teenagers finally drive away, safe from the Nazi menace.

This movie just makes me sad. Anyone but Fulci could have directed it - it's free from the trademark verve and spark of mania that he brought to films where you expected nothing, like Conquest. It's rote and boring, with it's running time feeling way too long. Honestly - any movie packed with Nazi ghosts, sex and violent death should be way more exciting than this.

Very dumb,but entertaining.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 4/10 · 29 February 2004]

Lucio Fulci's "The Ghosts of Sodom" is so dumb that it's very difficult not being at least a little entertained by it.A group of kids arrives at the old Nazi mansion and soon they are haunted by Nazis from the past."The Ghosts of Sodom" must be among the worst films made by Italian horror maestro Lucio Fulci.There is almost none of the Fulci magic left.The film is also pretty boring and filled with unnecessary dialogue.There is plenty of nudity,so if you like them sleazy you won't be disappointed.No gore to speak of apart from some nice shots of decaying corpse.The film is quite rare and hard to find,so if you like Italian horror give it a look.4 out of 10.

THE GHOSTS OF SODOM (Lucio Fulci, 1988) BOMB

[Bunuel1976 · 1/10 · 14 June 2007]

This is another film which stands as the perfect showcase for director Fulci’s sad decline throughout his final years (actually, this is the third such example I’ve watched) and, by extension, that of the popular “Euro-Cult” style.

It opens in 1943 with a (hilarious) orgy at a secluded villa by a group of perverted Nazis, which one of them conveniently films – a sequence which is haphazardly intercut with genuine stock footage of the war. The scene then shifts to the present day with a group of teenagers who happen upon the villa and decide to spend the night there: one of the girls is seduced by the ghost of the amateur film-maker but wakes up to find that, apparently, it was only a dream! The gang departs in the morning but, mistakenly, take a roundabout route which invariably brings them back to the dilapidated villa; this time, they discover that they can’t leave the premises – the phone which was previously working is now dead, and the exits have all been mysteriously blocked! Soon, one of them is engaged in a game of Russian Roulette with the same ghostly Nazi, who even offers him a night with a prostitute if he comes out alive: amazingly, he does but the sexual encounter doesn’t quite go the way he planned! At this, he goes berserk and attacks one of his friends – but falls down a flight of steps and is killed. Later on, the prostitute herself appears to the most hysterical of the girls (who harbors a lesbian affection towards one of her companions) – the older woman shows her her friend making out with the third girl of the group but, when she goes to confront them, finds that it was ‘all in her mind’! Then, it’s the turn of the girl who first met the Nazi to become involved with one of the boys (for whom she had hitherto showed no interest) – but, as soon as he touches her, the girl’s skin starts to come off! Eventually, the gang discovers the reel of footage shot by the Nazis intact and they watch it in an attempt to solve the enigma in which they’ve become unwittingly entangled – this is followed by the Nazis suddenly appearing to break down the doors, an explosion…and, then, the whole gang wakes up from a deep slumber in front of the ruins of the villa in question! Doh!!

The film, then, is a mix of haunted-house horror (involving the typical obnoxious-vacationing-teenagers-getting-lost angle) and Nazisploitation (with the soft-porn elements that this entails) which can, perhaps, best be described as hypnotically bad. While Fulci might have done something with this plot in his heyday, here he’s defeated by a boring cast (though the girls, at least, look good in and out of clothes) and the utterly gratuitous gore mandated by the genre at this juncture (but which the evidently shoestring budget couldn’t hope to satisfy in a convincing manner!).

Needs more sleaze.

[BA_Harrison · 3/10 · 3 November 2008]

During the 'golden age' of Italian gore films (the late 70sÃ-early 80s), director Lucio Fulci was at the top of his game, delivering extreme doses of graphic violence that more or less compensated for his less-than-stellar story lines. By the mid 80s however, the master of outrageous splatter was on something of a downward slide: his Flashdance-inspired giallo Murderock (1984) left fans dissatisfied due to its lack of creative killing; Aenigma (1987), a supernatural revenge tale inspired by De Palma's Carrie, suffered from an awful script that offered several laughable death scenes (including a ridiculous snail attack!); and A Touch of Death (1988), although very gory, proved almost unwatchable thanks to an incomprehensible plot and a few heavy-handed attempts at comedy.

However, worse was still to come: 1988 also saw the release of Fulci's The Ghosts of Sodom, a very weak ghost story that relied heavily on stale genre clichés, used copious amounts of nudity and softcore sex to try and detract from its awful acting and lousy dialogue, and which totally failed to dish out the carnage.

The film opens in a remote French villa during WW2, where a Nazi orgy ends with a bang (literally) when the place suffers a direct hit from an air raid. The action then cuts to the present day, and follows six travellers en route to Paris who stumble upon the (strangely intact) villa after taking a shortcut (I said this movie was clichéd, didn't I?). After opting to spend the night in the old building (which, to their surprise, is fully furnished, has electricity, and offers a great selection of vintage wine in its cellar), the group suffer from a series of terrifying supernatural occurrences that tests their friendship and pushes them to the edge of sanity...

In the right hands (or should that be 'wrong hands'), this tale of debauched sex, ghostly prostitutes, and repressed lesbianism (one of the girls is a closet rug-muncher) could have been a slice of exploitation heaven; Fulci, unfortunately, fumbles the ball, and manages to make his salacious subject matter seem incredibly dull: his sex scenes are not nearly sleazy enough and the horror simply lacks guts. After 85 minutes of mind-numbingly naff Nazi nonsense and ghostly guff, Fulci ends his film with an insipid cop-out finalé, which sees all six friends (even the supposedly dead ones!) escaping with their lives from the (now ruined) building.

Possibly the least entertaining horror film by the director (I still have a few more to watch, but I can't see how they could be any worse), The Ghosts of Sodom is definitely one to avoid.

Sodoma's Ghost

[Scarecrow-88 · 2/10 · 15 April 2009]

American college kids on a trip to Paris, take a detour(..ALWAYS a no-no)down a rural road leading to a French villa which once occupied Nazi soldiers having an orgy with prostitutes, bombed by enemies in WWII. The group fall prey to madness and seemingly supernatural forces as the Nazis, in spirit, return to haunt them. Attempting to get back to the road to Paris, they find themselves driving in circles, leading right back to the villa. Soon, the windows and doors are shut and the group find themselves trapped inside. Spirits begin to appear to certain members when they go to their rooms separately, often manipulated by them. Will they escape or are they doomed forever?

I'm not that crazy about Fulci's beloved zombie films(..except his first one, ZOMBI 2), but one thing they weren't and that was boring. For a good hour, nothing much happens except the characters argue with each other, drink booze, contemplate their difficult situation, some converse with the spirit of a male or female German who have ulterior motives behind their actions, promising pleasure but secretly plotting something else. Fulci never establishes a strong story-line and SODOMA'S GHOST features a rambling series of supernatural occurrences which never quite work. The opening orgy is a deadeningly dull, poorly staged and protracted sequence which fails to even titillate. It's over an hour before the gorehounds who admire Fulci so much get what they seek out when looking for his movies..and even when you get the gore, it's minimal(..one male victim attempts to grab the breasts of a female German ghoul, only to rip apart her deteriorated flesh, eventually confronting a friend, believing he's a Nazi, tumbling down a flight of stairs, crushing his skull at the bottom, and soon his corpse begins to rot with puss oozing from slowly appearing sores and decaying skin). The entire film consists of one uneventful sequence after another, with nothing exciting ever produced. And the ending is yet another "It's all a dream" scenario..yawn. The characters are routine and trite, and their plight you could care less about. I believe even his most ardent admirers would have a hard time defending this misfire. It's one of his raunchier films, but lacks any kind of eroticism whatsoever, as Fulci teases with possible lesbianism(..at least he could've delivered a nice female lovemaking session to spice things up a little, but even here, Fulci couldn't deliver)without executing anything properly. Dreadful movies like this fuel Fulci's critics with proper ammunition. I'm not sure if it was lack of inspiration or funds available, but Fulci doesn't even create an atmosphere in the film, with nothing but boobs to capture your attention or divert your mind from looking at your watch.

A Nazi Atrocity of the Cinematic Kind.

[Flixer1957 · 2/10 · 20 October 2009]

1943: A gang of especially dissolute Nazis drink, snort coke, cavort with some unappealing prostitutes and film the entire sick scene until the Allies attack and ruin the party. (The assault consists of stock footage and ONE explosion from a lesser bomb than this movie. I don't know how I stood the excitement!)

1988: Six typically annoying teen-agers, played by poorly-dubbed actors, arrive at a remote villa that--big surprise--turns out to be the site of the shenanigans mentioned above. One of them is battered and seduced by a Nazi ghost, though she has little to say about it to her friends the next day.

The youngsters try to leave the house and of course find it impossible to do so. They are further beset by a couple of Nazi specters in between long stretches of nothing happening. There are only two notable set-pieces before the lame, lazy finale: a prolonged eye-candy scene involving a topless, mega-breasted teen and a female succubus, and a murder victim's corpse putrefying before his friends' eyes.

Like most of Fulci's later work, this has none of the atmosphere or memorable characters found in his early horrors. The minimal gore is totally uninspired and unenthusiastic this time out. I can't believe this picture was directed by the same guy who gave us ZOMBIE, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD and THE BEYOND.

When it comes to "NW" (Nazi Whorehouse) pot-boilers, this ranks as one of the worst. Next to SODOMA'S GHOST, trash like HELL TRAIN starts to look good, and David Friedman's LOVE CAMP 7 just looks better than ever.

I took fun while watching this

[Hellraiser-1 · 8 December 2002]

I have seen here some bad reviews about this, but I think this was quite funny and some special effects are quite effective. Some people prefer the first movies made by Fulci such as "House by the cemetery" but instead I like more some of the last such as this or "Aenigma" which was also quite interesting, so if you are a fan of B horror movies, take a look at this, it is at least funny.

Trapped in the haunted brothel ... with Willy the Nazi!

[Coventry · 5/10 · 10 November 2020]

Yours truly right here is a massive Lucio Fulci fan, so don't expect for a second that I'll be tearing this film to little shreds through harsh criticism, like the vast majority of other reviewers did. Of course, I also realize that "Sodoma's Ghost" isn't the legendary director's finest piece of work, but what I mostly saw was great potential and a handful of really excellent sequences!

The basic premise, for starters, is great. The restless ghosts of Nazi-scum, who died in a French brothel because their perverted & drunken orgy distracted them too much from an approaching air raid, terrorize six vacationing teenagers after they got lost taking a detour. At least it's not another boring Naziploitation flick, and it differs from the familiar 80s concept of dumb teens getting bumped off by your average type of indestructible killer in a mask! There are also a few terrifically suspenseful sequences, notably the ones involving the uncanny Aryan ghost-Nazi Willy. The bedroom scene where Willy seduces the sensual Anne is quite moody, and the Russian Roulette card-game he plays with Mark is genuinely nail-biting (albeit slightly overlong). Also, and in spite of this being a modest TV-production, there's a great bit of typical Fulci gore in the form of a gradually decaying corpse at the bottom of the stairs at the villa.

Granted, the screenplay is hopelessly ramshackle and incoherent. Most of the acting performances are abominable, all the sleazy footage - particularly the extended Nazi orgy at the beginning - is disgustingly unsexy, and too many sequences are pointless and boring. Quite frankly, I can accept all those flaws, but the one thing I found truly unforgivable is the lame ending. Yes, it's a TV-movie and I reckon they have certain rules, but this climax is extremely anti-Fulci. Can't believe I'm saying this, but "Sodoma's Ghost" is probably one of the rare films that could benefit from a remake. A truly unhinged R-rated remake, of course, with a more vile gore and a merciless ending.

Fulci's art died before him

[revival05 · 2/10 · 13 February 2010]

I think it all boils down to passion and driving force, the key thing that made Lucio Fulci the unique director he was and many of his movies absolutely fabulous. I can't really think of any director in the history of cinema who was so much about commitment and motivation. Maybe Edward D. Wood Jr, and that's an interesting comparison. While Fulci went straight on, seemingly against any possible sensibility and good advice, he had a style and a vision and an inner logic that somehow made it all work, albeit not for neither a traditional mainstream nor art-house crowd, whereas the same thing drove Edward D. Wood Jr to becoming known as the worst director of all time. It is a strange fine line though, because Ed Wood could certainly have made Sodoma's Ghost.

When Lucio Fulci made movies he didn't just make a movie, it seems to me. With a history of both medical school and art criticism, I imagine him as this Leone-tempered butcher with a knack for art and a mind that's all happy trigger. The kid is going to get his brains drilled out, don't ask questions, it's not over the top! What do you mean you can't puke out your intestines!! I say it so it must be so! His creativity seems to have been radically set at random, he could to the silliest movies and still squeeze in some kind of more or less profound message and he could jump into whatever project that seemed reasonably interesting. Murder to the tune of the seven notes, "that sounds great! I want to make that movie!" Of course, when he pulled it all together, he made movies that, apart from being simply awesome, also totally challenge how we label art and genre in cinema. The Beyond for instance, is simply a great movie, but I can't really label it as anything else; A wonderful movie that could only have been created by a very specific and unique vision, executed with passion and driving force. And that was Fulci's trade and that's the reason that most of his movies are interesting, entertaining or at least positively watchable, if you appreciate him.

That is also the reason why Sodoma's Ghost is a tragedy to watch. I don't know all that much about Fulci's life, so I can't speculate too much, but obviously he went downhill during the 90's and, if you follow the reasoning I presented just now, it must have been a mental fallback as well. Fulci's career was that of an explorer's and it seems logical that after being done with horror he could have ventured off into something else. True, all his later movies are more interested in more or less classical Gothic motifs, but it just isn't strong enough. Specially in the case of Sodoma's Ghost, which has got to be Fulci's weakest effort, and this is the key word here, 'weak'. On paper, Sodoma's Ghost has every chance to be a great Fulci movie. A nazi ghost in a cursed house infiltrates the minds of a bunch of kids on the road, making their own weakness their doom. It paves the way for his trademark pessimism, the eerie surrealism, clever gore and the classic Fulci theme of the human eyeball and "who sees what". I can even accept the hokey ending, which I won't give away. And once in a while, we are talking seconds or bare minutes of film, a splinter of a good thing appears. The first sequence is the only true good scene in the movie, but there are others involving our charismatic nazi ghost that float somewhere around the interest mark, but it never becomes worthwhile because you can so strongly sense the movie being simply dead.

I never thought I'd have to say this about a Fulci movie, but the actors and their dialogs are crap. Who are these people? Maybe acting in Fulci movies in general isn't more "bad" than "melodramatic", but the people in front of the camera in Sodoma's Ghost look like random people picked up on the street. They read lines and make one or two attempts at acting, but what's worse is that Fulci has not given an attempt to make this movie worthwhile for anybody. "It's almost dark" the kids say upon arrival to the house, yet it's obviously daylight! They can't escape from the house - because they just can't! When the characters talk, you find that you barely comprehend the words they are saying, as said by these actors, because it is so stale and rudimentary that you begin to wonder if you shouldn't clean the house instead. One of the kids lay dead on the floor, the others mourn him. Minutes later they are cracking jokes by his corpse, which by the way is magically starting to fry. For a good part of the movie he lies around, they pass him and should see his oozing corpse, but not until they have to do they see his gory presence laying there in plain sight.

There is not a single eyeball zoom-in in Sodoma's Ghost, and while some might think that is fan bigotry, I think it really is just an example of dead passion, or a way of thinking that this really isn't a Fulci movie at all. In fact, it ain't much of a movie at all! It consists of scenes, yes, but I think Sodoma's Ghost is more recorded data than a proper movie. There is not any point of reference given to make anybody understand the coherence of it, not in theme nor in plot, and as a director Fulci comes off as a dying animal in this movie. The shots seem barely finished, the movie barely cut together and you know, on a pure quality level, Bruno Mattei did better movies than this.

Bizarre story. Could have been better. Poor Lucio...

[hkchris · 2/10 · 6 July 2000]

Sure, Lucio wasn't the same in his later years. But "The Ghosts of Sodom" had potential. A few twenty-something kids get lost, they find an old house, the house was used by the Nazi's, etc... The camera work in the beginning is very dizzying. The whole thing just looks very cheap. But it's still better than most of Fulci's later films. It also has gratuitous amounts of sex and nudity. The ending is particularly bizarre. Perhaps the script was partially finished or they ran out of money. Needless to say, one character dies and is miraculously alive by the time the credits roll. This is a very hard film to summarize. Probably worth seeing once.

More comedic than horrifying

[sharrison-1 · 9/10 · 28 February 2002]

Well, I was actually one of the actors in this movie. I am not in the habit of criticizing anyone or anything - especially when it reflects negatively on me! I was enthusiastic when I learned I had been chosen for the role but when I got the script, I never got passed the first half. When I got on the set, I realized that nobody else but myself and another actor could actually speak English so I basically had the luxury of improvising my entire lines - which couldn't have been as bad as the intended ones by the way. Although shot in 1988, I only mustered up the guts to watch this film in 2001...I think even that was premature now that I've seen it! Anyway, if you expect to even remotely jolted - you've got the wrong flick! I personally found it quite funny at times! Nothing happens, yet the actor's reaction shots would have you believe that the worst atrocity just occurred. You're left thinking, "what happened, did I blink? Maybe I need to rewind...!" Anyway, if you want some gore, check out "White Apache" dir. by Bruno Mattei. I'm in that one too by the way - playing the White Apache. Sebastian

Many flaws, but entertaining fare.

[Snake-666 · 6/10 · 30 September 2004]

In an all-too-familiar scenario, a group of teenagers traveling in Europe discover an isolated villa and choose to stay there overnight, unaware of the mansion's dark, war-time past.

Italian filmmaker, Lucio Fulci, ventures into the realms of Nazi-exploitation with this crudely produced, yet strangely entertaining, obscure, low-budget film. 'The Ghosts of Sodom' begins in a typically sleazy manner, with a short portrayal of a drug-laden Nazi party of debauchery being filmed by one member of the party who we will soon come to know as Willy (Robert Egon). Despite the pseudo-eroticised nature of the opening segment, the sequence soon takes a rather unpleasant, repellent tone before the cut-shot quickly transports the viewer back to the present day. It is here that we are introduced to the main characters and, rather characteristic of a Fulci film, these characters remain underdeveloped throughout and seemingly have no individual personality. This is an unfortunately consistent flaw with a large number of Fulci's movies but more so with this film. Despite a few brief instances, the majority of lines in the film could have been spoken by any one of the six main characters. Sadly, this rather glaring fault is coupled with numerous instances of wholly pointless and asinine dialogue.

However, this is not to say that 'The Ghosts of Sodom' is an entirely bad movie. In fact, for a production of this type, it is a rather accomplished piece of film-making. Fulci utilises a beautiful, enchanting soundtrack in a professional, productive way to create a dynamic, dramatic and foreboding atmosphere when coupled with the astonishingly gloomy, despairing and mesmerising visual elements that had become one of his trademarks. Although there are only a few gory shots to satisfy those viewers who have become accustomed to Fulci's often-excessive usage of gore, one should be able to appreciate that the erotic and supernatural elements of the film provide the fodder here. Unfortunately, the rather slow-pace and often empty, prolonged instances of tedium can certainly subtract from the viewing enjoyment and distract the viewer from appreciating the more intricate and important plot-aspects; a true concern as the story is far from enormously intricate. However, in reality, how many similar films do not suffer from these same problems?

One can appreciate this film for the superb, atmospheric presentation if they are able to ignore the predictability, plot/character flaws and kitsch of the whole production. Despite the somewhat inane storyline (although adequate for the production) and often-ridiculous scripting of the movie, one can certainly waste eighty minutes on films far poorer than this. 'The Ghosts of Sodom' is quite simply Nazi-exploitation with a supernatural twist which, in places, is full of tension with the 'Russian Roulette' sequence being the absolute peak of heart-pounding suspense. Fans of Fulci's other films may be disappointed, but fans of the sub-genre may find various things to like about this film despite the movie not being as explicit as other movies of its type. My rating for 'The Ghosts of Sodom' - 6½/10.

Comic

[El Pez · 2/10 · 1 June 2000]

I thought Fulci was a master of Italian horror, or so I heard, therefore I was surprised when I discovered that this was one of his movies. The story lacks in originality. It's full of all the stereotypes of the genre: a haunted house, a group of teenagers, the hysteric girl, the tough guy who always keeps cool and the stupid one who inevitably troubles things up. All these ingredients are mixed without logic, especially at the end. The results are comic, not terrifying. I saw it with a group of friends and we couldn't stop laughing!

Boring trash

[Phroggy · 23 March 1999]

This one is extremely inept, and Fulci has lost everything that was his style. Nothing makes sense in this classical haunted-house story chock-full of "Dumb-teenagers-gets-killed" clichés. Avoid it.

boring and senseless; interesting title

[bloodshed666 · 1/10 · 29 July 2004]

definitely one of the last and very bad attempts from lucio fulci to come up to his heights in the 70ies & early 80ies. very poor, one of his poorest films. makes me a little sad because I really love this man and find movies like don't torture a duckling, the smuggler, zombie flesh eaters, the beyond, house by the cemetery & paura really big masterpieces.

the whole script doesn't fit, many things just don't make sense, no gore, no suspense, not thrilling,... - and man, this ending, just a big joke - I am pretty sure they run out of money or time, must be... but why I am commenting is because I find the title very interesting. "the 120 days of sodom" is a book by the marquise de sade and pier-paolo passolini in his similar named movie "saló - the 120 days of sodom" set the story and some excerpts of dante to the nazi-occupied salo in italy 1943 to show the continuity of sexually orientated torture in situations of superiority and dictatorship. could be that all this inspired fulci to a story of orgiastic nazi-ghosts coming back terrorising some kids with sex & violence and giving the movie the title "the ghosts of sodom".

Bad But Good

[Tweetienator · 4/10 · 10 December 2020]

Il fantasma di Sodoma (Sodoma's Ghost) is for sure not Fulci's finest moment but entertaining in a cheesy and nostalgic way. Recommended only for the die-hard Fulci adepts or for those chosen few that are on the quest to watch everything he was involved with.

Kitschy camp

[nick121235 · 5/10 · 24 April 2019]

That German soldier is so sexy. In the same way that excessive female nudity can make or break a movie for you straight sleaze fans, watching this sexy nazi guy brings this movie up a notch for me... because unfortunately, otherwise it's not extremely entertaining. Very kitschy, it comes off like an R-rated version of an episode of Freddy's Nightmares- although judging by some of the dialogue, referencing both kitsch and b- movies, that seems to have been the intent. Regardless, it's sometimes entertaining but always makes me cringe. Definitely not one of Fulci's best but still more coherent and unified than films like Aenigma and Zombi 3. One thing I really enjoyed was the presence of a main ensemble of standard slasher characters- you know the kind, ones with no personality that you're just waiting to get picked off one by one. Which is why I feel like if he'd written this as more of a regular slasher with a paranormal twist instead of making heavy use of the supernatural aspect this could have been more entertaining. When all's said and done, this is still a fun film, even with its numerous drawbacks and i'd probably watch it again- this time with a couple bottles of wine.

doesn't start too badly

[christopher-underwood · 4/10 · 10 March 2014]

A late Fulci with much adverse criticism, surely it can't be that bad, I thought. Well, actually, it doesn't start too badly. Some sort of nazi orgy which is being filmed, nothing very explicit but diverting, then a long car journey in present day France. Eventually this settles down as a haunted house mystery and some nazi ghosts. There is some blood and gore and much naked flesh but no decent story, no decent dialogue and the only passable acting id by Robert Egon who plays a young nazi soldier. He has a most effective scene early on where the violence, blood and sex work dangerously well together but not once more does this film rise (or should that be sink?) to such a level. Music's awful too but then this is the 80s but 80s or not does not excuse such lazy film making especially when it is so well lit and shot. It's not a terrible idea either and with a bit more care this could have been a pretty potent brew. Shame.

Fulci's re-visitation of Brass Salon Kitty,with its usual great visual style,but a weak script!

[Icons76 · 9/10 · 30 January 2012]

I found some of the reviews left by some other readers excessively negative! Especially if they think the ludicrous "Touch of Death" is better than this one! I agree on a few things: you can certainly see that Fulci's health was sadly deteriorating,especially,by feeling like he hadn't re-wrote parts,or,improve certain implausible situations on set(like he often used to do!) from a script that needed a solid re-work. Some lines, or twists(which are still impressive anyways) of the plots are very contrived, and do not help, especially, in such an ambitious project! In fact i believe real critics' reviews are way more accurate and benign,and not certainly as a form of respect for the Maestro, but,because they clearly seen all to see/understand,the way more complex nature of this movie,and,consequently the way more difficult and specific sense of the execution needed by such material, again,way more brutally haunting and -seriously- demanding,than some of other usual and more formulaic horrors like Aenigma,Zombi 3, or even, of the quite overrated,"Manhattan Baby"! I always thought that the visual style of this film, was always so superior to many other's, and very,very stylish. I know that many may argue that a film is not just mere style and aesthetic's,like brilliant cinematography or very goth and creepy sets, but,i was stunned by,how much Fulci could still achieve with a smaller budget,just by using unique and inventive camera angles,creating horrific SFX's,but even more so,true atmospheres with such a dense,if exploitative, sense of erotic decadence and darkness! It's so obvious to me,How most other directors(Americans,or Italians,too!),having to work with similar string budgets and limitations,would have never been even able to imitate his professionalism by far,or most likely,would have not been able to bring to completion,a real motion picture with all these demands,period! The use of primarily dark blue's and dark red's tones, with gold and purple colors,matching vividly, by being opposed to the black or Noir,"hard boiled" scenario, were incredibly beautiful and artistic,while the use of a Morricone's inspired theme,bringing that 'classic descent to Hell' tone, with some period's influences,were helping greatly to create a tension,just where the script could have not. And,if there are for sure some back holes in story telling, the artistry behind this film, always saves the form and the interest. And so does the cast,in a way. Even though,a few of them,especially some 'of those then famous soft core starlets' just cannot transfer on screen something more convincing (like,let's just say,all the cast in something like Brass' masterpiece "Salon Kitty",1976-a film,that obviously Fulci must have admired very much!-instead could deliver with striking realism, and greater, morbid expressionism) there are here,still, a few great choices,like the handsome leads Aliotti and Sebastian Harrison, or,especially, the wildly ambiguous antagonists,all cult stars,like Domiziano Arcangeli,Zora Kerowa,Al Cliver and Robert Egon,envisioned here,and very cleverly,like a bunch of 'fallen angels',so pale and blond,to look very effectively,like vampires or creatures of the Devil,to better -symbolically- incarnate the tragic decadence of historical and very serious facts,that truly happened.. called Nazism and Holocaust! So,for many different reasons, I found this movie, very interesting to watch,and even with its flaws, a still superior exercise of style, from the always sensational Maestro's Fulci.

An enjoyable if flawed ghost effort

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 8/10 · 19 November 2019]

Taking a trip through Paris, a group of American students stranded in the countryside find shelter in an abandoned villa only to realize the location house a secret Nazi hideout and the ghosts of those killed in a bombing raid are killing them off forcing the group to get away alive.

There's more to like with this one than expected. One of the better elements here is the rather impressive atmosphere created which isn't anywhere near what could've been yet still works well enough here. The massive home, from the elaborate rooms to the kitchen and various lounging areas which by themselves offer a distinctive setting yet when combined with the ever-present Nazi imagery and regalia left lying area gives this some nice atmosphere. By staying in this kind of creepy location, the ghost action has plenty of great work here as not only does the first encounter where the soldier appears and proceeds to slap her around and spread the blood around on the body start this off nicely, but the idea of them realizing they're trapped which includes the circular vehicular gag but the phone trick and the utterly suspenseful card game which may go on a bit too long but scores the best suspense in the film due to the stakes at hand. In addition to the fun factor here, the film also works in some rather enticing sleaze and exploitation featured, as the opening shots of the Nazi party drinking and doing drugs with topless prostitutes while being filmed by a video camera starts the film on a positive note. The continuous lesbian dalliances are just as good as the topless figures tempting and seducing each other, and with the continuous scenes of the girls walking around topless or showing the ghosts tempting them, this creates some fine sleaze. As well as the fine gore when appropriate, these hold the film up over it's few flaws. The main issue here is the fact that the ghosts aren't in the slightest bit threatening as they really don't have much direct action here. The fact that they have them legit trapped inside where they can't get out is a fine setup, yet once they do this they have very little direct contact with any of them and what little of that is there is spent instead on playing elaborate card games or teasing them, which doesn't bode well for those wanting them to be more involved in haunting the group. As well, the clumsy manner of how they get trapped there is somewhat off, and along with the cheap nature of the whole affair old this one down somewhat.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Continuous Nudity, several sex scenes and drug use.

Really Awful Film That Lacks Atmosphere or Anything Else

[Michael_Elliott · 7 July 2016]

The Ghosts of Sodom (1988)

1/2 (out of 4)

The film starts off in 1943 where a group of Nazis are having an orgy when forces drop a bomb on them and kills them. Flash forward to current times when six teenagers get lost and end up at the place that was bomb (somehow it was undamaged). Soon the ghosts of the dead Nazis are seeking vengeance.

THE GHOSTS OF SODOM came from the later period of Fulci's career as well as the very end of the Italian horror boom. Both Fulci and the genre were pretty much dried up during this era and it sadly shows in this awful film. Some have argued that even the classic Fulci titles were mainly gore and perhaps that's true but they also had some energy, atmosphere and style. Those things are all missing from this picture.

The biggest problem is the fact that Fulci is working with very little money and there's just very little that you can actually do. The story itself should have made for a great film as you could have had one grisly death after another. The Naziploitation genre is full of these types of films so something could have been done. However, there's nothing but boring scenes of the teenagers talking about being lost and every once in a while you get some pretty girls taking their clothes off.

Being a Fulci film you'd expect some gore but you'll be disappointed because there is very little. Again, the lack of a budget meant not much could be done with the special effects so we're basically left with nothing. The death scenes are all rather bland and boring and the only saving grace is that the orgy sequence is so bad that you can laugh at it. THE GHOSTS OF SODOM should have been so much more but sadly it's just proof that the genre and director were at the end.