Horror Movie Review: Evil Clutch (1988)

Oh we’re really scrapping the barrel of 80’s horror here. Evil Clutch aka Il Bosco 1 is a 1988 Italian horror film written and directed by Andrea Marfori. A super low-budget horror flick, even the most ardent of 80’s Italian horror will struggle with this one. It’s bad, really bad.

It opens with a woman and man getting sexy with each other in an unknown location. Suddenly a massive tentacle with a claw comes out of her crotch and kills the man brutally. Yes, you read that right.

This woman is a succubus of sorts. She seduces men and devours them with her crotch claw.

A couple on vacation are unfortunate enough to run into her. She makes out that she was being chased by a man so they help her out and take her to a nearby village. There, a local man recognises her forcing her to flee.

Get ready for some serious exposition as this man goes into elaborate detail about the local area, monsters and how to summon them. It’s mind-numbing to watch and hear, one of the few times you’ll wish the horrible night filming was present just so you didn’t have to experience it all.

A really difficult to film to watch. Not just because of how rubbish it looks but how confused the plot is.

When the couple end up running into the succubus again, things start to get really strange but better. They hike with her into the mountains and get bombarded with some really wacky stuff. We’re talking zombies (kind of), a mental cuckoo clock, lots of goo, blood and demonic transformations. Oh, and of course the crotch claw. The effects aren’t the worst and the constant darkness hides most of their issues but they’re hardly worth getting excited about.

It’s all a bit Evil Dead. If Evil Dead was made for even less money, had worse actors and was set in Italy.

That probably sounds fun but it’s not. It’s really boring for most of its runtime and is filmed so poorly with minimal lighting, when things do ramp up, it’s hard to care.