Hunchback of the Morgue (1973) (Spain)

aka Rue Morgue Massacres 

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Our boy Naschy is a dimwitted hunchback by the name of Gotho who spends his days being abused by many a villager, working in the local morgue and bringing flowers to a terminally ill girl he harbors a case of the heart eyes for. She does seem to be one of the few people that doesn’t treat him like a plague-covered turd. When she dies and ends up on the slab, old hunch-hunk loses his shit and kills the morgue employees attending to her corpse (well, they are being super dickheads) and flees with her body to the underground catacombs he frequents. Naturally, the police are after the poor guy due to him disappearing along with the corpse after the murders and a followup murder of some dickhead who was rude to Gotho and insulted the lady he loves. Fortunately, our “hero” seeks the aid of a doctor he’s familiar with and said man of science offers to bring his lady love back from the dead if he assists him in gathering fresh body parts and allows him to work on his experiments in Naschy’s underground dwelling. Obviously, this scientist is of the mad variety and everything is about to go to Hell in a hand basket. Dr. Orla has created some sort of abomination that feeds on flesh and continues to grow with each meal. Of course, a sexy psychiatrist falls for the hunchback and when she is placed in mortal danger, this convinces Gotho that whatever nonsense the doctor is getting into is no damn good. What with all the murder and imprisonment, I tend to agree that Orla is a right bastard. There’s a vat of sulfuric acid, a women’s penitentiary (super fresh bodies!), whipping, foot kissing, an iron maiden, torch-lit catacombs, a crying hunchback and a healthy amount of gore. Think of it like a gothic love story but with untreated syphilis and you’ll be on the right wavelength. It may not sound like it but that’s a compliment. Naschy delivers a strong performance managing to garner sympathy for a murdering hunchback and that’s thanks to Alberto Dalbés (Erotic Rights of Frankenstein and a few other Franco flicks) being pretty deplorable as the sociopath scientist who will do whatever he can for “progress”. There’s rat abuse which i do not condone and there’s also a last-minute big gloopy man… which I definitely condone.