Night of the Skull (1974) (Spain)

aka Night of the Assassins 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Jess Franco gets his lovely trash-stained hands on the plot of a German krimi in this Spanish made murder mystery. When well-off Lord Archibald is murdered, a group of greedy and sleazy folks are gathered in his manor for the reading of the will. His abused daughter (the lovely Lina Romay) is left everything and the shafted parties are not happy. This doesn’t last when it is revealed there is more family arriving and another will is found in London. Adding to the confusion, a hooded and skeleton-masked stalker is knocking off the party in ways prophesied in something called The Book of the Apocalypse. Twists upon twists complicate the plot and it seems everyone may be hiding something, even the brilliant Scotland Yard inspector who has come to assist a local detective by the name of Bore. The women are lovely, the mustaches are full, Lina Romay gets whipped by her drunk stepmother, and a séance leads to murder in this often overlooked Franco romp. It’s an endearing time which hits most of the right notes to fit into that comfortable level of innocent-ish Eurosleaze.