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[ecc]

The Japanese print looks good although there are several obvious pan-scan movements and the enlarging of image to full frame really enhances the grain.  VSOM has/had a letterboxed Spanish version but I've never purchased stuff from them (and it would be a censored version anyway).

[JoseADiego]

I have a strange copy of Spain of a betamax.....

It is not very good copy but better than anything....

Web

http://psychotronickultvideo.blogspot.com/

SALE VIDEOS

http://videoguia.spaces.live.com/

[Johan Melle]

Nice! Cool Spanish cover! Thanks for sharing. But what the heck is that picture on the back of the cover? Doesn't have anything to do with the film itself! Looks like it's from some sort of race driving movie! Haha! 

[JoseADiego]

Nice! Cool Spanish cover! Thanks for sharing. But what the heck is that picture on the back of the cover? Doesn't have anything to do with the film itself! Looks like it's from some sort of race driving movie! Haha! 

JaJaJaJa.....!!!!!!!!!....You have the whole reason....Here in Spain it was very common to make those atrocities....

Thank you for their compliments 


Web

http://psychotronickultvideo.blogspot.com/

SALE VIDEOS

http://videoguia.spaces.live.com/

[Stephen Grimes]

But what the heck is that picture on the back of the cover? Doesn't have anything to do with the film itself! Looks like it's from some sort of race driving movie! Haha! 

Looks like it's from Bitto Albertini's SAFARI RALLY with Marcel Bozzuffi.

[ecc]

Thanks for the screencaps.  It looks like the Spanish one is slightly cropped but also slightly squeezed so it could be unsqueezed slightly and approximate the original scope ratio (like the partially letterboxed squeezed transfers of NIGHT EVELYN CAME OUT OF THE GRAVE and uncovered versions of VAMPIRE'S NIGHT ORGY that Sinister Cinema released long ago).

[ecc]

Here's an old review I wrote about the film and posted at another forum:

Daniela Giordano (THE GIRL IN ROOM 2A, INQUISICION) plays the unfortunately-named Gail Bland, a New York (i.e. Cinecitta) advertising executive invited to Cairo by mysterious client Isis Cosmetics apparently on the basis of her red hair and her resemblance to the goddess Isis. She arrives in Cairo and, after a disorienting cab ride through a local market where a vendor slips her some suspicious cigarettes, finds that no one has heard of Isis Cosmetics. Charming stranger Caleb (William Berger of FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON) lends a sympathetic ear and warns her off of a pair of mysterious siblings (Antonio Cantafora of BARON BLOOD and Krista Nell, attractive despite an awful black wig which makes her look like Pia Degermark’s vampire ancestress in THE VAMPIRE HAPPENING) interested in resurrecting Osiris. A visit to the address provided by Isis Cosmetics turns up nothing and Gail finds it difficult to leave the city (the line to New York is down and there are apparently no planes leaving Cairo for a few days) during which time she allows herself to be shown around by Caleb who relates to her the legend of Isis and Osiris. Apparently, one day Osiris is supposed to return to earth to find his bride (gee, I wonder where this is going). Gail runs into the siblings at a local market where their gang of Osiris-worshipping hippies cause a brawl (cue: falling tents, broken pottery but, surprisingly, no overturned fruit carts which one so often encounters in action scenes set in foreign countries). The siblings invite her to a ritual at a ruined temple dedicated to Osiris that evening. Gail arrives at the temple, smokes pot with the hippies, and witnesses their torture of a young couple caught spying on them. Gail realizes that she is to be sacrificed to Osiris and makes a run for it and is rescued by Caleb. Returning to the city, she becomes paranoid that everyone around her is in on the plot to kill her (she has also discovered that Caleb is not present in any of the photographs she took with him) and retreats to the countryside with Caleb. There, she is kidnapped and brought back to the temple to be sacrificed.

SHADOW OF ILLUSION is a Spanish-Italian co-production directed by Mario Caino (of NIGHTMARE CASTLE, not to be confused with Manuel Cano of SWAMP OF THE RAVENS and VOODOO BLACK EXORCIST though it would be easy to make the mistake as this film feels more akin to the latter films). The film works better as more of a mysterious journey of discovery and mythic parallel rather than as a horror film. As such, it is let down by the conception of Daniela Giordano’s character. So good as the innocent heroine in other films, here she is from the outset uptight and a tad whiny (“But why do I have to go,” she asked upon being told she has been invited to Cairo because her looks have charmed the client). In the English version, she is also dubbed by the familiar Carolyn de Fonseca (Barbara Steele in TERROR CREATURES FROM THE GRAVE, Mariangela Giordano in BURIAL GROUND, Daria Nicolodi in DEEP RED). Her voice is too knowing for such a conceptually naïve character as Gail Bland; try to picture SUSPIRIA’s sassy, serpentine Olga (another de Fonseca dubbing performance – “Mata Hari’s going to file her report”) in this film’s situation and you’ll understand why it’s a bit hard to identify with this character. The mysterious siblings prowl around the periphery of the story for far too long and blatantly more creepy than charming. Berger’s Caleb is suitably charming although he seems just as obsessive about Osiris and Isis as the siblings. On the other hand, the film’s only sense of momentum comes in scenes where he is guiding Giordano’s character through the ruins and the narrative. The climax is, well, predictable and anti-climactic (we do not see what becomes of the siblings) despite the requisite explosions (probably the contribution of uncredited co-producer Frank Agrama whose DAWN OF THE MUMMY ends similarly) but the film closes on a nicely ambiguous note.

Shot in Techniscope by Enrico Menczer (CAT O’NINE TAILS, HOLOCAUST 2000), my reference copy is horrendously panned-and-scanned, so much so that people are cut out of two shots and the cropped frame is sometimes focused on the out-of-focus portion of a rack focus shot long before the focus shifts. The panning (of the telecine, not the original cinematography) is jerky throughout, drawing attention to itself. Previously reviewed in Video Watchdog, this print in English with Japanese subtitles (so its really strange that it was not a letterboxed release) seems to be the only available English-language version and it does not appear to have been released theatrically in the U.S. (how about the UK?). Carlo Savina’s brass-and-Hammond organ score lacks atmosphere until the nicely choreographed and scored sacrificial ritual (drums, sitar, piano, and [I guess] Egyptian flutes). Giannetto de Rossi does the make-up but his work here seems more cosmetic than prosthetic other than some splashes of blood and a cool tattoo worn by the creepy high priestess of Osiris. While this film isn’t as deserving of restoration as some others, a letterboxed release would make more sense of the compositions and might end up being more enveloping than the off-putting cropped version. Still worth checking out.

[Johan Melle]

Nice review!  However, I can't agree that the Carlo Savina score lacked atmosphere - personally I thought it was very agreeable and catchy.

I also think that on the whole I liked the film a tad better than you, but I must say you've managed to pin-point the film's chief flaws.

And I whole-heartedly agree about the Carolyn De Fonseca issue even though I generally like Carolyn. It's not really her fault, though, but rather a bad case of voice mis-casting. Someone like Pat Starke would have been far better suited to voice Giordano's character IMO.

[ecc]

I'd still like to see a widescreen version.

Another flaw that isn't really the fault of the film is that although it was released in 1972, it was shot in either 1969 or 1970 (http://p210.ezboard.com/fthelatarniaforumsfrm7.showMessage?topicID=270.topic) so the imagery is not quite as transgressive as one would expect of a 1970's Italian production compared to one from the late sixties (I know it was a matter of 2 or 3 years).

I've grown a bit more fond of Savina's score from when I first wrote the review but I still think the sacrificial music is far more atmospheric than the main title (which does seem more suited to a late sixties thriller than one released in the seventies).

[robertmonell]

It should be noted that this film is based on the Egyptian Book of the Dead. It's a unique occult thriller with Berger as the modern incarnation of Osiris in search of Isis and having to contend with Seth. If you're up on your ancient mythology the film works on that level also. Unfortunately, it must be seen in Techniscope only, as the 2.35:1 compsitions are by the great Erico Menczer, who fills the format from side to side. So you lose over 50% of the image and much crucical atmsopheric detial and even plot points by seeing the pan & scan. BTW, Krista Nell doesn't play the ugly cultist who freaks out she't the attractive brunette who has the nude lesbian encounter with Giordano in the early fantasy sequence. Needs a proper DVD presentation. One of my 10 best Italian horror films of the 1970s.www.robertmonell.blogspot.com/

[Agraf]

Here's an old review I wrote about the film and posted at another forum:

(...) Still worth checking out.

I disagree! Reviews are never old, because there always people coming late to read them for the first time. For me it was fresh like dairy milk.

And I agree the review is still worth checking out. Oh! You meant the film? OK, then, both are still worth checking out.

[Agraf]

I have a strange copy of Spain of a betamax.....

It is not very good copy but better than anything...

Betamax was also my first video format, and I still sob for the lost war against the much poorer format, VHS, imposed by the massive north-american production.

Thank you very much for the rare video cover art. Someone pointed already that the photo on the back is from a different film, but the worse with your Spanish dubbed copy may be the distortions introduced to the original text...

The title was Le ombre roventi, literally The violent shadows, which is fairly given by the actual title, Shadow of Illusion... People have noted how the film has better fantasy scenes of dellusion (induced by drugs or otherwise), than violence proper. The Spanish title misreads «le ombre» as «hombre», man in Spanish! Therefore, just one more «violent man», instead of a fanatic occultist, eager to lead his people, followers of Osiris, to accomplish a blood ritual in the person of a (supposedly) reincarnated Isis! If the rest of the translation is as bad!...

[ciavazzaro]

Anyone know where i can found it ?
I don't found it even on CG,but maybe i search wrong...

[Snake Plissken]

Wow, this movie looks really interesting, i've never watched anything by Caiano unfortunately...

[R-T-C Tim]

Wow, this movie looks really interesting, i've never watched anything by Caiano unfortunately...

In horror terms, he directed the exquisite Nightmare Castle (1964) which in my opinion is easily a match for the best of the classic gothic horrors and now on a revelation of a DVD from Severin (hopefully 'Shadow of Illusion' might follow suit one day...). Like many Italian directors from that period he worked on a wide range of films, from gialli to crime movies and a few enjoyable Spaghetti Westerns including Il Mio nome è Shangai Joe (1972)