In the 1987 Italian film Specters, Donald Pleasence plays Professor Lasky. Lasky is investigating the catacombs underneath Rome. When he discovers a previously unknown tomb, he speculates that it may be the final resting place of a Roman emperor who was sacrificed to a pagan god by his own subjects. Lasky says that Roman historians tried to cover up the existence of the emperor because it was simply too scandalous to admit that he had been killed by the very people over whom he ruled. Now Lasky might have proof of his existence. But at what cost?
The main reason I watched Specters was the presence of Donald Pleasence. Unfortunately, as was often the case with Pleasence’s post-Halloween films, he doesn’t really get to do much in Specters. He appears in a handful of scenes, and he’s just as intense as always. Rather than being excited about the possibility of having made a major discovery, he seems rather worried about why the tomb was so well hidden in the first place. Pleasence brings his trademark intensity to the role. As always, it’s a joy to listen to the slightly unhinged timbre of his voice. That said, it’s hard not to wish that Pleasence had been given a bigger and more active role. John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness, which was released the same year, showed that Pleasence was still capable of being a compelling actor when given the opportunity.
Instead, Specters is largely about Professor Lasky’s assistant, Marcus (John R. Pepper), and his girlfriend, Alice (Trine Michelsen). Alice is an actress shooting a horror movie in Rome, and Specters actually has a fairly clever sequence in which a scene of Alice being chased turns out to be a scene from the movie she’s shooting. For the most part, Alice just wants Marcus to stay home so they can have sex. Unfortunately, Marcus keeps getting called back to the catacombs. The one time they do have sex, we discover that Marcus has an incredibly hairy back, and it kind of ruined the mood for me. I will say that, as someone who owns over a hundred nightshirts, I was jealous of Alice’s collection. The nightshirt with all the months listed on it was to die for.
Opening the tomb releases an evil force in Rome. Lasky and his assistants are targeted, but occasionally the evil force seems to go after anyone who happens to be around. It’s not a particularly well-defined evil force, which occasionally makes the film effective. There’s a scene involving a suddenly erudite beggar that’s actually rather creepy. The film makes frequent use of a wind machine. Whenever the evil force is floating around, a big wind starts up and doors and windows are thrown open or slammed shut. At one point, Alice sinks into a bed, and we’re left to wonder if Freddy Krueger was sealed up in the tomb.
It’s a confusing film, one made up of multiple set pieces that don’t always seem to go together. The incoherence is not necessarily a bad thing. Fulci’s Beyond trilogy and Argento’s Inferno both showed that Italian horror cinema often benefits from dream logic. The main problem is that, with the exception of the underused Donald Pleasence, none of the characters are really interesting enough to hold our attention. The Beyond trilogy benefited from the presence of likable actors like Catriona MacColl and David Warbeck. Inferno may not have always made sense, but Argento was smart enough to populate his dreamscape with people like Daria Nicolodi, Irene Miracle, and Leigh McCloskey. (McCloskey may not have been the greatest actor, but his stolid presence grounded the film.) Specters just feels like a random assemblage of scenes that don’t really belong together. There are a few effective moments, but they don’t add up to much.
That said, it is always good to see Donald Pleasence. And Rome, as always, is lovely.
