Emmanuel spits on your graves. SINOPSIS: Sonya, a middle-aged woman, agrees to the proposal of the elderly widower Alfredo. However, their relationship unexpectedly interferes with the daughter of a man Elena, experiencing her potential stepmother is not daughter feelings. One day Sonya, unable to resist the pressure of Elena, becomes her mistress, breaking off relations with the father of the girl. At this moment, a gang of robbers appears in the vicinity of the village where the events take place. First, they rape Sonya, who was delayed on the way home, and then besiege the house where she locked herself up with Elena.
The plots of many Brazilian films of the time of pornochanchada can cause something similar to cognitive dissonance in an unfamiliar viewer. The flow of exploitation in the cinemas of Rio, São Paulo and Belo Horizonte was such that the screenwriters, sometimes, did not know how to turn into action something like that in order to attract the full-bodied “black” and “porn” viewer. As a result, such hybrids emerged into the light of the godless that no zoologists would dream in a terrible dream.
“Mania” from one of the unknown fighters of pornochanchada Luza Castellini is just such an “unknown animal”, where the head of the thriller “rape & revenge” is attached to the body of an erotic drama with a cunning love triangle. These two storylines are glued together with a seam so crude that it seems as if the authors made two completely different films, but for some reason decided to merge all the material into a single whole. Who knows, it is quite possible that it was, especially if you remember that behind the director loomed the figure of one of the largest figures of Brazilian film exploitation Favzi Mansour, who acted as a producer. And he has never been particularly clear in his projects.
Whatever it was, but the authors achieved their goals: the strangeness and disorder of the plot really attracts attention to the film, distinguishing it from the host of their kind. That sharp transition from a romantic drama with beautiful erotic scenes to a bloody thriller makes “Mania” at least remember. And if we add that the love story is a struggle for the hand and heart of a village beauty between father and daughter (the same “cunning martyrdom”), then the cunning Arab fox Mansour had every chance to stand out from the crowd. Another thing is that he himself might have done better. The filmmaker Luz Castellini was not marked by any talents, and the skill here too somehow did not work out, and therefore the potential of the film was clearly greater than the final result.
But with the dynamics of “Mania” everything is in order. Many thrillers (even quite successful) often suffer from the slow development of the action, because of which the viewer, sometimes, hardly keeps his attention on the twists and turns of the plot, looking forward to the bloody outcome. Others, on the contrary, rushing from place to quarry, do not leave the public room for sentiment and worries for the heroes. Everything's fine here. The erotic perturbations of the characters for the first half of the tape can not be called boring, as well as the subsequent tin tin with rape, release of the intestines outside, scalding with boiling water, planting on a completely random halberd hanging on the wall and other charms of bloody revenge for lovers of spatters. It is clear that all this does not flow all sorts of liquids into the whole screen: after all, the 70s did not have a special naturalism in the image of self-mutilation - but all in his power, Mr. Castellani did in this regard.
Of course, "Emmanuel", crossed with "I spit on your graves" - a beast unviable, but as a one-time experiment is quite entitled to existence (who said - alcoholized in a bank?). In addition, once again to admire the shapes of one of the stars of Brazilian exploitation Patricia Scalvi is also an occasion not to pass by Mania. By the way, in the image of an angry fury in the second part of the film, it is quite convincing. Perhaps even more convincing than in the role of a young lesbian, taking the bride away from her father. But it is rather a scenario in which the plausibility of events is openly sacrificed for their improbability. However, fans of Brazilian TV series have long been accustomed not to pay attention to such absurdities. And since the pornochanchada and all these "Slaves of Isaura" grew up in the same field and were cultivated by the same agronomists, there is nothing to criticize. The film of Castellini and Mansour is not the worst and, moreover, an original example of the genre with a good actress in the title role. That's enough.