Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Crappy film

best movie i've ever seen.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

This popular Paul Naschy title re-unites him with the director and two cast members (Rosanna Yanni and Vic Winner) of COUNT DRACULA'S GREAT LOVE (1972); unfortunately, it proved rather a let-down – largely because of its mix of unsavory themes (including necrophilia) and extreme gore (which comes across as unintentionally amusing most of the time). As was his fashion, the writer/star tackles the tragic (but not exactly sympathetic) title role: picked on by everybody (be it village children, morgue attendants and hospital staff), he naturally develops a vindictive attitude – eventually going off his rocker when a seriously ill girl he is infatuated with dies. For obscure plot purposes, a mad scientist (Alberto Dalbes) – driven to work underground – promises to revive her for him…except that the latter's assistants, offended by the ungodly sight and stench of her corpse (having been gnawed at by rats, which Naschy furiously sets on fire in retribution), dump her in the doctor's convenient vat of sulphuric acid (but have obviously reckoned without the hunchback's wrath which comes instantaneously)! Yanni plays the heroine, a young new intern, who somehow finds the misshapen Naschy appealing (for no very good reason, though she had displayed similar traits of nymphomania in the afore-mentioned Dracula film) and also on hand is Maria Perschy (like her, Dalbes and Antonio Mayans a Jess Franco alumnus) as the head of the hospital, whose boyfriend (Winner) happens to be the mad scientist's closest collaborator! Incidentally, what the two are working on – which Dalbes claims will turn all known scientific conceptions on their heads – only becomes evident until the closing reel: the sum total of their labor (to which many a human life has been sacrificed) results in a gigantic slimy creature(?!) not unlike the Swamp Thing of Wes Craven's eponymous 1982 release. As I said at the beginning, the film is generally too grim and the atmosphere too sordid to be readily enjoyed, what with dissections, beheadings, disembowelments, and even a couple of charred, half-dead characters – tied to one another but somehow still standing and able to walk!

Hunchback of the Morgue (1972) ** 1/2 (out of 4)A deformed hunchback (Paul Naschy) is picked on by everyone except for a beautiful woman. When that woman dies the hunchback goes to a scientist in hopes that he can bring her back to life. The doctor says he can but in return he wants the hunchback to do some killing for him. Loosely based on Poe's Murders in the Rue Morgue, the film also mixes in elements of Frankenstein and the end result is a rather entertaining movie that works on several levels but the biggest is the fact that the movie is just downright nasty at times and it takes pleasure in it. HUNCHBACK OF THE MORGUE offers Naschy a tasty role and he really delivers.The film works best as long as you don't take it too serious or go into it expecting some sort of art film. I mean, the movie is pretty sleazy throughout but things get really crazy during the second half when we get all sorts of strange violence from body parts being cut off to guts pour out and there are even rats eating faces. All of the gore is handled quite well and the overall sleazy nature of it perfect fits the atmosphere of the movie as well as the beautiful set design.As far as Naschy goes, he got to play just about every monster possible and this here was certainly his most sympathetic role, which is shocking when you consider that this character is a murderer. I thought the actor did a very good job in the role and the sympathetic nature was a major plus. The supporting cast are all fine as well but there's no question that the picture belongs to Naschy.

Paul Naschy made a hell of a lot of Spanish horror films, many of them were not all that good; but there are a few gems among his vast body of work, and The Rue Morgue Massacre is certainly one of his better efforts. The film is something like a Spanish version of Hammer Horror; the style of it actually reminded me a lot of the final Hammer Frankenstein flick 'Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell', which was released a year later than this film. Most of The Rue Morgue Massacre takes place in underground catacombs, and director Javier Aguirre springs his atmosphere from there. The plot is a tale consisting of two main themes; social rejection and mad science, and we focus on 'Gotho' (Paul Naschy) - a hunchback with no friends other than a sick young girl. Gotho's life is miserable, and it gets more so when his only friend in the world dies. Gotho believes her to be sleeping, and this is capitalised on by a mad doctor who promises to wake her if Gotho helps him with experiments, which focus on creating new life...The film doesn't feature a great deal of gore, but it is a very nasty flick. Most of the action centres around corpses and body parts, which helps to give it a nasty atmosphere and this is increased by the dreary set design, which almost gives the viewer the impression that the film is taking place in hell. The plot itself runs rather slowly, though the film never gets boring as there's always enough going on to keep the audience intrigued. Paul Naschy is a varied actor, though sometimes his performances aren't very good. He fits into the role of the hunchback well in this film, however, and actually manages to generate some sympathy in spite of the fact that his character is a murderer. The most interesting element of the plot is, of course, the whole thing surrounding the monster that the mad scientist is trying to create. This subplot is fairly well done; what we get to see looks interesting, though it has to be said that the plot turns out to be disappointing when we finally get to see the monster at the end. However, this is still a very interesting effort and I can certainly recommend it.

Paul Naschy plays Wolfgang Gotho,a hunchback who supplies corpses to a doctor in his hidden underground morgue.The Doctor then feeds the rotted flesh to his creation of a living head attached to a tank full of guts.Gotho supplies corpses to the doctor in exchange for the promise that the doctor will restore life to the cadaver of his dead lover.This is surely Paul Naschy's best character role which won him awards at the Paris fantastic cinema convention in 1973."The Hunchback of the Morgue" is an extremely gory and atmospheric horror film that should please fans of Eurohorror.The evisceration of the doctor in the morgue,the beheading of the other doctor and the dismembering of the student from the inn are only a few of its gory moments.The locations sets(the catacombs)provide plenty of Gothic atmosphere and the acting is great.Still the scene where Gotho burns the rats feasting on Ilsa's body is pretty disturbing,because apparently real animals were killed during it.Overall,"El Jorobado de la Morgue" is definitely not for everybody.The film is quite explicit in its gore,but if you like Spanish exploitation flicks give this one a look.8 out of 10.