'Crimson' (1973) – Juan Fortuny.

Juan Fortuny's bizarre 'Crimson' also has the heady and more dramatically unambiguous title of 'The Man with Severed Head'. Granted, this lurid Euro-cult extravaganza isn't the finest example of Spain's premier spine-chiller's work, it is,arguably, one of his most entertaining misfires! An enjoyably crimson-soaked, headlong descent into the murky criminal milieu of a heinously bungled jewellery heist, and the bloody feud between two hard-nosed headcases. Fortuny zealously appropriates all the seamier excesses of Grindhouse sleaze and hard-boiled Euro-crime nastiness with a refreshing lack of subtlety. This delightfully bonkers, wig-splittingly silly B-Movie far from seamlessly blends the more aggressively trashy tropes of, Al Adamson, Ted V. Mikels and Umberto Lenzi's Poliziotteschi scumminess into a grossly uneven but rewardingly wrong-headed Gothic-exotic schlock horror serenade! The gruesome machinations of these duplicitous, death-dealing dunderheads not infrequently reaches a fever pitch of bemusing absurdity!

It is perhaps a 'no-brainer' to suggest that Naschy's 'Crimson' lacks any credible literary smarts, and that any semblance of cinematic credibility has been ruthlessly lobotomized by the director's haphazard Mise-en-scène! Happily, there is a wickedly warped B-Movie mania throught that remains weirdly contagious! This trashy Euro-shocker's more refined qualities reside in, Paul Naschy's brooding presence, Naschy's signature dark charisma somewhat muted by having his noble noggin swaddled in a nappy for much of the film's running time! No objective appraisal of Fortuny's mentally masticated, ghoulishly groovy grindhouse gem would be complete without praising the frightfully funky burlesque grooves of frequent Jess Franco collaborator, Daniel White. Crimson roils excitingly with White's perspicacious psychedelic crime-funk that stridently slams some righteous spunk in Fortuny's skunky celluloid junk!