The Arcane Enchanter (1996)

Rating: E

Dir: Pupi Avati
Star: Stefano Dionisi, Carlo Cecchi, Arnaldo Ninchi, Andrea Scorzoni
a.k.a. The Mysterious Enchanter, Arcane Sorcerer

Startlingly tedious Italian ‘horror’ movie, which looks lovely, but has all the entertainment value of a drying fresco. The story, about a guy sent to act as scribe to a heretic with occult leanings, is worth about thirty minutes — at movie length, it’s near unendurable, and I came close to walking out. Said heretic appeared to spend large chunks of the movie asleep, and I can sympathise, every scene seems to go on twice as long as even fractionally interesting. It’s nice to be reminded occasionally of why I tend to the view that most Italian horror movies are vastly over-rated.