THE BLOODSTAINED LAWN

Emilia-Romagna, Italy, early 1970s. A UNESCO agent discovers that blood is contained in a bottle of wine produced by a well-known Italian winery. Meanwhile, Alfiero picks up several people discarded by society — a prostitute, a gypsy girl, a drunkard, and two hippie hitchhikers — and delivers them to the mansion of Dr. Antonio Genovese and his wife. The guests note the presence of a strange mechanical robot. One by one the guests disappear. Finally the hitchhikers make it to the mansion's basement, where they witness the robot draining the prostitute of her blood. Genovese's wife is revealed as the mastermind: Genovese, at his wife's insistence, has created a robot to suck the blood from the bodies of "worthless" humans; they package the blood in wine bottles and export it for profit to "wherever there are wars, or injured people."

The UNESCO agent, having followed clues from the winery, arrives to search the mansion. He shoots Alfiero; Genovese's wife is killed by the robot; and the hitchhikers are rescued.

The UNESCO agent follows the clues to the mansion, shoots Alfiero, and Genovese's wife is killed by the robot. The hitchhikers are rescued, ending the Genovese family's scheme.

The ending brings the twisted operation to a violent halt, with the mastermind meeting poetic justice at the hands of her own creation. The rescue of the hitchhikers and the intervention of outside authority underscore the film’s satirical jab at decadent privilege and unchecked scientific ambition. The conclusion delivers both the lurid payoff expected from Italian genre cinema and a darkly comic reversal.