Venice’s canals hide a skull-masked killer and his macabre underwater museum.
THE EMBALMER
Fiendish and petrifying
A crazed killer is on the loose in the catacombs of Venice, Italy. He stalks beautiful women, drags them to his underground lair, kills them, then stuffs them and adds them to his "collection".
Proof that Venice has more to fear than just rising tides.
Only in mid-60s Italy could a frogman with a skull mask create a submerged shrine of preserved beauties beneath the romantic city of Venice. Giallo fans will appreciate the grisly display cases and the masked killer who prefers canals over alleys. Come for the bizarre killer, stay for the psychotronic atmosphere and noirish Venetian decay.
— SassyFlix Programmer
The Embalmer is a 1965 Italian horror-mystery-thriller directed by Dino Tavella, about a skull-masked killer who stalks women in Venice, embalming them in his underwater lair.
Synopsis
The lunatic keeps their perfectly preserved bodies in a row of glass display cases in his lair. A handsome young reporter is assigned to cover a group of visiting college girls on a class trip to Venice and when one of them disappears, he becomes involved in trying to find her. He falls in love with one of the girls, not realizing that the Embalmer has her marked as his next victim.
The reporter manages to enter the killer's underwater cave (a submerged monastery) and chases the killer up onto the streets of Venice. The police shoot the lunatic dead as he is strangling the hero in a maniacal grip.
Why Cult
The murderer stalks Venice in a wetsuit and skull mask, dispatching victims from the city’s shadowy waterways.
The killer's lair—a submerged monastery—house his row of embalmed victims in glass cases, a singular touch of aquatic giallo macabre.
A distinctly Italian twist on the giallo formula, with police, reporters, and a city of canals crawling with psychopathic menace.
Themes & Keywords
Trailer
Questions from the Vault
What is The Embalmer about? +
The Embalmer follows a skull-masked killer who abducts and embalms women in his underwater Venetian lair, while a reporter investigates the murders.
Who directed The Embalmer? +
The Embalmer was directed by Dino Tavella.
When was The Embalmer released? +
The Embalmer was released in 1965.
How long is The Embalmer? +
The Embalmer runs for 83 minutes.
What genre is The Embalmer? +
The Embalmer is a horror, mystery, and thriller film.
