Today we reveal our true geekiness when we let our readers know that we simply can’t wait for the release of The Etruscan Mask, a horror film haunted by an Etruscan demon who just won’t die. Sometimes, it seems, that the Etruscan fix provided by Rome’s spectacular Villa Giulia museum is just not enough!
Filmed in Siena and Turin, the flick is set to be released later this year. It’s directed by Ted Nicolaou and the plot goes something like this:
In Siena, Italy, five foreign university students stumble across an ancient Etruscan mask in an old house as they are delivering newspapers by night. It soon becomes apparent that with possession of the mask comes an inescapable evil. With the help of a knowledgeable professor, they begin to uncover the dark secrets that surround it and are shocked to hear of its terrifying powers. After a series of unexplainable events, it becomes clear that the mask must be destroyed. However, one of the students has already succumbed to its powers and in doing so has released an ancient demon which has no intention of being destroyed.
Those Etruscans were a nasty lot. It’s no wonder that the ancient Romans were so intent on getting rid of them. Given the evil disposition of this pre-Roman group of people, we shouldn’t be surprised to discover that there are other horror films in which they’ve starred. For example, in 1972 the Etruscans decidedly upped their image when director Armando Crispino released The Etruscan Kills Again (it was less compellingly named in the USA: The Dead Are Alive), in which a photographer on an archaeological expedition to dig up Etruscan an Etruscan cemetery in Italy begins to suspect that not all the Etruscans buried there are actually dead. Oh my!
Ten years later, the mysterious Etruscans got another wide-screen release in Murder in the Etruscan Cemetery (called The Scorpion With Two Tails across the Atlantic) in which the young widow of an archaeologist, murdered while working on an Etruscan dig, dreams of her husband’s death and then travels from New York for Italy to investigate. Before long, she is attacked by bats and is involved in several other murders. In the meantime, the widow’s father is smuggling heroin in crates of Etruscan artifacts, but he is killed in a tragic cave-in. Other victims have their heads twisted around backwards by an unknown assassin as the widow’s premonitions continue and people tell her that she may be an Etruscan immortal. The secrets lie in a hidden tomb, and are revealed in a bizarre climax involving undercover narcotics agents, Etruscan zombies, magic stones and a huge anti-gravity crystal.
Surely someone, somewhere, must be organizing an Etruscan film festival?
