Slaughter Hotel aka Asylum Erotica – 1971

Slaughter Hotel is also known as Asylum Erotica which might be a better title. There are some murders or slaughter of people going on here but it’s not the main thing about the movie. Let’s get one thing straight right from the beginning. Slaughter Hotel is about the women in front of the camera. We get plenty of opportunities to enjoy their bodies and their sexuality. To say that there are sleazy moments in this might be the understatement of the year. The aesthetics are all about capturing female beauty and taking every opportunity to show the audience as much skin as possible.

This version of the movie is mostly in English but there are some inserts that are subtitles since there never was an English soundtrack for those scenes. You know how it was back in the day. There was never an original soundtrack to these movies. Everyone was dubbed depending on the market it was aimed for. For me, I think it’s kinda charming when it comes to this era. I don’t think I could stand a modern-day dubbed movie. Well, maybe I could if the women were depicted sexually enough.

Violence and sex

Don’t get me wrong, there is some violence in Slaughter Hotel and it’s set at a psychiatric clinic. Not really an asylum but there are mental challenges here. Mostly of a sexual nature. Should be quite boring but it’s not. I find the sexual tension quite exciting and I think it’s rather beautifully filmed. I don’t care about the murders even if there’s aesthetic blood here and there. For me, it’s all about the women, their eyes, and their perfect bodies. There is body double use in the most sexualized scenes though. There are a couple of pretty intense masturbation scenes that are beautifully shot and you almost don’t notice that it’s, not the actress having fun with herself.

But it’s not only hard-core sex in Slaughter Hotel. Well, there is no real hardcore sex at all, but kinda harder than softcore anyway. But more of the time it’s just great camera work “almost” showing the part of the women you want to see. The camera pans over the back and bottom and almost films between the cheeks at times. But just almost. I guess that’s the teasing that brings the beauty to it. But on the other hand, there are those “harder” masturbation scenes where labia is clearly visible. I don’t remember any finger penetration or so but it sure makes the upskirt shot of Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct seem pretty lame.

Klaus Kinski

The Charismatic Klaus Kinski is in it but I didn’t really notice him. He’s totally outacted by all the beautiful women. There are patients and nurses and they seem to all be horny. I realize this by itself doesn’t make a great movie and the bottom line is that Slaughter Hotel isn’t a great movie. But it’s beautifully filmed and delivers that sexual edge the few modern movies can provide.