The title “Tragic Ceremony” better suits this Italian supernatural oddity than its original title of "Estralto Dagli Archivi Secreti Della Polizia Di Una Capitale Europa" which translates as “From the Secret Police Files of a European Capital". Directed by Riccardo Freda, it is full of Gothic elements, a convoluted storyline and some splashy gore. The storyline revolves around four youngsters who get stranded in the middle of nowhere after their dune buggy breaks down. Seeking assistance they end up at the mansion of Lord Alexander (Luigi Pistilli) and his wife (Luciana Paluzzi) a pair of diabolists who, along with a coven of weirdos, are preparing to celebrate a Black Mass. When Jane (Camille Keaton), one of the stranded youngsters, interrupts the satanic ceremony it ends in a bloodbath and the foursome flee for their lives. Unfortunately the evil unleashed at the mansion isn’t finished with them. Freda and his writers (Mario Bianchi, José Gutiérrez Maesso and Leonardo Martín) deliver a film of two halves that appears to be heading into classic giallo territory, before taking a sharp turn into splatter slaughter and subsequently veering into obscure supernaturalism. The majority of the film is a bit confused and lacklustre with the plotline never really fully clear – I was never, for example, sure about the purpose of a pearl necklace, which appeared at times to be pivotal to the plot. On the plus side the Black Mass sequences at the mansion are spectacular. Freda gives the build up to this part of the film a slow, nighmarishishly Gothic feel (all black candles, cobwebby corridor, billowing curtains and Camille Keaton wandering around in a fluttering white nightdress) before delivering the bravura “tragic ceremony” in which the Satanists are seen off in a blizzard of bloody buthchery. The special effects are by Carlo Rimbaldi and are given added shock value by their suddenness, with a lush score by Stelvio Cipriani adding to the overall feel. Camille Keaton is fine, but her three young male cohorts are fairly non-descript, leaving it to Luigi Pistilli and Luciana Paluzzi to take the acting honours despite their relatively brief appearances. Overall "Estralto Dagli Archivi Secreti Della Polizia Di Una Capitale Europa" has a range of structural and storytelling flaws, but despite that it manages to convey a decent yarn, with a brilliant middle section managing to elevate it above the average. ( )