The Embalmer

"This low-budget Italian production (originally titled Il Mostro di Venezia, or The Monster of Venice) features a psychotic would-be mortician -- clad in a monk's cassock and a death mask -- who effortlessly navigates the catacombs beneath the canals of Venice in order to stalk attractive female prey, later preserving his victim's bodies with embalming fluid for display in his subterranean dungeon. The film's would-be hero is a journalist who races to stop the fiend before the heroine joins his taxidermic collection. The only known feature from writer-director Dino Tavella, this sleazy-looking but basically tame thriller was a perennial drive-in fave, often paired with the equally inept horror quickie The Screaming Skull."