Lawbolisted Powerful

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

acidburn-10 A psychedelic flick with drug induced imagery and manic tenderises, covered in a thick mist of mystery and nightmarish encounters, this Italian horror simmers in its atmosphere and bound in a completely mean spirited manner. While this may not be as graphic or as sleazy as many of the other Italian giallo's, this is certainly sadistic and unnerving, adding that certain edge to the proceedings.When it comes to surreal atmosphere and sadistic content, not many films come close to this nightmarish outlook and lensed with an expressive eye and visual flare by its director Sergio Martino, this stark thriller digs deep into its intertwined mystery and overwhelming visuals and various undertones. Even in its convoluted narrative it quickly draws you into its madness but in a good way in this beautifully crafted thriller.Starring Italian Giallo goddess Edwige Fenech who gives another stunning performance as the troubled main character who may or may not be losing her mind, she really gives it her all in this with her alluring beauty; this is definitely one of her best performances and shows why she's the queen of the Giallo genre. Other standout performances include Nieves Navarro & Marina Malfatti who are both sultry as well as mysterious, who both bring a sense of awe and intrigue to their respective parts with their dreamlike appearances. In fact the entire main cast here were excellent including other big names in the genre George Hilton who also starred with Edwige Fenech in 'The Case Of The Bloody Iris', here he plays her supporting boyfriend who also has a sense of mystery about him and really keeps you interested as the movie goes on. Then there's Ivan Rassimov who takes centre stage as the cult leader who oozes mystical insanity and cruelty, he really haves fun with this role, enjoying every second.All in all this is a really great movie, although not entirely perfect where sometimes the story may become a bit uneven at times, and doesn't quite have a lot of depth, but it was a fantastically fun ride all the same and definitely worth checking out if you're a fan of giallo.

revrommer This is a high-grade example of all of the movies that came out excitedly influenced by Roman Polanskis Rosemarys Baby, which should be seen before viewing this one. It's a very similar story, though the only baby involved is lost by miscarriage. Sergio Martino botches the satanic ritual scenes, Euro movies always seemed to have to make Satan into a goatish Baphometan pretty boy, and hes pretty weak here, but he beautifully expands the menace in the recruiting part and then the escape from the cult part of the basic story (both involving being stalked by Ivan Rassimov). Edwige Fenech (whom I found trivial and overly enamored of herself in Strip Nude For your Killer) is quite effective as a very troubled woman who actually submits to going to a Sabbath as if to therapy, and to being group groped and more by pastyfaced acolytes, but then balks disgusted at having to ritually kill her friend Mary, because in an interesting twist now that Mary has recruited her, she is free to leave (meaning this life). Fenech is apparently famous for her physique aka great sloping breasts but its mostly her Venus reclining profile that caught audiences eyes and she exploits that to the full here by appearing often reclining in bed or crouching in corners on floors, though there is only modest nudity. And yet she spends most of her time in bed suffering, sex with her husband is so unsatisfactory to her (except once) that one suspects him of not good things. Martino seemed most excited by Mia Farrows exclamation in RB that this is not a dream, this is really happening, and uses what the dumb American trailer called Chillorama otherwise known as wide angle shots to blur reality and paranoid fantasy in a way that does unnerve. He also makes great symbolic use of the old apartment bloc including its roof, a great English castle and its grounds (a chase scene reminiscent of Demon of the Night) and London (its interesting how the legacy of Hammer satanism from Witchcraft all the way to Satanic Rites of Dracula turned England into the land of horror so that even Italian directors felt they had to shoot there (see also Seven Deaths in a Cats Eye) to reinforce the blurring.

Red-Barracuda All The Colors of the Dark is a combination of a giallo, an occult horror and a Roman Polanski style claustrophobic apartment-based thriller. It's possibly director Sergio Martino's most ambitious film from a period when he produced a series of excellent pictures. Unlike Martino's other gialli, this one is much more psychological in approach. It doesn't have a series of murders or anything like that but instead focuses on the troubled world of its female protagonist played by cult actress Edwige Fenech. She is recovering from a car crash which claimed the life of her unborn baby, shortly after this she is menaced by a mysterious man and is introduced to a black magic group by an enigmatic neighbour. The story isn't all that great to be perfectly honest it's the style in which it's presented that's its strength. It's consistently photographed in an interesting way, with unusual angles and good colour schemes. The disorienting camera angles do add to the overall theme of a psychologically troubled woman. The London settings are also used very well indeed – the apartment block and country manor are both very effectively shot. It would also be deeply remiss to not mention Bruno Nicolai's soundtrack. It's a really nice psychedelic piece that adds to the atmosphere very nicely, it comes into its own in the scenes of the cult indoctrinating Edwige Fenech's character into their circle; this scene is one of the best that Martino ever directed, it's pure 70's psychedelic delirium. It's only matched in this movie by the very creepy and bizarre opening dream sequence which includes things like a murdered pregnant woman and a hideous old crone dressed like a child's doll.The movie is immeasurably helped by the presence of Edwige Fenech. She looks like the definitive giallo heroine here, with her gorgeous mane of long black hair, porcelain skin and big eyes. She is certainly a welcome character to base the movie around and does play the vulnerable victim very well it has to be said. Her co-star, the always excellent Susan Scott, who plays her sister, is sadly underused but at least she's there. The male stars don't particularly shine but Ivan Rassimov has a fairly memorable role as the blue-eyed psycho. Overall, Sergio Martino produced another fine Italian thriller with this movie. I'm not convinced it's his best necessarily, and perhaps it sometimes promises more than it actually delivers. Nevertheless, this one should most certainly please fans of this kind of thing.

Scarecrow-88 Unrelenting suspensor about a woman so tormented by her nightmares(after losing a child stillborn when her boyfriend Richard hit a tree), she's willing to try anything including black mass ritual performed by a Satanic cult introduced to her by a neighbor, Mary. Her sister, Barbara has tried to get her psychiatric help from Dr. Gordon, but Richard sees this as a silly waste of time. Jane's trauma is so disorienting, she believes a psychopath has emerged from her nightmares and manifested himself into reality. Shades of "Rosemary's Baby" is obviously present throughout the film particularly the photography of the black mass rituals, but they are none the less chilling to watch. I think what worked so well for me was the idea of this poor, frightened woman not be able to separate herself from this demented stalker with blue, piercing eyes. The film's location plays greatly into the style of the piece, but Martino's surreal lens really creates this foreboding that gets under the skin as characters{the Satanic High Priest, especially}literally grab toward the viewer. The camera loves to slide up and down Fenech's wonderfully silky body{one of the best scenes in the film is a steamy shower shot up her body as she wets herself with only a shirt on}, but it's her performance as the paranoid, nearly crazed Jane that really sells this film. Hilton is good enough given very limited screen time.