Aneesa Wardle
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Janis
One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.
Candida
It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
Claudio Carvalho
In 1959, in Florence, the girl Virginia sees her mother committing suicide jumping off a cliff in England. Twenty-eight years later, Virginia Ducci (Jennifer O'Neill) is married with the wealthy Francesco Ducci (Gianni Garko). Out of the blue, Virginia has a vision of a walled dead woman and when he goes to his house in Italy, she sees the wall of her vision. She opens a hole in the wall and finds a skeleton inside. When her husband returns from London, he is arrested and becomes the prime-suspect since the woman was his lover. Virginia discusses the subject with her psychiatrist and friend Luca Fattori (Marc Porel). They find differences between her vision and the location where the skeleton was found and Luca suspects that she might have had a premonition. Virginia decides to investigate the case to find evidences to prove the innocence of Francesco and she suspects that a man called Emilio Rospini (Gabriele Ferzetti) is the killer. When Francesco is released from jail, she becomes obsessed to find the truth and does not stop to snoop around. What will happen to her?"Sette note in nero", a.k.a "The Psychic", is an entertaining but flawed and full of clichés giallo. It is irritating to see the cliché of a woman hiding from a serial-killer and stumble upon something to make noise. Or the alarm in the watch in the exact moment that the killer is leaving. Or the woman seeking out a dangerous criminal without any weapon or plan B. the cinematography and the locations are beautiful and the open conclusion is another plus in this film. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Premonição" ("Premonition")
lastliberal
Many will be somewhat familiar with this film without even knowing it. n Kill Bill: Vol. 1, the score heard as The Bride is about to attack and kill Buck is taken from 'Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes'.No, there are no zombies, and this is a mystery, not a gory thriller, even though the fall of a woman from a hill is gruesome.It is a methodical film with repeated visions and clues to lead the way to the murderer of a woman found during a vision. Unfortunately, the finding of the murderer was a shock in more ways than one.Great performance by Jennifer O'Neill.
Schwenkstar
I must confess: I do not like the cinema of Lucio Fulci. Although he is often considered a top tier director of Italian horror/gialli, I found his films to be nothing more than exploitative and shameless, capitalizing on violence and sex to appeal to nothing but the viewer's carnal desires while providing little (if any) intelligence for the viewer's mind and cognitive thinking.Imagine my surprise when I found this not only to be a *good* movie, but also quite possibly one of the best gialli I have ever seen (second only to some of Dario Argento's best work).Despite a rather unnecessarily violent and gory opening (which is more laughable than shocking), the film is very subtle and restrained, with no nudity and very little violence, focusing upon its labyrinthine mystery to provide the thrills rather than anything visceral.And the mystery is superb, playing out very much like a jigsaw puzzle. The main character (Jennifer O'Neal) sees a barrage of images in the opening of the film, like pieces of a puzzle, and as the film progresses we see the pieces beginning to come into place and form a whole picture. All of this creates a very engrossing experience as we get en-wrapped within he mystery.That is not to say the film is totally devoid of visceral thrills. The suspense sequences are genuinely suspenseful, with the chase scene in the run-down church being almost unbearable in its potent tension. Not to mention, the very last sequence in the house will also have you on the edge of your seat.And the story isn't the only thing that makes this giallo work so well - the direction by Fulci (I can't believe I'm saying this) is magnificent, with such stunning sequences of camera movements and edits that just draw the viewer into the action. Also, the music by Bixio, Frizzi, and Tempera is hypnotic, creating a very much palpable atmosphere of dread and ominous foreboding.However, I don't mean to sound like this is a masterpiece of Italian cinema - it's not. I am merely so shocked at how good this film is considering its film-making pedigree. The opening scene, as mentioned earlier, is entirely out of place, and the plot, while complex, is strangely predictable once you begin to understand what's happening.Despite this, the plot is tight, focused, and clever, with genuine suspense, which makes it one of the best giallo films ever.Essential viewing for not only giallo fans, but also any lover of a good mystery.
Prof-Hieronymos-Grost
The recently married and clairvoyant Virginia Ducci (Jennifer O'Neil) decides to surprise her new husband by renovating his country home, a home she has never been in. On the way she has visions of a dead woman hidden behind a wall, another woman dead with a bloodstained face and a strange red room. When she arrives at the country residence the realises that the room she is in is the one from her vision and sets about breaking down the wall, where she finds the dead body of an unknown woman. The police are very suspicious of her and her husband, he is soon pulled in and made the no 1 suspect as he had a relationship with the deceased girl. Virginia believing her husbands innocence then proceeds to investigate in amateur sleuth fashion, her visions guiding her to the shocking truth.Brilliantly paced Giallo that slowly feeds us with the information we need to discover the truth behind the ghastly visions. The beautiful O'Neill is excellent, a pity she didn't do more films in the genre. Fulci has a reputation as one of the kings of gore but here yet again he is restrained in that department, there's very little blood or gore and positively no nudity, but this film shows yet again that he could make really good films, "Duckling", "Lizard" and One on top of the other prove that he is a legend in the history of the giallo, Great story, Great score, Great ending, Superb Film!
