EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

Bereamic Awesome Movie

Mathster The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Married Baby Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

hwg1957-102-265704 There are three things to admire about this film. The cinematography by Gianlorenzo Battaglia which makes fine use of widescreen and colour. The music score by the prolific Francesco De Masi, going from sweeping charm to suspenseful. And the luminous and physical performance by Christina Nagy as Joanna.Apart from that it is a standard story of trying to murder someone by scaring them to death. The rest of the cast are adequate, the kills moderate and the twists foreseeable the proverbial mile away. The penultimate scene goes on and on ridiculously and the last scene is annoyingly ambiguous. Some of the credits are Anglicised so the director Alberto De Martino becomes Martin Herbert, the editor Vincenzo Tomassi becomes Vincent P. Thomas and producer Fabrizio De Angelis becomes David Colby. Francesco De Masi stays Francesco De Masi. Perhaps it was in his contract.

adriangr Its great to see this hard to find movie available on DVD, but it didn't really provide a lot of thrills or tension to me. The story tells of a rich heiress named Joanna who is confined to a wheelchair due to a traumatic childhood injury. She spends her life developing various upper- body sporting skills like archery and fencing, and finds romance with her sports therapist, but it seems like her past is coming back to haunt her in the shape of hallucinations and various murders going on around her.Now, my first thought as I watched the start of the film was anger at Shameless giving away the fact that her boyfriend (David Warbeck) is the killer by plastering this all over the sleeve of the DVD, which really isn't necessary and is a very selfish decision to use this plot twist to enhance their marketing. Way to go, Shameless!! I am sure their defence will be that the film gives away this fact in the first 30 minutes, but yeah, those 30 minutes prior to that twist are effectively ruined, as the story is doing it's best to set up red herrings like Joanna's pouty assistant Ruth, who appears to have romantic designs on Joanna herself! All for nothing.Anyway, so once we see the unveiling of Warbeck's intentions, the film keeps going for another hour, and I will say that things do pick up as Joanna becomes more and more terrorised by his evil scheme. The last 20 minutes of the movie are well staged, as Joanna literally fights for her life without the ability to walk, but just her sporting strength to help her survive. There are several acts of violence in the story but for anyone hoping for Italian style giallo-splatter, you're not going to get it here. The special effects are very poor, all we get is a lot of the old theatrical fake knives and razors which squirt blood when pressed against skin, and it really looks rubbish. On the plus side, David Warbeck does get to bash someone's brains out with a heavy church artifact, which looks painful, and there's a brief shot of scissors spearing someone's hand. I know it sounds perverse to rate the amount of violence, but let's face it, this is what the film is peddling, so it should be doing it well.Although the performances are all fair, the English dub does not help. Christina Nagy does well in the pivotal role of Joanna but her dubbed voice diminishes the veracity of all of her scenes of peril. She does seem to be speaking English (as does Warbeck), but the post-shoot dubbing still makes a mess of her performance. The other sad thing is that the film has not aged well fashion wise, and it's a real shame that Joanna spends the last 20 minutes of the film (the only part which has any tension) wearing a hideous outfit with a massive collar that makes her look like she's dressed as a clown.All in all, this is not a rediscovered gem, but just a passable thriller. There are other lost Italian shockers out there that could have a much bigger impact if released on DVD (Giallo A Venezia, Nero Veneziano to name two), so here's hoping Shameless can carry on looking. Just keep your mouths shut about putting plot spoilers on the cover next time eh?

Boyd OK De Martino did some decent films... And I love a good giallo as much as the next man ... Probably more … But this is unbelievably bad ... I can only think that the good write-ups here are coming from people who are trying to pass this off as a lost giallo bootleg you should buy ... All I can say is thank god for the internet Its great to see David Warbeck obviously ... And he knows very well its drivel, but a cheque ... God knows who the two women were, I can't be bothered to look, but lets just say I won't be searching out any more of their work ... If there was any Give this one a wide berth folks ... Unless you are a completist like me ... Why do we put ourselves through this : ))

HumanoidOfFlesh A very suspenseful giallo from the director of "L'Anticristo"(1974),this one begins with a brilliantly-handled sequence involving a priest,a little girl,and a broken doll.However the main story is about maniac(David Warbeck)marrying a traumatized cripple to kill her for her money.The plot,whilst not original,is really suspenseful,the acting is good and there are several skillful and gory murders.The score by Francesco de Massi is quite effective,some of which can also be heard in Lucio Fulci's "The New York Ripper"(1982).Highly recommended for fans of Italian cinema!