BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Yash Wade Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Claudio Carvalho In Perugia, a serial-killer is strangling college students. Inspector Martino (Luciano De Ambrosis) is in charge of the investigation and has a black and red scarf as the only lead to be followed. He asks the scarf street vendor Gianni Tomasso (Ernesto Colli) if he recalls who might have bought the scarf, but the man tells that he cannot remember. Then Gianni blackmails the killer and becomes his next victim. Meanwhile the college students and girlfriends Jane (Suzy Kendall), Daniela (Tina Aumont), Katia (Angela Covello) and Ursula (Carla Brait) travel to an isolated villa to spend a couple of days together during a break from the art history classes of their professor Franz (John Richardson) that has befriended Jane. When Jane twists her ankle, Dr. Roberto (Luc Merenda) is summoned and asks her to rest. The student Stefano Vanzi (Roberto Bisacco) stalks Daniela since he is obsessed for her. Are the girls in danger in the villa? Who might be the killer?"I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale", a.k.a. "Torso", is an average giallo. The story and the screenplay do not develop well the character and the conclusion with the serial-killer explaining his problems is very poor and disappointing. The hot team of actresses is the best in this movie, specially the gorgeous Suzy Kendall. My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Torso"

Mr_Ectoplasma "Torso" focuses on the student body at the University of Rome which is under siege by a masked sex maniac who is strangling young coeds. American-abroad Jane (Suzy Kendall) leaves with her friends to a cliffside manor located in a villa outside the city for the weekend, but unfortunately for her and her friends, the killer is on their trail.While the plot to "Torso" is fairly substandard on paper, Sergio Martino's 1973 thriller is anything but. Although fairly "slow" by slasher standards, as a giallo film, it maintains a steady pace throughout, but the real fun begins when the girls arrive to the cliffside retreat. What could turn into a fairly by-the-numbers horror film at that point subverts expectations, resulting in a nail-biting finale with Jane hiding in the house while the killer resumes business as usual, limb by limb.Giancarlo Ferrando's cinematography in the film is elegant at showcasing both the city life and countryside of Italy, but is even more effective in molding an ominous mood. The presentation of the ski-masked villain is particularly menacing, accentuated by wide shots that lend the film a certain sort of tension; amidst several wide shots showcasing the land and city, there is a sense that the killer could be lurking anywhere in the frames. Throw in some above average acting (especially from Kendall), a bit of gratuitous nudity, some vicious murder scenes, and an unexpected ending, and you've got a pretty decent thriller here. The slowburn approach that the film takes may require some patience, but the atmosphere of the film and its third act really make it shine. Favorite scene? When the woman wandering in the woods is approached and murdered by the killer. The wide shot of him descending upon her among the misty trees is enough to make anyone's blood chill. 7/10.

Red-Barracuda Between 1971 and 1973 Sergio Martino directed a series of five astonishingly good horror-thrillers. In fact, it could convincingly be argued that in those years Martino was the premier Italian director in this genre. Torso is the final film in this sequence and while it may possibly be the least of the five it still remains an excellent entry in the giallo sub-genre. All five of his gialli had different angles that meant that they were not copies of each other. The Case of the Scorpion's Tail was a classic-style giallo that had a strong mystery element, The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh added a significant layer of eroticism, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key added intense melodrama into the mix along with the plot of Edgar Allan Poe's the Black Cat, All the Colors of the Dark combined the giallo with an occult horror story; what Torso did was move the genre closer to the slasher film. To do this the movie is stripped of much of the detective mystery strand that typified the genre in the early 70's and instead focuses on the sex, violence and tension. Maybe by 1973 the Italian public were growing tired of the plethora of mystery-driven gialli? I can't say but Torso certainly marginalises this and magnifies the salacious content.The story revolves around a group of young college women who are terrorised by an unknown black-gloved killer. The girls themselves are, of course, gorgeous. Most of them seem to spend quite a lot of time lying around semi-naked as well. So from an erotic point of view this is a film that doesn't exactly mess about. In terms of its violence it's probably not as nasty as its reputation suggests although there is the famous hack-saw sequence that is admittedly quite grim albeit not especially graphic. There are several individual stalk and slash scenes, the best of which is a sequence in the woods. This part is very atmospheric, helped also by the effective music. Its scenes like this one and the saw idea that make this one feel like a precursor to the slasher films that would follow a few years later. But the best thing about Torso is its final third. In this part lead actress Suzy Kendall is trapped in a villa with the killer at work in the same house but unaware of her presence. This extended, deadly game of cat and mouse is really expertly handled by Martino and is one of the most suspenseful sequences in the giallo genre. It is ultimately what defines this film.Torso is yet another excellent giallo from Sergio Martino. It comes highly recommended to fans of the genre. Just be aware that it's less concerned with plot mechanics and much more on suspense and vicarious thrills. Because the final third is so claustrophobic and intense it means that the wider mystery is almost forgotten about. But if this doesn't trouble you too much and you are happy with thrills that don't trouble your brain too much then this is a quality ride.

preppy-3 A bunch of sex crimes happen around a college. Four women decide to get away for a while in this deserted house in the middle of nowhere. They immediately engage in lesbian sex, sunbathe in the nude and skinny dip---while they know there's a killer around! I saw the uncut version of this released on DVD. The violence was considerably cut originally when this came to the US in the early 1970s. Well, even intact, this is lousy. It's full of pointless female nudity and lesbian sex scenes. I realize most giallos have that but this one has an incredible amount! It OPENS with a long lesbian sex sequence which has little bearing on the plot. It's an Italian movie and with the sole exception of Suzy Kendall everyone was dubbed--and pretty badly too. They also can't act--only Kendall is any good (even if she's far too old to be playing a college student). The kill scenes have plenty of blood but the gore scenes are laughably fake. To make matters worse the plot makes next to no sense. There are only two real suspects--and one is made to act so suspicious you know he's not the killer! If you want to see every giallo ever made this is for you. But if u want a horror movie with brains, talent or realistic gore u can skip this one.