Spasmo

Spasmo

Director: Umberto Lenzi

Year: 1974

Christian and his girlfriend are taking a walk on a deserted beach when they discover a woman's body lying. A closer look proves that she's alive. The next day Christian meets her again at a yacht party and they fall in love. Later at a nearby motel, something weird happens as they prepare to go to bed together: An intruder breaks in and starts beating Christian who accidentally shoots him with his own gun. A few hours later they find out that the corpse is missing and a series of weird incidents takes place.

Spasmo is quite an odd film that doesn't make sense very often, the dialogue is ridiculous in places & then there are the latex dummies which are constantly being hung & stabbed, yet never seem to play an important part in the film. 

This is a pretty confusing Umberto Lenzi flick starring Robert Hoffmann & Suzy Kendall. The Ennio Morricone score didn't have the most memorable theme but really came to life in the more tension felt scenes, very disorientating at times. The twists in the final 15-20 minutes keep coming and coming in a what-the-fuck kinda way. 

That said, Spasmo remains a unique and highly entertaining Giallo despite it's many flaws, it may be incoherent with a daft plot but this oddity somehow delivers the goods.

★★★½

Suzy Kendall being strangled, as usual.

Torso

Original Title: I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale

AKA: Carnal Violence

Genre: Giallo

Director: Sergio Martino

Year: 1972

Someone is strangling coeds in Perugia. The only clue is that the killer owns a red and black scarf, and police are stumped. American exchange student Jane and her friends decide to take a break from classes by going up to Danielle's uncle's villa in the country. Unfortunately the killer decides to follow, and the women begin suffering a rapid attrition problem. 

This is the first Gialli that I saw and for anybody wanting to get into the genre it's probably a ideal starting point due to its Slasheresque tendencies, it's one of the bloodiest films that the genre has to offer so definitely has crossover appeal. Torso is a particularly sleazy picture, Sergio Martino really went all out with this story which features beautiful women being stalked. Scene after scene of naked women with the camera lingering over their every (often naked) move becomes kind of hilarious. The killers identity is a guessing game and is handled quite well, however the motive for the crimes is as ridiculous as ever.

It is a pretty solid gialli up to the hour mark but it's the final twenty minutes which really bring Torso to life. The scenes in the house of women being mutilated whilst Suzy Kendall looks on is wonderfully done. Then there's a scene with a locked door with Kendall trying to get a key from the other side which is masterful in its suspense.

As time has gone on I've gotten more into Gialli & whilst this is no longer one of my favourites of the genre it still holds up as a very entertaining film with fun characters and a great final third.

 Rating: ★★★½  

Torso: AKA "Saw" 27, the prequel.