Torso (1973)

"Torso", or to use the more interesting literal translation of the Italian title, "The Bodies Presented Traces of Carnal Violence", is certainly one of the most entertaining gialli ever made. The movie wastes not a scene and is never boring, has style to spare and boasts some fabulous T 'n A.The plot concerns, as they always do, a black gloved killer stalking beautiful, promiscuous women. His choice of murder weapon is a red and black silk scarf, but after killing his victims he likes to gouge their eyes out, and in one scene, he apparently employs a hacksaw to dismember their already dead bodies.One of the movie's four beautiful leads receives a threatening phone call that leads her to believe she has seen the killer, and may be next on the hit list. Her uncle suggests she escapes with her three gal pals to his villa in some remote location. Are you noticing parallels to the yet-unborn slasher film?Aside from the "group of people in remote location so they can't escape the killer" set up, "Torso" also resembles a slasher more than the average giallo in that the mystery aspect of the movie isn't substantial. The red scarf clue is all but forgotten, and the big reveal of the killer's identity at the end, and explanation for his behaviour feels tacked on, as though Sergio Martino only did it because all of the other gialli did.Like most other gialli, and in contrast to the slasher, the violence is really not as graphic as you'd expect, and is instead replaced by overt eroticism. In one scene a man is killed by being repeatedly rammed by a car. We see a shot, an obvious special effect, showing a dummy head crushed between the car's front bumper and a wall. Obvious or not, it's enough to make you wince... but then the movie cuts to a shot of the actor in his death throes, covered in blood, but with his head perfectly in proportion, despite what we just saw!The movie does sex much better than it does violence. This is one of the most overtly sexual of the decent gialli, though in one unfortunate way it does resemble a slasher in this regard: the best looking girl, Tina Aumont, doesn't show any skin!

Despite having read a huge amount of praise for his work in the Giallo film sub-genre,I've found myself constantly putting director Sergio Martino's work to the bottom of my 'must watch' pile,due to having found his 1978 title The Mountain of the Cannonball God to be a rather disappointing film.With a poll for the best titles of 1973 being held on IMDb's Classic Film board,I felt that it was the best time to start afresh with Martino,and to take a look at his Giallo world for the first time.The plot:As a John and Florence Heinken start to get hot'n' heavy in a car,they spot a masked stranger staring at them.Chasing after the stranger in the woodland area,the stranger corners the couple,and kills both of them.Thanks to Florence and John both of them being popular students at an arts university,reverberations from the attack are sent across the campus.Attempting to block the dangers from her mind,a visiting US arts student accepts an offer from leading tutor Franz to take her to an opening art exhibition.Sadly for Franz and Jane,their plans are left in tatters,when another student is discovered murdered,with a red scarf around her neck.With a serial killer stalking the students,the police arrange a meeting,where they tell the students to be on the lookout for anyone who is wearing the same scarf that the killer left behind.Talking to her group of friends,Jane is left shaken,when one of them tells her that they can remember seeing someone wearing the scarf.Asking for advice from her tutor,Franz gives Jane and the gang keys to his villa,so that they can get away from all of the chaos taking place around them.Sadly,once they have reached the villa,Jane discovers that she is closer to getting a grip on the scarf than she ever could have desired.View on the film:For the screenplay of the film,co-writer/director Sergio Martino and Ernesto Gastaldi attempt to create a multi-threaded Giallo by giving an equal amount of focus to each of Jane's friends.Whilst this approach does allow for the fear that each of the characters have to be fully expressed,it also sadly causes the movie to never spend enough time on a particular character,which along with making each of the characters disappointingly interchangeable,it also leads to the mystery element feeling rather dry,due to none of the characters appearing to heavily invest in the unmasking of the stranger.Whilst the screenplay sadly fails to build a strong sense of suspense,director Sergio Martino closely works with cinematography Giancarlo Ferrando to give this Giallo a fantastic supernatural atmosphere,thanks to Martino and Ferrando superbly using corner shots to build a feeling that the stranger could appear from thin air in the corner of a room. Emphasizing the supernatural vibes Guido and Maurizo De Angelis give the film a wonderfully creepy score,which shrieks as the killer gets close to a victim in Martino's terrific Gothic Horror villa.Placed at the centre of the film,Suzy Kendall gives a fantastic performance as Jane,with Kendall brilliantly making the 30 minute near- silent final a truly nerve-wrecking experience,thanks to Kendall showing Jane having to plan each move she makes,as the mysterious scarf-wearing killer prepares to attack the next victim's torso.

Hooded killer is slashing the young females at a college in Perugia, Italy. A group of friends go to a remote villa, only to be followed by the killer. One particularly brutal killing involves the scarf vendor being eliminated for possibly knowing the killer's identity. Another, involving Carol (Cristina Airoldi, the most gorgeous girl in this picture) stumbling off into a dark, wooded area, only to meet a violent end at the black-gloved hands of the killer, in my favourite scene in this movie. But, who is the killer? Plenty of atmospherics, gorgeous girls, and violent bloodshed, but it is too slowly paced for me. After a good first third, I found myself bored with the second third of it, before it recovered a bit in its final third. But the ultimate fate of the killer was anticlimactic.

Four beautiful young women seek refuge in an isolated country villa after a gruesome series of sex murders upset a college campus. However, the relentless and depraved maniac has followed the gals to said villa. Director Sergio Martino, who also co-wrote the luridly compelling script with Ernesto Gastaldi, delivers a tasty truckload of female nudity (the delectable Angela Covello, the foxy Carla Brait, the luscious Conchita Airoldi, and the comely Patrizia Adiutori all bare their sumptuous bodies in the leering name of all-out unapologetic exploitation), does his usual ace job of creating and sustaining a supremely creepy and unsettling atmosphere, stages the brutal murder set pieces with savage aplomb (the killing in the muddy fog-shrouded woods is a real vicious doozy), further spices things up with an explicit depiction of an unsparingly raw and perverse sexuality, offers a bevy of seedy male characters as likely suspects (Ernesto Colli in particular is especially memorable as slimy street vendor Gianni Tomasso), and really pulls out the suspenseful stops in the positively harrowing last twenty minutes. The lovely Suzy Kendall makes for a fetching and appealing damsel in distress as the pure Jane while the striking Tina Aumont is simply gorgeous as the feisty Daniela. Giancarlo Ferrando's slick and stylish cinematography makes neat use of voyeuristic POV shots and gives the picture an impressive glossy look. The funky'n'shuddery score by Guido and Maurizio De Angelis hits the get-down groovy chilling spot. Recommended viewing for fans of giallo fare.