Murder Obsession

Ok...this is not one of my favorite giallo films. Not by a long shot. It's ponderous, super slow, all over the place....but the ending is somewhat comical and amusing, so it MAY be worth a watch for some of you true genre fans.

The plot is rather straight forward. A movie star named Michael Stanford goes back to his home with some movie folks and his girlfriend to spend the weekend at the family villa. But, of course things can't just be simple, right? He doesn't want his mother to know about his girlfriend, so he has her pretend to be his assistant. Odd, right? People start dying - that's never good. And...there was something else. OH!  Michael stabbed his Father to death! That's it! :)

Some of the standout items in this fun little romp are the way Michael and his mother interact - cringe inducing for sure. He's talking to his mother and she's nearly falling out of her shirt all the time. :::cringe:::   The beautiful Laura Gemser is mesmerizing. And then there's the other star of the film - Stefano Patrizi's FUCKING MUSTACHE! HOLY COW is it distracting! heheheheh It's like that thing some folks do to look older, but in this case he just ends up looking like a five year old boy with a mustache. heheheheh

The film stumbles and limps along, but does manage to ramp things up to 11 for the thrilling climax. I had to really make an effort to push through this one, starting and stopping it a few times over the course of a month or so. However, it hit a stride at one point and I was able to make it through. And boy was I happy that I did. hehehe. What a nutty flick.

Check it.

Uh....say what?

All the Colors of the Dark (1972 aka Tutti i Colori del Buio)

And we're into another Sergio Martino classic with All the Colors of the Dark starring the :::heavy sigh and swoon:::  wondrous Edwige Fenech. So lovely. Those eyes. :::sigh:::   AHEM! Uh....

A CLASSIC....that's where I was. :)

Edwige plays Jane Harrison who has lost her unborn child after a car accident. She is having SUPER strange nightmares and is really slipping into a state of depression and madness. Her husband pushes her meds on her, but her sister Barbara (the awesome Nieves Navarro) wants her to try some less medicinal ways of dealing with her loss by talking to a Dr. and leaving the pills behind. But, who is the mysterious man (Ivan Rassimov) that is following her around town...and peeking at her? Is her neighbor really trying to be her friend...or is she involved in some other way herself?




We have a lot of Martino goodness in here as well. Handheld, kinetic camera movements and dramatic shots with great lighting make this a great giallo sampling, though it's not one to start with if you're new to the genre. It's pace and sometimes confused storyline may turn off those that are not obsessed with gialli.





This film is wacky for sure, but it has some fun moments. And...you know...I'll stare at Edwige on the screen no matter what she's up to! heheheh.  The film runs off the tracks a few times, but manages to stay on course for a fun and diabolical ending.

Well worth a viddy!

It Comes At Night

While the film is very well made, well shot, well written, and features some great acting, it's "not what's on the tin".  Everything about the films marketing and media - from the trailer to the poster - is just not what the movie is. As others have said, this is a slow, SLOW burn, post apocalyptic human drama about the lengths people will go to protect their family and just how horrid those lengths may be. Grand, but far from a creepy, "what's in the darkness?" film.

Even with the heads up about the trailer being nothing like what the film turns out to be, I kept waiting for what the IT COMES AT NIGHT title meant. Yeah, nothing in that as well. It was a disappointing distraction.

The film should have been called IT COMES WITH RISKS or IT COMES WITH LOSS. Something that hits the nail more on the head.

All that aside, the film seemed like a 30 minute film crammed into and hour and thirty-three minute runtime. While it was good, it just wasn't worth the ride time.

The film does deliver some creepy visuals and tense situations. It has a cool look to it overall and, like I said earlier, the acting is fantastic.  So, if you go into it with the insight that it's really just a drama with some "don't catch the sickness" undertones, you might just walk away with an enjoyable experience. It's worth checking out for sure. Just don't expect monsters or high energy. If you want that, check out POD instead.