THE NEW YORK RIPPER **** Italy 1982 Directed by Lucio Fulci. 93 mins Fulci’s return to giallo territory after his Gothic / zombie detour is a mean-spirited urban thriller that divided his fanbase and retains some notoriety three decades on (the UK version is still cut) even if its leeringly…
Browsing: Giallo
OPERA (a.k.a. Terror at the Opera) **** Italy 1987 Dir: Dario Argento. 100 mins In Argento’s return to non-supernatural giallo, young, rising opera singer Cristina Marsillach gets the plum role of Lady Macbeth in Verdi’s cursed operatic MACBETH, shortly after the original leading lady is struck by a car. Soon…
SPASMO **** Italy 1974 Dir: Umberto Lenzi 94 mins One of Lenzi’s most disciplined and classy movies, this opens in an eerie low key, as a couple’s make-out session is disturbed by a hanging dummy – establishing the film’s fixation on unnervingly life-like female mannequins, and accompanied by one of…
THE SUSPICIOUS DEATH OF A MINOR (a.k.a. Too Young To Die) *** Italy 1975 Dir: Sergio Martino. 100 mins An oddity from genre veteran Martino, this opens as a standard giallo (a teenage girl has her throat slashed at a seedy motel by a mystery killer in dark shades) before…
THE FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY ABOVE SUSPICION **** Italy / Spain 1970 Dir: Luciano Ercoli. 93 mins To the gorgeous strains of another early 70’s giallo score by Ennio Morricone, the first shot of this movie is of Dagmar Lassander enjoying a bubble bath prior to a night-out in…