Composer Bruno is hired to complete the music for an up and coming horror film, and to get the job done without much interruption. He decides to rent out a secluded villa, but his work gets sidetrack when he believes that some ravishing young woman who have disappeared have been murdered within the villa. So naturally he looks into it, and finds out there might actually be a connection there with the old tenant of the house and the movie he's composing.
If there was a film I wanted to like, Lamberto Bava's cruel, perverse Giallo piece "A Blade in the Dark" is one. The concept behind the story showed promised, and the build up to the inventive deaths and their eventual outcomes were sadistically effective. It's a maliciously crazy shocker, and it sure does come off excruciatingly bloody. Lamberto execution showed flair, atmosphere and bite with his swaying visuals. However I found the moments in between terribly slack and Elisa Briganti and Dardano Sacchetti's tedious script was just too sloppy and meandering. When the humid material delivers its revelation, we've seen it before to really be surprised and satisfied. Even the performances felt forced, and mainly stuffy. The grating dubbing didn't help one bit. A mundane Andrea Occhipinti never convinced me in the lead and Michele Soavi came off ridiculous. The cast did have some beauties in the shape of Lara Naszinsky (truly gorgeous), Fabiola Toledo (what a stunner) and Valeria Cavalli. Maurizo and Guida De Angelis' forebodingly hypnotic music score was a nice stroke, and there's a creative mixture of bone rattling sound FX. Even the choice of location rubs off nicely with its brooding isolated villa. Gianlorenzo Battaglia's cinematography shows few jolting flourishes, but more often follows the book.
Mediocre, if diverting Giallo that's spoilt in the long run by its unneeded padding and lumbering nature.
If there was a film I wanted to like, Lamberto Bava's cruel, perverse Giallo piece "A Blade in the Dark" is one. The concept behind the story showed promised, and the build up to the inventive deaths and their eventual outcomes were sadistically effective. It's a maliciously crazy shocker, and it sure does come off excruciatingly bloody. Lamberto execution showed flair, atmosphere and bite with his swaying visuals. However I found the moments in between terribly slack and Elisa Briganti and Dardano Sacchetti's tedious script was just too sloppy and meandering. When the humid material delivers its revelation, we've seen it before to really be surprised and satisfied. Even the performances felt forced, and mainly stuffy. The grating dubbing didn't help one bit. A mundane Andrea Occhipinti never convinced me in the lead and Michele Soavi came off ridiculous. The cast did have some beauties in the shape of Lara Naszinsky (truly gorgeous), Fabiola Toledo (what a stunner) and Valeria Cavalli. Maurizo and Guida De Angelis' forebodingly hypnotic music score was a nice stroke, and there's a creative mixture of bone rattling sound FX. Even the choice of location rubs off nicely with its brooding isolated villa. Gianlorenzo Battaglia's cinematography shows few jolting flourishes, but more often follows the book.
Mediocre, if diverting Giallo that's spoilt in the long run by its unneeded padding and lumbering nature.