Mid-century Italian renditions of period pieces are never quite the best; especially when coming from someone better suited for giallo as we would see from Fulci in the future.
Even this early film shows all the fulci trademarks: the brutal special effects, the swinging close ups, the focus on eyes, and sadly, the poorly written plot. Although to be fair it's not the story so much as it is the constant back and forth in time. The flashbacks and present time are hardly differentiated and this is made even more confusing by it being in a foreign language for me. I really want to love this film, it gives hints as to the director's later greatness, and at the same time shows that he can work with genres other than slashers. Sadly it's just not up to par and makes me glad that he later did decide to stick with slashers.
If I can get my hands on his earlier, non-thriller, stuff I will. But i'll be sure to keep my standards lowered just a bit.
Mind you, this movie was still enjoyable but I think I let my excitement and love for this director raise my expectations too high.
Review of The Conspiracy of Torture
