The Quest....

Remember this?

It's the climactic moment of Mario Bava's I tre volti della paura (Black Sabbath) from 1963. Apart from being a really cool movie and a truly disturbing climax to the "The Drop of Water" segment, it is also something of an obsession of mine. 

Sometime in the late 90's, it may even have been early 2000's, there was a TV commercial that used this same scene in their promo. The commercial went something like this; A woman, a young woman in say her twenties, with dark brown hair, sits on a tram. It may have been a buss. She's watching something on her cell phone. Yes, on the small tiny screen of her cellphone she was watching a horror flick... The movie was Mario Bava's The Drop of Water from Black Sabbath. The climactic scene as the dead woman rises from her bed is shown and the young woman screams aloud on the buss. The crowd around her look at her as she smiles and shrugs her shoulders. The punchline being that now you can watch what you want, where you want. 

I'm pretty sure that the commercial was for Nokia, I have some recollection of corresponding with a person at a Nokia marketing department and them trying to obtain a copy for me before they slipped back off the radar.

I've mentioned, questioned this TV Promo featuring Bava footage to several Bava experts, but none of them want anything to do with it. I find it to be extremely important in the pop-cultural department. A Mario Bava film in a cellphone commercial! How awesome isn't that? What's the story behind the promo? Who directed it, as they obviously must have had some horror film knowledge. Of all the films out there, why Mario Bava's Black Sabbath? There's no end to the questions.

I've mentioned this promo, and asked so many friends and peers in the genre sphere in Europe, as that's where I guess anyone may have seen it as it was a Euro promo - but nobody has any recollection of it either.

I will make it a personal quest to track down this promo and post it on this site when I finally find it. It has to be out there and I hope to find answers to some of the many questions I have concerning this commercial.

Obviously I'd love to hear from anyone landing here if they have any insight into this, have you seen the promo, do you know anything about it?

I'll keep you posted!

J:

Rabid Dogs

Rabid Dogs.
Original Title: Cani Arrabbiati

Directed by: Mario Bava

Thriller/Drama, 96 min

Italy, 1974

Distributed by: Lucertola Media

(OOP – Now available on Anchor Bay)

Of all the movies Mario Bava directed, this shelved, “lost” movie is ironically enough one of my top five Bava flicks. Sure his early Gialli are great, his Euro Goth flicks, filled with those masterful compositions and vivid colour schemes too, and who can forget the pulp-cool classics Planet of the Vampires 1965 and Danger Diabolik 1968. (Which make up two more on that top five list!) It’s all great stuff! If you still don't know of Mario Bava, then you really need to get away from your computer screen and in front of your DVD to check him out NOW! Bava's movies definitely are among some of the best looking movies ever to come out of Italy, all due to his passionate love of cinematography, lighting and composition. Looking back at his cinematic legacy I definitely feel that this "lost" movie is of his most engaging films ever directed, and it packs an ending so unexpected that it will startle you.

It’s said that Rabid Dogs became the long lost masterpiece since the movie was shelved and hidden away in the vaults after that producer Roberto Loyola died. Well that’s not quite true, it was shelved and somewhat forgotten for decades, but Loyola didn’t die, he went bankrupt, hence his movies being seized and locked in the vaults, along with a decent number of other movies too.

Several years later, in 1996, Lea Lander (Maria in the movie) somehow obtained rights to several movies thought long to be lost, and with the assistance of a young genre lover Peter Blumenstock, who you may remember released those great Beat at Cinecitta albums back in the late nineties on his Lucertola label, did all they could to get this wonderful piece of film back in the public eye. Blumenstock managed to secure the DVD rights - a very bold thing to do for a young cineaste as this still was the early days of Digital Versatile Disc, and there was no real market for Italian genre pieces like this one at the time. Well there obviously was, even if very limited. But who dare’s wins right! Back in the seventies Lander was the girlfriend of an elderly German gentleman whom invested in the movie on the terms that she was given the lead role in the movie. As Bava had worked with Lander previously on Blood and Black Lace 1964, he accepted the offer, luckily for us today!

Through his Luccertola lable, Blumenstock released the movie and in a splendid way DVD history was made as this movie definitely opened the floodgates for further genre title releases.

A few years on, Mario Bava’s son, Lamberto Bava - a director in his own, and long time Bava producer Alfredo Leone, purchased the rights, re-cut and shot new scenes for Rabid Dogs according to notes left by the late Bava putting together what is referred to as the definitive version of the movie now released under the name Kidnapped. Obviously this disc is a must for Bava fan’s that need to have all his movies, but in my opinion, the Rabid Dogs version is the one to hold, as this stays the closest to the material available when it was shelved, apart from the tinted title-sequence featuring Blumenstock’s girlfriend at the time weeping behind a curtain.(But given the chance to hear Tim Lucas discuss this movie on a commentary track, makes the Anchor Bay edtion very attractive too.) There’s something uncanny and disturbing when you try to tail footage shot some THIRTY years later on to a movie like this. Just remember how god-awful the Special Edition of Night of the Living Dead 1968 was when they inserted a load of new bullshit into that movie. That’s one limited edition disc which only got played once before it was instantly sold further at the second hand film store. You don’t mess around with a classic!

The action kicks in straight away as we are literally thrown inside a mans car as drives it rapidly down the road, honking his horn, and looking at something in the back seat, and checking his watch. We will later learn that this man is Riccardo [Riccardo Cucciolla] A delicate edit from Riccardo’s watch to Doc’s [Maurice Poli] watch where he is faking engine trouble as he waits for a designated car to pass by. The car passes and Doc jumps into his car where three other gang members are waiting. They follow the car in front of them and as it pulls up in front of a building, they rush out with their weapons drawn and as Thirtytwo [George Eastman as Luigi Montefiori] lets out a burst of shots, Doc flinches, which perhaps could be interpreted that he is not the most prone to violence of the four, making it clear that he’s the brains, “they” are the muscle. A third gang member Blade [Don Backy as Aldo Caponi] rushes up to the car, grabbing the briefcase from the man in the cars grasp. But not before stabbing him to death with a huge stiletto knife. The cops are closing in, the gang return to their getaway car, and set off only to have their perfect escape shattered as security guards at the building shoot their driver, and also puncture the gas tank (no, this isn’t an American movie, so the car doesn’t explode in an inferno of flames.) Obviously the car chokes to a halt a short while later and the now group of three bail out seeking refuge in a parking lot as the cops start sealing off the exits. Again we see shots of Riccardo driving through the traffic, glancing over his shoulder at the object in the back seat. Meanwhile back in the parking lot standoff, Blade once again gets active with his stiletto and kills one of the two women they now have taken hostage. Repelled in shock the Cops back off as the villains shove themselves into a new car taking the surviving female, Maria [Lea Lander] with them.

By coincidence they come upon a traffic light and in a cunning move to ditch their getaway car and shake off the cops the mobsters all stumble into the car at the red light… It’s no real shock that we find Ricardo behind the wheel, and he is now yet another of their hostages. And the bundle in the back seat? It’s a kid, a sick kid that Riccardo says he’s taking to the hospital. All of this in the first twelve minutes, gives you a concept of how fast this movie rolls.

The band of characters take off for the countryside, Doc says to Riccardo that they will let him take the kid, Tino o the hospital when they are safe. At the same time Blade and Thirtytwo make moves and provocative suggestions towards Maria. This adds to the tension along with the police helicopters swishing over head, police motorcycles driving past, the traffic jams and the toll booths that they have to get though without being bust or exposed by their kidnap victims. Several opportunities for escape are given for both Maria and Riccardo, and when Maria manages to make a run for it she ends up being chased by the manic Blade and Thirtytwo. Eastman by the way, is completely radiant here as the psychopathic and sadistic Thirtytwo, possibly his best villain ever in my opinion. Needless to say the two thugs catch up with her and Maria learns the hard way what it’s like to be a woman on the wrong side of a gritty, Italian exploitation flick. Back in the car their journey across the country via torment and paranoia continues. Riccardo tends and pleads for the child, and constantly battles Doc for the role of dominating male in the confined space.

Finally the tension cracks, the floodgates burst open, the anxiety within the group brings it all crashing down, and in the final reel you will find out why Riccardo is the coldest sonofabitch of them all. Once you think the movie has ended it turns out that it really has just begun.

Claustrophobia plays a large part in Rabid Dogs, as the majority of the action takes place inside the moving car. In many ways you could imagine Last house on the Left trapped in a moving car! There’s nowhere to go but forward, and your every move is scrutinized by doped up maniacs who don’t flinch to whip out their stilettos and slice a serious gash in your body. Then add the finer details, like the abundance of master shots, it’s all half’s, close up’s or extreme close-ups leaving no space to breath within the frame. As the majority of the film takes place inside the moving car where the heat almost can be felt, the sour stench of the constant sweating people in the car smelled, it is a very enticing movie indeed. Set Stelvio Cipriani’s haunting score to that, and you have nerve wrecking tension at it’s finest.

Rabid Dogs is ferocious to say the least. It is dark, it's gritty, it's pessimistic and highly nihilistic. It lacks most of the arty tenderness and gentle flow associated with Bava’s previous works but instead holds a more in your face harsh gritty documentary tone. If his previous movies where delicate bandages, this one is the oozing scab you can't stop picking at no matter how much it stings and burns. And that’s a good thing, as Bava took a step away from his previous lush looking movies to create this real gem of grindhouse cinema. Never the less it did stay on the shelf for almost twenty years making it mature with time like a good wine.

Image:

Being mastered primarily from various sources, the print looks thereafter too, but keep in mind, when this edition was released it was the only way to see the movie. In later years several other releases have been digitally re-mastered and therefore hold better image quality. Although the Anchor Bay version of Rabid Dogs released in 2007, does have an audio commentary track by Tim Lucas of Video Watchdog, (the magazine which any self respecting cineast will read with a passion) and if there is one person in the word who is the official go to guy when it comes to Mario Bava, you go to Tim Lucas. Period. If you are not familiar with his gigantic study and documentation of Bava [Mario Bava – All the Colors of the Dark] they I pity you, and advise you to seek it out before you do anything else.

Audio:

Italian Dialogue, 2.0 Stereo, English or German subtitles optional

Extras:

A trailer for the Luccertola DVD releases, Filmographies, and essays on Mario Bava by the masterful Tim Lucas, a study of the restoration by Peter Blumenstock.

GOKE, The Bodysnatcher from Hell

GOKE, The Bodysnatcher from Hell

Original title: Kyuketsuki Gokimidoro
Directed by: Hajime Sato
Japan, 1968
Sci-Fi / Horror, 84min
Distributed by: Shochiku Home Video

Story:
A Japanese airplane smashes into the ground after being startled by an unidentified flying object that destroys their flight equipment. The plane crashes into an abandoned area and the surviving passengers start to show their true colours. At the same time the strange object that they saw in the sky has landed and progresses its plan for the annihilation of earth. When a passenger escapes the wreckage and enters the spaceship he is attacked and after the alien being enters his body though a slit in his forehead, he is turned into a bloodthirsty vampire who goes back to feed of the rest of the plane crash survivors…


Me:
Goke IS an amazing piece of Japanese cinema that definitely needs so much more exposure and exploration. It is indeed an entertaining movie with so much more going for it than a lot of contemporary sci-fi horrors of the time had. Remember this is the late 60’s and the main theme of Japanese Sci-Fi was focused on Godzilla, Gamera, The Giant Majin, Mothra and other giant monsters crushing those wonderful miniatures versions of major cities. There are obviously a some exceptions The X from Outer Space (1967) to name one, but then again, those movies focus more on the “good men” of earth defeating the alien invaders. But GOKE goes further; there’s political commentary, there’s alien invasion, there’s vampirism and then there’s the social commentary. Almost everyone in this movie is a bad ass, with nothing more in mind but themselves. From the wealthy corporate arms dealers to the assassin [Hideo Ko] who uses their products, through the bomb wielding terrorist to the widower in grief on her way to collect her husbands dead body, from the uncanny psychologist to the space biologist, they all are disturbing selfish son of a bitches. That is all apart from two, the co-pilot Sugisaka [Teruo Yoshida] and stewardess Kuzumi [Tomomi Sato]. They try their damnedest to get themselves and everyone else through their ordeal and back to civilisation, which is why the shocking downbeat ending blows you away.

There is so much going on in this film that it’s almost impossible to take it all in on one viewing. First there’s the initial setup where the airplane flies through those beautiful red clouds, encountering suicidal birds, not quite understanding what is wrong with the “blood red sky”, this is a premonition of the coming alien invasion, but also works as a kind of warning light for what is about to happen. The plot starts to thicken and gets more complex when we learn that a British minister in Japan recently was assassinated, this is discussed by an arms dealer and his prospect weapons factory owner. The flight centre reports that they have received a note declaring that there is a bomb on the plane, and as they search the passenger’s luggage they stumble upon a small arsenal belonging to the assassin. In the middle of the search as goodhearted Sugisaka and Kuzumi make up excuses for the search as not to alarm the passengers, the psychiatrist stands up and declares that they might be searching for a bomb! He does this for his own scientific (or perhaps sadistic) intentions as it gives him an extraordinary situation to study the human psyche when opposed to a deadly threat. Suddenly the flying saucer attacks the plane making all the technical equipment and motors burst into flames. This gives director Sato an excellent opportunity to use all that great Japanese miniature photography so frequently used in the Kaiju movies, to show a very realistic shot of the burning plane crashing though trees and slamming into the ground. Pretty soon after they crash the true “terrorist” is revealed as he flees the burning wreckage to hide his bomb he still has to use. Now we know that the passengers are all pretty dubious characters, those who have been introduced pre-crash are the ones still alive after impact. Only Sugisaka and Kuzumi take time to put blankets over the deceased, as the others start bickering over the little water supplies left. The US widow on her way to reclaim her husband’s body uses up all the water left to wash herself after the crash, leaving the rest of the passengers without valuable fluid.

At the same time the narrative progresses there is a political commentary running through out the movie, from the “in flight” discussion about the assassinated British minister to the final “you are doomed” comments from the alien which ends with a collage of atomic holocaust imagery. The statements made by the two businessmen are quite obviously references to how the rest of the world is rapidly degenerating, and at the time of the movie the cold war was at it’s peak, Vietnam was coming to it’s pinnacle just as the Korean war was ending, Japan obviously felt very vulnerable as they where in the middle of a world itching to scratch, and even though Japan tried it’s hardest to show up the brave face of a neutral country with no further ambitions to make war, but focus on putting their past behind them, the movie shows that under the surface Japan is just like everywhere else with it’s fair share of egocentrism, escalated violence, and political terrorism.

Anyhow, the plane has crashed, the anarchy and paranoia runs astray. The Hijacking assassin kidnaps Kuzumi and rushes out into the desert only to stumble upon the glowing alien spacecraft. Not being able to control the urge to investigate it he gets too close and the alien mind force draws him into the craft. There in a room full of dark brooding lights the alien creature, looking almost like molten mercury creates a split in the hijackers’ forehead. That split in his head is an area of discussion, because it mostly looks like a vagina, and is frequently referred to as that in other reviews, and I could divulge into an analytical rant about Vagnia Dentate. Symbolism and all that comes with that, but I won’t and I’ll just refer to it as a slit in his head where the alien being enters his body. The alien life form turns him into a vampire and pretty soon he’s back at the wreck feeding off the blood of the decreasing number of survivors. One by one they fall victim to the space vampire and we learn more and more about the unlikeable cast and their terrifying egocentrism. The weapon factory owner turns his head as his wife is groped and molested by the arms dealer, as the profits of the pending deal ahead is much more lucrative for him than his family values. Mrs Neal, the widower takes a gun to the survivors to get her way through, and as previously mentioned they all show their darkest traits when confronted with the stalking terror outside the plane wreckage. But still, Sugisaka and Kuzumi try to keep the survivors’ spirits high but one by one they fall victim to the space vampire. Finally Sugisaka and Kuzumi go up against the alien life form, and seem to defeat it, but in reality the alien has only moved to a new host, and they are faced no further options but to run, run as fast and as far as they can until they reach civilisation.

I love that all the major studios named their aspect ratios after themselves, i.e.: Tohoscpoe, Shintoscope, Nikkatsuscope and here GOKE produced by the Shochiku Company, shot in full glorious Shochiku Grandscope. On a pop cultural level, GOKE is yet another one of those movies that Quentin Tarantino nods his head to in his 2003 movie Kill Bill: Volume 1, just like the swordfight with is an obvious nod to Toshiyo Fujita’s Lady Snowblood from 1973. When the Bride [Uma Thurman] flies to Japan in Kill Bill: Volume 1, just check out those dramatically coloured skies to see what I’m talking about.

But if we’re going to talk about influences and references, it has to be pointed out that director Sato has stated that Mario Bava was a major influence on his career as a director, and it’s quite obvious when you see what art director Tadataka Yoshino and cinematographer Shizuo Hirase did with the amazing style and imagery of this movie. On more than one occasion does Planet of the Vampires come to mind. There’s also a lot of the pop-culture look and feeling of Seijuin Suzuki’s Nippon Noir movies in here too, with Hideo Ko's suave assassin turned hijacker in his white suit and black shades. Then there’s the wonderfully nihilistic reference similar to that found in The Planet of the Apes, as Sugisaka and Kuzumi finally manage to find their way get back to civilisation only to find out that the rest of the world has already gone to hell while they where missing. The camera pulls back showing a dying earth as the army of flying saucers proceeds to hover towards their latest conquest.

Unfortunately this was the last movie that Hajime Sato directed, although he did continue writing a few scripts. It’s a shame that he didn’t direct more movies because the few movies he did directed only get better and better with time, and when you start noticing all the influences and references there is a sublime indication that this director could have broken out and developed into a acknowledged master of the arts on par to Ishirô Honda, Jun Fukuda and Nobuo Nakagawa. But then again GOKE is an amazing movie to end your career on and in more than one way the swan song of a great director.

Image:
Shochiku Grandscope 2.35 : 1

Audio:
Japanese Language 2.0 Dolby Digital. English Subtitles optional

Extras:
No extras.

Nothing Underneath

Nothing Underneath

[Modell morden]
Original Title: Sotto il vestito niente
Directed by: Carlo Vanzina
Italy 1985
Giallo, 90min
Distributed by: Njutafilms.

Story:
Fashion, models, drugs and murder in Milan is what brings Wyoming Ranger Bob Crane to Italy as he searches for his missing twin sister Jessica. Through telepathic visions Bob saw Jessica being murdered and with the help of aging Commissioner Dannesi he starts his own investigation into his sisters’ whereabouts. Quickly making friends with Barbara, another model living at the same hotel as he is, he finds himself in the middle of a series of murders where the friends of his sister are being killed off one by one. Everything points in the direction of the sleazy jeweler Giorgio Pelloni whose main interests are snorting cocaine, looking at photographs of himself and shagging fashion models, sometimes more than one at a time. After presenting a water tight alibi, a dark secret is revealed, and the investigation has to search for new suspects. That’s when Bob receives a strange telegram from his missing sister…

Me:
Like many of the great sub genres there comes a time when they painfully prove top have past their best before date. The Italian Giallo is no exception, and Carlo Vanzina’s Nothing Underneath, shot in 1985, is mostly a showcase of a dying genre’s last gasps. The story, un-originally enough, is set in Milan, where young photo models are being murdered one by one. As mentioned, it’s a quite used theme and definitely previously explored within the Giallo sphere, from Maria Bava’s Blood and Black Lace [Sei donne per l'assassino], 1964, to Andrea Bianchi’s Strip Nude for your Killer [Nude per l’assasino] 1975. (Although the Giallo as a genre lived on well into the early nineties presenting a few decent pieces along the way.) The gloved killer stalking fashion models getting in and out of their clothing feels quite tedious when it’s still being used some twenty years later. On top of this there’s a few quite misplaced shots’ that do more to disturb the movie than help it along. For an instance there’s a completely uncalled for crotch shot which looks more like an insert than anything else right in the start of the build towards the second killing. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against sporadic nudity as it definitely is part of the Giallo atmosphere, but this shot is just so out of place, and actually had me making a mental note that the later Gialli certainly don’t have the “kinky charm” that the early ones had. But, naked women, suave men, gloved assassins and onscreen violence are all part of the tricks of the trade so it shouldn’t distract me; rather the opposite but the unmotivated beaver shot just annoyed me. Even the sleaziest entries into the genre didn’t go that far without a very motivated reason. There’s a much classier shot a few minutes later where Carrie [Catherine Noyes] walks out on Giorgio [Cyrus Elias] after refusing to have sex with him. She runs from the suite and on her way she walks over a subway grid, and shot from beneath the grid the wind lifts her skirt in a The Seven Year Itch/Marilyn Monroe homage that is far more refined. And that’s the level it should be kept at. More of a teasing of the senses instead of a gagging close up.

Anyhow enough ranting about that because this film does have a few very interesting things going for it after all. The main plot focuses on Bob Crane [Tom Schanley] a ranger from Wyoming who travels to Milan to investigate what has happened to his twin sister Jessica [Nicola Perring] after experiencing a vision where he sees her being murdered. This twin paranormal connection is used in several occasions and works great as a bridge between moving us to the next set up and presenting new twists in the plot. Like the climax where Bob “feels” the presence of his sister and makes his way towards her location. It would have been impossible to have him find that flat with out this great device, and it works like a charm. Again it's nothing new to the Giallo sphere as premonitions of death have been used in the genre before like in Lucio Fulci's Murder to the Tune of Seven Black Notes to name one. The legendary Donald Pleasance (speaking with the most ridiculous fake Italian dialect) is Commissioner Daniesi who at first neglects Bob’s inquiry, but later reveals that he is going to retire in two weeks time and want s to close this case before he quits the force. Pleasance is always a joy to watch and even though he looks really old and tired he impresses like hell as they chase a suspect through the Milan Central station. But after starring in Seven movies during 1985 it’s easy to understand if he was getting tired. There are a few surprises that work really well as they are built up to through genre conventions. Towards the end of the film when most of the “red herrings” are killed off and there are only two options left to who the killer can be, the missing Jessica is reintroduced, and things take an unexpected twist just before the climactic finale where the true killer chases Bob around the apartment with a power drill. Also one of the minor details that I love about the Gialli is that the title is frequently reflected in the narrative of the movie. It almost becomes a second puzzle to solve as you watch the movie, where it the title reference hidden this time. In this case the original title Sotto il vestito niente translates more or less to “nothing underneath the clothes” which is a reference to why Giorgio likes fashion models so much.

I feel that I have to mention something about Renée Toft Simonesen here seen as she is the leading lady of this movie. She plays Barbara, Bob’s “love interest” in the movie, who not until the very end of the movie proves to have known Jessica much more intimately than she has been claiming throughout the movie. Danish “girl next door” Simonsen was one of the most successful models during the 80’s. She was the cover girl on German Vogue in March, April and September and was also featured on the cover of Roxy Music’s compilation album Atlantic Years in 1983. She only acted in two movies, one being this one and then in a second movie with Carlo Vanzina, the comedy Via Montenapoleone in 1987. Then she started to pull herself away from the fashion industry, and after turning down a role as Bond girl in 1988 she retired from the business to start studying psychology. Today she has authored two books and works as a psychologist. Now doesn’t that make you want to sit down with her and listen to her analysis of the Barbara character from a professional stance? I know I would!

In the late eighties there was a significant change in the soundtracks of most Italian genre movies, where the great collaborations with the likes of Ennio Morricone, Riz Ortolani, Stelvio Cipriani, Bruno Nicolai and Goblin where set aside for a more modern approach. For some undeclared reason, modern pop and rock oozed it’s way into the soundtracks of several great Italian genre pieces, which just like this one, damages them now some twenty years later as what was once considered contemporary music hasn’t aged as gracefully as the jazzy scores by Ennio Morricone has, or the ferocious progressive rock of bands like Goblin have. Remember Lamberto Bava’s Demoni movies? Remember Argento’s Terror at the Opera. Remember Michele Soavi’s The Sect [La Setta]? When they first where released the new wave and hard rock music was spot on, but today those movies are almost unwatchable as the soundtracks are so outdated by their musical choices. Even with its score by Pino Donnagio, Nothing Underneath suffers from the late eighties pop music used in the fashion shows, the shoots, the parties and just annoys the crap out of me. If only they had stuck with the Donnagio score it might have had a chance to stay timeless.

But still, Nothing Underneath is after all a decent Giallo, even though it shows the flaws of being in the later period of the genre and mostly just rehashing old ideas. But there are a few interesting twists that make up for the familiarity and in my opinion rather mild approach to the onscreen violence. Compared to earlier Gialli and contemporary Italian horror of the late eighties there could have been a lot more visual carnage on screen, but here the most visual it gets, is a pair of scissors pushed into a back. And even though the spin on the almost obligatory “bath tub murder” is kept off screen only to be used by the killer to wash the blood of the scissors, there are several scenes where they could have gone so much further making a bigger imprint. The power drill fight at the end is very lame, it could have gotten much more violent and gorier with a few effects, and the girl who committed suicide could have been much more visual. One exploding head effect could have worked wonders for the movie and really have made a mark. Screenwriter Franco Ferrini shows the beginning of a great career taking off with this movie. Where he previously had been part of a larger writing staff on the likes of Michele Massimo Tarantini’s Crimebusters, and Sergio Leone’s Once Upon a Time in America, he moved up to being co-writer with Lamberto Bava on Demons, Dario Argento on Phenomena, Two Evil Eyes, Trauma, Stendhal Syndrome, Sleepless, The Card Player and Do You Like Hitchcock?, and not to forget Eros Pugielli’s Eyes of Crystal from 2004 the closest thing to a Giallo to hit the screens in a long time.

All in all, Sotto il vestito niente is entertaining, it has a few surprises you won’t see coming and most of all an interesting study of mid eighties music, style and fashion, not to say one of the better movies of a dying genre.

Image:
Cinemascope 2:35:1 / Anamorphic

Audio:
English Dolby Digital 5.1 or English Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional subtitles in Swedish, Danish, Norwegian or Finnish.

Extras:
Theatrical Trailer, other Gialli Trailers from Njuta Films/Another World Entertainment, trailer show for other Njuta Films/Another World Entertainment titles, a slideshow of publicity stills and director filmography.