Francesca

When this film arrived at my doorstep I was pleased while looking at the box and artwork. In recent months I'd begun to be exposed to more giallo films than ever and have begun enjoying an appreciation of them which I hadn't in the past, for the most part because of having less access to them. To think I'd now be exposed to another made me happy. I became a tad leery when I learned it was not one of the original films but a tribute of sorts to the genre. But I plunged in headfirst anyway with some hope. Unfortunately the movie didn't live up to my hopes and expectations.

The film opens with a strange sequence involving a mother taking care of an infant and a young girl who seems to be enjoying stabbing a dead bird. Within moment we see her stabbing into the same stroller the mother was rocking and hear her mother scream. Fast forward to 15 years later.

It's been that long since the disappearance of Francesca, the young daughter of poet/dramatist Vittorio Visconti. Stabbed by her abductor he is now unable to walk and confined to a wheelchair. Visconti lives with his invalid wife who remains in a seemingly state of shock ever since the kidnapping of their daughter. Other than help they live alone.

When a series of murders in the area begins the police are baffled. Notes left at the scenes of the crime leave no clues with the exception that they are lines derived from Dante's INFERNO. Visconti was a scholar on Dante and the two police detectives turn to him for assistance in deciphering just what that murderer could be trying to tell them with these notes.

All of the trademarks from the classic giallo are there. The gloved hands of the killer. The viewpoint of the murders as seen through the killers eyes. The police investigating the murders. And yet the movie feels hollow about best and a poor substitute at worst.

Part of this is the decision of writer/director Luciano Onetti to turn this from a standard giallo into a combination of homage and experimental film. Sequences that make no sense are tossed in throughout. Characters that I either forgot or didn't recall suddenly have important roles towards the end. Clue that should have led us as viewers to a rational solving of the puzzle actually lead us nowhere down blind paths that have nothing to do with a solution or that offer clues that aren't based in reality.

The cinematography for the film felt truly lacking to me. Most of it had a strange use of color giving almost everything a blue tinge. The sharpness was also so intense that everything from beard hairs to skin pores felt like they stood out enough to take away concentration from the story itself. The gore effects were some of the worst I've seen in what should have been a prestige styled film with blood looking more like thinned out jelly.

The acting, even though I understand it was done with a foreign cast, never felt believable to me and it wasn't due to something lost in translation. I've seen far too many foreign films to think that this was the best there was/is to offer from actors in other countries. The death scene of one victim by steam iron strangulation has to be one of the worst death scenes ever filmed and completely unbelievable. The faceless killer felt as unthreatening as possible.

Unearthed Films has a lot of faith in this release. The box art is stunning and great to look at bringing back fond memories of the classic giallo films. It contains not just the blu-ray version of the film but standard DVD as well. It also offers a CD of the film's soundtrack as well, sounding much like the classic Goblin scores from earlier giallo films. A flyer is included inside the box and extras on the disc include a behind the scenes featurette, deleted scenes, an interview with director Luciano Onetti and his producer/brother Nicolas and an Unearthed Trailer reel.

I've read some reviews that have praised this film. Sorry to say I am not one of those. I call it as I see it. I'm anxious to return to viewing the actual giallo films of the past and remain hopeful that the genre will see a rise in new movies that follow the same patterns they established. This one is filled far too much with its own agenda as opposed to being a tribute for my taste. Some may find this new take refreshing but unfortunately I'm not one.

Is this the seventies??? nope, but this is a new Italian giallo that if you are a fan of the giallo genre, you would think so. The red gloved killer, the music, all very familiar with giallo films of old. And of course, when the killer is revealed at the end, you were never supposed to guess. The plot is simple, a serial killer is at work, and the police are trying to solve the case. The killings are brutal and very well done, with a great soundtrack to remind us again, this is giallo. I love this genre, and am a huge Dario Argento fan, to me, the grandmaster of the genre. I liked it, it brought back some fond memories of so many Italian movies from that era.

As a fan of giallo movies I was very excited about this modern one. But this one was more experimental than giallo. The plot is incoherent and I still kinda do not understand why did some murders happen... overall 5.2 rating here corresponds to what I think. I had big hopes, instead I feel like I want to say a big "no" to this movie.

If you've been exposed to 70's and 80's Italian giallo and horror movies this will feel very familiar.

I couldn't help but smile at the bad Italian dubbing, blaring soundtrack, erratic handheld camerawork with dramatic zooms, bottle of J&B and drawn-out story with a lot of filler footage etc.

I don't know if I'd recommend this to anyone else than fans of 70's and 80's Italian giallo and horror movies, but if you are at least familiar with those genres this should be a fun ride.

6,5/10.

I never understood why it seemed impossible to make a modern giallo film. Everything released in the style after the 80s seemed to be quite awful, even by greats like Argento. The 90s had a few fun ones but by the turn of the century no one seemed to want to make them anymore and if they did they did it badly. I had resigned myself to thinking that very specific style just couldn't come across in the digital format or was only fun by way of kitsch- then something wonderful happened. In the 2010s there was a resurgence of 70s throwback horror and with that came a smaller, more minor giallo revival, starting with the work of Helene Cattete and Bruno Forzani. Unfortunately, although miles ahead of previous attempts, their work was mainly style focused, being incoherent and surreal. One could argue that those are points of reference for the original scene, and they are, but most gialli, even Argento's most dreamlike works, still had a logic that made sense within the movie. This duo's films seemed to be just a barrage of images dressed up Italy in the 70s. And so I was disappointed- until today. Francesca does everything right. Starting with the basics- the score, the 70s styled grainy film, the throwback sets and, especially, the dubbing. All of this comes together to create something that truly feels authentic even if you wouldn't necessarily be able to mistake it for something made back in the day. It's hard to recapture something like that, maybe impossible, but this film has come as close as ive ever seen. One thing I didn't like about it was the lack of a final girl. It almost seemed like there was no main character for much of the film, the perspective was split several ways. The excitement of most slashers, for me, comes with watching the main character escape death over and over again while everyone else around them succumbs. But other than that I have no complaints. This is a great film and I'm extremely excited to see what this guy might do next.