Darkness Surrounds Roberta

I recently viewed Darkness Surrounds Roberta and would highly recommend it to anyone who are fans of the by gone era of classic giallos of the 60's and 70's. The film brings to mind great giallo's by Argento, Ercoli, Lenzi, Bava and Martino. These are films of a lost era and anyone who is a fan of them will appreciate this movie. It is a direct to DVD release and is certainly an independent movie. However, it was shot in Florence, Italy and has lots of violence, kinky sex, and strange events going on with a killer score. The women are smoking hot and although the script is far from perfect, the atmosphere that is created feels like the movie was released in the 70's in the classic era of giallos. It pays homage to the great giallos and does so much better then other recent releases, such as Bad Inclination, which was a major disappointment.

I would highly recommend this movie to fans of giallo who have realistic expectations of what to expect. If you are not a fan of such films, you probably will not like it, but for giallo fans, it is a welcome release in a area that is really hard to duplicate effectively. Giallos were far from perfect technical movies, but that was part of the fun. This movie is simply a surprising treat to the senses.

What a nice surprise this movie really is. Is it perfect? Nope. But as a huge fan of giallo movies by Argento, Bava, Fulci (yes he did some good ones), Martino, etc.. I can honestly say that this movie for me is a multiple re-watcher! LOVE the color palate. There is one scene inside Roberta's apartment that really captures a Suspiria type feel in terms of the color washes! The musical score by Marco Werba is PHENOMENAL and deserves so much more attention from any fan of giallo musical scores. I can't say enough about it as it fits perfectly with the characters moods and what's happening on screen. The script follows the standards set for a good giallo with it's expected twist ending, and twisted logic. It also has an certain sense of the sexual supernaturalness (is that a word?) along with the standard giallo storyline which I liked a lot. The acting is much better than most independent low to mid budget productions. And specifically in the case of lead actress Yassmin Pucci I find myself really drawn to her. She does a wonderful job and evokes a true melancholy mood inside me watching her performance. She is beautiful, sultry, sad, and above all...mesmerizing on screen. Joe Zaso plays a blind detective in an homage to Dario Argento's Cat O' Nine Tails and deserves lots of credit for injecting his own passion for the genre into this film. So if you haven't seen a good giallo in a while and want to feel that special feeling you use to get when watching them back in the day so to speak. Then I highly suggest you set the lights down and settle into the Darkness that Surrounds Roberta!