Review of Mania

Lisa, the beautiful blonde wife of Professor Brecht (Brad Euston), is psychologically tormented by visions of her late husband, a deranged scientist who died in a laboratory fire. The scientist was conducting some kind of revivification experiments involving electric waves. This remains unclear due to the fact that I have only seen a poor quality Italian language print, which was also missing over 5 minutes of footage. A hyper kinetic mind-games thriller with a typical twist at the end is made unique by director Polselli's artfully frenzied style involving rapid fire editing of dizzying camera angles, close up of actors screaming dialogue and just plain screaming and cross cutting violent scenes to considerable effect. This is very similar to Polselli's 1972, DELIRIO CALDO, and it was partially shot at the same elaborate villa complete with basement torture chambers, secret laboratories and a labyrinth of tunnels. The soundtrack features some 70s acid rock, Gothic style organ music and barking dogs. This has never been on VHS, DVD or had any significant theatrical release. (Written by Robert Monell, 2016)