User reviews

Due to its predictable, second-rate title, (the one it was distributed under in Italy, at least) I didn't expect much from this movie. Thought it'd be another cheap flick about a haunted house ("LA CASA MALEDETTA" means "The cursed house"). Well, I had to change my mind just after the very first brilliant scene! The constant presence of priests and the creepy atmospheres, reminded me a bit of The Exorcist and some of its decent Italian rip-offs, but this was going to be something completely different... This is more like Hitchcock meets Italian thriller! Very well written and directed, good actors, interesting plot... OK, I've tried not to spoil the viewing of "7 Hyden Park" for you, which I'd highly recommend to everyone.

P.S. Am I wrong, or when Joanna crawls or tries hard to stand (she's paralyzed from the waist down) her feet and legs move a little too much? (... And I'm not talking of the "bad dream" sequence.)

Paralyzed after being attacked as a child by a priest, Joanna (Christina Nagy) finds love in her handsome fencing instructor Craig (David Warbeck). The two quickly marry and all seems bliss until Joanna starts having terrible visions about this lecherous priest. Is she really crazy or is someone trying to drive her insane? Warbeck and director Alberto De Martino re-teamed for this murder mystery following the dreadful Miami HORROR of the same year. With some location work done in Boston and New York City, this is a much better film for De Martino to finish his career with, but not by much. First, the mystery is overly simple. Here is a tip for future filmmakers - if one of your actors has a distinctive chin, don't film only that part of them when you are trying to disguise who the killer is! Second, the film is filled with dimwit moments like our lead finally getting to use the phone while being attacked and she calls her doctor. He doesn't answer so she - you guessed it - tries him again! Still, the film features a nice score, a few evocative dream sequences and a great performance from the criminally underrated Warbeck. Plus, it goes by quickly, which is more than I can say for the painful Miami HORROR.

One of the least known of the gialli but it is rather different. It doesn't have much logic to it and certainly not the most sexy giallo and it does have rather a lot of hallucinations but it does have more one or two priests, good, bad or unfortunate. There are some rather nasty kills even if we are not too surprised they really are bloody. Carroll Blumenberg only had this one film and Christina Nagy really worked in TV in the UK. David Warbeck was born in the New Zealand but well known in the UK with TV and with Twins of Evil (1971) and Duck, You Sucker ( 1971) and with Lucio Fulci and The Beyond and The Black Cat both in 1981. This was Alberto De Martino's last film but had had a couple of gialli also with Exorcist inspired, The Antichrist (1974) one of my favourites. He made a decent effort to make this swan song and it should be better known.

My review was written in October 1986 after a screening at Selwyn theater on Manhattan's 42nd Street.

"Formula for Murder" is an above-average Italian thriller. Concurrent with its U. S. theatrical release, pic is available on video cassette under the slightly different title "Formula for a Murder" from Lightning Video.

Set in Boston, where most of the film was shot, pic falls loosely into the "Gaslight" genre, as Craig (British thesp David Warbek, dubbed with an American accent) trains paraplegic Joanna (Christina Nagy) for special athletics events to be held in New York City. They fall in love and plan to marry, which makes Joanna's lovely live-in companion Ruth (Carroll Blumenberg) very jealous.

Carried by fine acting by Christina Nagy, pic drags a bit halfway through as Warbeck procrastinates while Blumenberg urges him to kill Nagy, but it picks up again with okay twists. Tech credits are okay and, except for the post-synchronized dialog, pic adequately passes for a U. S.-style production.

A slick, atmospheric Italian thriller involving a wealthy young woman who is unable to walk and has some sort of heart condition. The doctor tells her she can die having sex. She trains in wheelchair sports and soon gets married to the coach. The coach has a hidden agenda and really just wants all her money to share with his girlfriend. The wife is also giving half of her fortune to the church which the husband (coach) does not like one bit. He plans to kill her with lots of sex but things don't go as planned.

I wouldn't really call this an Giallo because the killer is revealed after 20 minutes leaving no real mystery. It is in Italian though. This is the same director that did The Antichrist (1974). This one is not as graphic and no goats, but there are some violent deaths. The score was awesome as well but I thought sometimes it was too loud.

Even after you know who the murderer is tension is still created throughout the whole thing. The ending was cool too as you keep thinking that's it... then boom! It was the equivalent of 2 boy Jasons jumping out of the water.

A passable Giallo containing thrills , chills , bloody effects , and gory body-count. An instructor: David Warbeck marries a sad woman : Christina Nagy hooked on a whelchair . As a little girl the deranged wife suffered a traumatic event that is still unsettling her . Later on , various people start being murdered and a high body count begins to mount , resulting in fateful consequences .

A stylish and late Giallo packing suspense , thrills , effective easthetic , brief nudism, gory scenes , twists and turns . Functional and routine Giallo but delivering the goods with mystery and tense enough . There's a stunning final in which several terror set pieces happen and shot in eye-poping style . The movie is a fair murder mystery in which a lot of grisly killings occuring here and there with people are reletlessly butchered . 7 Hyden Park is slim on story and a bit too talky , though it makes up for a thrilling climax . Stars the unknown Christina Nagy as the unfortunate wife and the British David Warbeck who starred various B films in Italy. Accompanied by some Italian familiar faces as Loris Loddi, Andrea Bosic and Rossano Brazzi. It is an Eighties's Giallo , this sub-genre got its maximum splendor in the Seventies with "Mario Bava" films : A bay of blood , The Girl who knew too much , Kill baby kill, Hatchet for the honeymoon, 5 dolls for an August Moon and "Dario Argento" : The cat of 9 tails , 4 flies on Gray Velvet , Bird with the crystal plumage , Creepers , Suspiria , Deep Red.

Here stands out the thrilling and suspenseful musical score by Francesco De Massi, he was a prolific musician who composed a large number of scores in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties and in all kinds of genres . As well as the colorful cinematography by Gianlorenzo Battaglia, shot in the United States . The motion picture was regular but professionally directed by Alberto de Martino . This Italian writer/director was a good artisan who wrote and directed several movies in all kinds of Italian sub-genres and exploitation movies , and various straight rip-offs with little attention to plot detail . He often shot flicks to cash in other hugely boxoffice hits as "The Exorcist" Martino made "Anti Christ" , "The Godfather" he made "The Counsellor" , and "the Omen" he filmed "Holocaust 2000" . As Martino shot Peplum or Sword and Sandals movies : "Spartan Gladiators" , "Invincible Gladiator" , "Seven Spartans" , "Valley of Stone men" , "Secret Seven" . Spaghetti Western sub-genre : "Django shoots first" , "Providence", "Charge of Seven Cavalry" . Euro-Spy sub-genre : "Ok Connery" , "Operation Lady Chaplin". Wartime : "Dirty Heroes" .Terror : "The AntiChrist" , "Miami Golem" , "Horror", "Holocaust 2000" or The "Chosen" . And Giallo : "The killer is on the phone" , "Blazing Magnums" , "7 Hyden Park" . Rating : 6/10, acceptable and passable. The pic will appeal to Giallo followers .

Formula for a Murder completely lacks the mystery of an unknown killer, a key element of so many Italian movies known as Giallo. These combine horror with a series of murders, often involving a police investigation. The British DVD covers gives away the killers identity, and it is not long into the film before that is confirmed. However, there is plenty of shock and style, though it is not on par with the classics in this sub genre. David Warbeck gives a satisfying performance, though I fear he was dubbed.Some great kills (thankfully the British release is uncut), a little bit of sex and a decent, if somewhat predictable finale.

A very suspenseful giallo from the director of "L'Anticristo"(1974),this one begins with a brilliantly-handled sequence involving a priest,a little girl,and a broken doll.However the main story is about maniac(David Warbeck)marrying a traumatized cripple to kill her for her money.The plot,whilst not original,is really suspenseful,the acting is good and there are several skillful and gory murders.The score by Francesco de Massi is quite effective,some of which can also be heard in Lucio Fulci's "The New York Ripper"(1982).Highly recommended for fans of Italian cinema!

OK De Martino did some decent films... And I love a good giallo as much as the next man ... Probably more … But this is unbelievably bad ... I can only think that the good write-ups here are coming from people who are trying to pass this off as a lost giallo bootleg you should buy ... All I can say is thank god for the internet Its great to see David Warbeck obviously ... And he knows very well its drivel, but a cheque ... God knows who the two women were, I can't be bothered to look, but lets just say I won't be searching out any more of their work ... If there was any Give this one a wide berth folks ... Unless you are a completist like me ... Why do we put ourselves through this : ))

This movie is an average thriller with an over-the-top performance by David Warbeck. He plays an instructor who married a handicapped woman, who's been tormented by a traumatized event when she was young. The marriage is part of an evil scheme and pretty soon some people turn up dead. There is a few interesting plot twists but overall it is a fairly entertainment effort by B-Movie director Alberto de Martino.

Formula for a Murder in one of the latter day giallo flicks made in the 80's. By this point in time, the more mystery-driven style had made way for films with much simpler plot-lines. This movie is no different from others in this respect – it sets up a mystery narrative, only to dispense with it half-way into the movie and going down a more straight-forward path until it reaches its climax. A wealthy paraplegic woman falls in love with a man who has been hired to train her for an archery/fencing competition. She lost the use of her legs as a child when falling down a flight of stairs when running from a rapist priest. In the present day, she starts being menaced by a mysterious sinister priest.

This one starts very effectively, with a couple of well executed scenes. In the opening segment, a little girl is menaced by the shady priest. The scene is scored with some very creepy music, is shot in a dream-like fashion and also includes details like a creepy child's doll. It's a moment that could easily have graced one of the gialli from the golden age of the genre back in the early 70's. Immediately after this we have a set-piece in a church where a priest is murdered by a black gloved assassin. Up to this point, this has all the hall marks of a classic-style giallo. But, as I said earlier, the mystery is revealed early and the focus is changed but not really to the film's overall benefit, as I think personally that the mystery factor adds quite a bit to this particular genre. Like many of its peers, though, it does have its fair share of gory murder set-pieces and some are quite striking (if you can forgive such a dreadful pun).

This one was helmed by the middling Italian director Alberto De Martino who made several films of various genres, the best one of which was possibly the pretty good Exorcist (1973) knock-off L'anticristo (1974). It also features the 80's Italian b-movie leading man David Warbeck in the role of the fitness instructor. It additionally is an example of another early 80's Italian trend in horror movies in that it is set in America, not Europe. I guess this was to help pass them off as American products which I imagine helped sell them easier to certain demographics. Although, it's always a bit of a shame losing the Italian flavour that can be derived from shooting the thing in pastaland. Overall, Formula for a Murder is a decent example of the genre but not much more. It does have some very good moments though, and will certainly offer something to disciples of the genre though.

A Formula For Murder isn't a well known Giallo, but that isn't to say it's not a very good one! The film is directed by Alberto De Martino, the man behind cult classics such as The Antichrist and Blazing Magnums. The film was released late on in the Giallo cycle, but more than stands up to many of the films released around the 'golden' period in the early seventies. Despite a lack of logic in some areas, the film works mainly due to the competent way it mixes Argento style death scenes with some genuinely surprising plot twists, and a host of well defined characters. The film is, perhaps, not as exciting overall as many other films in the genre; but this is more than compensated for by the assured way that the central situation is fed to the audience, and the tension resulting from that. The plot begins by showing a fake priest raping a young girl named Joanna, before pushing her down a flight of steps. We then fast forward several years and the girl is now a woman, who is unfortunately in a wheelchair. She is being trained for a sports event by Craig; a man who also has romantic designs on her. However, his proposal isn't met with glee by Joanna's personal assistant, who also has romantic designs on her.

The film features a plot twist half way through that makes up the backbone of the movie, and while it's not exactly logical; it's good to watch and hints that you're in for an interesting movie. Director Alberto de Martino is clearly not afraid to show a few outrageous gore scenes, and the best of which in this film features a priest being battered to death by a spade - and I personally wouldn't hesitate to name that sequence as one of my favourite Giallo murder scenes! The plot can be a little uneven at times, but generally the action is very good. The director spends what seems like an eternity on the conclusion to the film; but it's absolutely packed with tension, and the way that it plays out is good in that it takes advantage of all the plot points that have gone before it. The musical score, taken from Fulci's The New York Ripper, works well in this film also and, breaking a Giallo tradition, de Martino's film also features some rather good acting performances from cult veteran David Warbeck and Christina Nagy, in her only feature film role. Overall, this film isn't one of the easiest Giallo's to come across; but its well worth tracking down and comes recommended to fans of this sort of film.