Only now, I managed to find and watch this rarity. The first time I caught this on TV, I was very little but I never forgot two things: it was one of the first horror movies made in Brazil I've ever seen, so I was deeply impressed by the moving objects scenes; and all I could remember was that Flávio Galvão had a leading role. Oh yes, it was the very first time I heard the word "claustrophobia". Cut to almost twenty years later and now I know what's this all about. "Excitação" ("Excitment") is a mystery thriller focusing on isolation, mental problems and strange occurrences inside a house.
Loyal couple Helena and Renato (played by Kate Hansen and Flávio Galvão) move down to a beach house trying to forget the problems they had in the city with the constant psychotic outbursts the wife had. She doesn't want to be treated by doctors anymore, and this moving seems to be good until the unexplained and sudden attacks she suffers from the electronic objects of the house. One day, the shower almost becomes a gas chamber; other time the ventilator grabs her hair and almost causes a tragedy; TV, lights and radio goes on and off whenever she's alone in the house. And worst: she starts to have visions of a hanged man, who pops from time to time along with the electronic objects. And while Helena deals with those, her husband - who never believes her stories and when he does, he decides to give her a gun for protection - is having an affair with the neighbor and her cousin, who appears all of sudden to complicate things, messing around with the already disturbed poor next door woman.
Putting the pieces together require some effort but I must admit, almost everything here is very predictable. There's only two things that were surprising, and the twist wasn't one of them. But even so, "Excitação" plays with our nerves, injects some strange humor and there's highly effective love scenes (you really think Renato cares about Helena despite we already know of his involvement with the former owner of their present house). What ruins the movie is the stiff acting from everyone involved (Galvão is quite decent though). The poor delivery of lines, the actors' expressions are just problematic and silly - the scene with the fisherman offering a fish to Helena is amazingly laughable despite being a tense moment when she snaps, having another vision.
Considering that the 1970's is the worst decade in Brazilian cinema, in terms of quality (only beats the early 1990's cause we didn't have cinema at all), this movie is a level above and one of the best made in the period. Mention must be made to the good special effects, the careful cinematography of future director Carlos Reichenbach and the musical score that creates an interesting and spooky score during Helena's sudden visions. It stays with you for a long time, trust me. 7/10
