The Killer Reserved Nine Seats

The Killer Reserved Nine Seats apparently takes influence from Agatha Christie's classic novel 'Ten Little Indians'. Unfortunately I've not got round to reading Christie's story yet, although I'm guessing that in her writing, all the women weren't so keen on taking their clothes off, the murders weren't so grisly and there wasn't such an emphasis on sleaze! While The Killer Reserved Nine Seats can't be described as the nastiest Giallo to come out of Italy, it certainly has its moments and one scene in particular is likely to please any fan of this sort of film! The plot focuses on an old theatre where an entire family were killed for reasons unknown. The rich aristocratic owner invites nine people there, but it's not long before they start being picked off by an incognito assailant in a sinister mask. Naturally, every one of the guests has a motive; and since the doors are locked, it's obvious that the murderer is one of the guests. And not only that, but just when you thought things couldn't get any more complicated, it turns out the theatre is under the power of some ancient family curse!

I would like to state clearly that this film is heavily flawed...but I'm such a big fan of this stuff that things such as the poor narrative, questionable character actions and the needless and silly supernatural sub-plot really didn't bother me too much. The film certainly has a lot of plus points, and the claustrophobic setting is one of them, as director Giuseppe Bennati does well at ensuring the atmosphere is always sinister and unsettling. There's plenty of action between the central characters, and a particularly pleasing element is the fact that the women aren't too shy when it comes to getting undressed, and getting off with the other female characters! As you might expect since the title promises a possible nine murders, the film isn't short of people being killed. Many of the murder scenes are underdone and not memorable, but one will stand out as an unlucky lady is slashed, stabbed in the nether regions and eventually has her hands nailed to the wall! It all boils down to a daft conclusion, but it sort of works as the sickness increases and the motive for murder is a lot better worked than the motives in some similar films. Overall, this is hardly the greatest Giallo you're ever likely to see; but if Gothic atmosphere, lesbians and grisly murders are what you like; there's lots of fun to be had here!

Giuseppe Bennati's The Killer Reserved Nine Seats is a curious relic from the golden era of Italian genre cinema, a gothic-flavored giallo that unfolds like an Agatha Christie whodunit soaked in the brooding excesses of Euro-horror. It's a film with a richly atmospheric setting and flashes of visual style, but its potential is undercut by flat pacing, uneven performances, and a script that fumbles its own intrigue. Still, for those who appreciate vintage horror curios with operatic flair, there's enough here to keep the lights dimmed and the curiosity piqued.

Set almost entirely inside a decaying, ornate theater that seems to have a mind of its own, the film creates an intoxicating sense of place. The production design is easily the highlight: crumbling velvet seats, looming statues, and dim corridors evoke a haunted stage lost to time. The camera prowls through these spaces with deliberate unease, often capturing characters as isolated figures against the echo of grandeur and decay. It's this visual commitment to setting that gives the film its most memorable quality, even when the storytelling falters.

Chris Avram anchors the ensemble as the aristocratic Patrick, who invites a group of affluent acquaintances to the shuttered theater he owns for what is ostensibly a private gathering. Avram brings a cold detachment to the role, though his delivery feels stilted at times. Rosanna Schiaffino lends her regal presence to the cast, radiating both suspicion and vulnerability, while Eva Czemerys injects a sensual volatility that suits the genre's baroque tendencies. None of the performances truly elevate the material, but they inhabit the space well enough to serve the film's theatrical premise.

As the group begins to be picked off one by one, the film attempts to build a mystery laced with supernatural overtones, family secrets, and past sins clawing their way to the surface. Unfortunately, the rhythm stutters under repetitive sequences and underdeveloped character dynamics. The script tries to be twisty, but its reveals are clumsily handled and often undermine the suspense rather than deepen it. The kills, while sometimes creatively staged, lack the visceral impact or inventiveness seen in more iconic entries of the giallo canon.

Director Bennati, more known for his television work, handles the visual palette with flair but struggles to maintain narrative cohesion or mounting tension. The result is a film that is more interesting to look at than to follow. The mood lingers, but the plot never truly grips.

Interesting, although not completely well-made, example of the Italian supernatural thriller, "L'assassino ha riservato nove poltrone" is a movie that suffers from a lot of shortcomings, but still it moves and after all convinces the spectator. It has to its credit the well-built atmosphere of discomfort and psychological perversion, the good art direction and the costumes. The script suffers from a lot of holes and clear improbabilities, but still it can hold the spectator's breath with a plot that is quite original, although the spooky theater under a curse is a fairly recurrent element in the tradition of Italian horror (I remember Renato Polselli's "Il mostro dell'Opera", Michele Soavi's "Deliria", as well as the well known "Opera" and "Il fantasma dell'Opera", directed by Dario Argento). Apart from this, there's a good dose of pleasant and sexy female nudes and the usual lesbian background to whom no Italian thriller can renounce. Taking everything into consideration, I can say this is a quite good movie, charmingly rough in the development of the plot, in the direction and in the acting (all the actors are habitué of the popular genres of Italian cinema), but it's also an interesting and amusing movie you can enjoy.

This rather rare giallo traps nine adults who are connected with each other in a particular way (e.g. by blood, intrigue or rivalry) in an abandoned theatre. Needless to say that one by one falls victim to a masked killer who seems to have staged their unplanned meeting in the old building, where 100 years before terrible murders had happened. The real problem is that supernatural forces are also involved in the events that haunt the nine victims-to-be. Is the killer human or something beyond?

The setting of a spooky old theatre is ideal to unfold an intense, haunting atmosphere. Therefore it's no surprise that there are some genuinely creepy scenes here. Unfortunately, the movie is overall too talky to keep the suspense, and the well staged murder scenes just don't really fulfill their immense potentials (they are still nasty, though).

All in all, the interesting, claustrophobic story sadly becomes mediocre through the slow direction, but this film is still recommended for all those who admire gialli - there are many thrillers that are by far inferior.

"L'Assassino ha riservato nove poltrone"(The killer reserved nine seats) is one of those films that stayed with me.

I've seen a copy with Greek subtitles. According to IMDb, the film has a running time of 99 minutes and this copy I've ordered runs around 92 minutes. So 7 minutes were cut out from the original film and now maybe the cut footage is lost forever. The DVD was visibly taken from a VHS tape and even if the colors are a bit drab and the images sometimes a bit jittery, the film is still quite watchable. Anyway it would be wonderful to see the film in a restored and remastered edition (uncut if possible).

The film drew inspiration from Agatha Christie's Ten Little Indians" – Ten people are invited to an abandoned theater in an out-of-the-way place. The theater looms gigantic in the night when they arrive. A sense of foreboding underlined by the soundtrack creeps in. These people know each other and are linked by love/hate relationships – greed, love, sex, bitterness are their companions. The camera shows the chandeliers, the pictures on the wall show faces were luxury and greed meet, the decors.... Everything takes us back to a glorious past – lust, grandeur, suffering, intrigues ... – all gone now....

The killings begin. Where is the killer hiding? Long corridors, dressing rooms, the backstage, the imposing stairs that lead to upper floors.... Is He or She one of them? Later on we get to know that there's a family curse hanging over the theater. Are supernatural forces at work? This is a very atmospheric thriller in which the camera and the soundtrack work well together. The story somehow doesn't make much sense. The behavior of the characters (like other reviewers already pointed out) is far from logical. They wander alone in badly lit corridors, enter dark rooms, almost like they were inviting the killer to take care of them. And the killer is very, very sadistic.

The action of the "The killer reserved nine seats" takes place during the night. It's a "long night's journey into day", but it's a day that maybe no one will reach alive (as one of the characters dejectedly says). The film is tense and claustrophobic, but also lighthearted and ironical, like all good gialli. There are also the moments of sleaze, something very good to release the tension – the women undress themselves whenever they can, and there's also a lesbian couple among the lot: Rosanna Schiaffino, Paola Senatore, Lucretia Love, Eva Czemerys, Janet Agren – take your pick. There's a moment of surrealistic sleaze that would have made even Buñuel take his hat off – many people had already been knocked off and what Paola Senatore does? She puts on some music, takes off her clothes, and dances semi-naked in front of a mirror. What?! Well, anyway I enjoyed the scene a lot. Thanks, Paola!

Something that I want to stress again is the atmosphere conveyed by the film – the characters and decors, underlined by the imaginative soundtrack, seem to join their hands to paint a picture of lust, desire, decadence and tired joie-de-vivre. One can go back to the time when some Italian renaissance masters were able to portray luxury and ambiguity living together with virtue (whatever that means:).

"The killer reserved nine seats" is an interesting film that deserves more recognition and to be presented to the public in a restored and remastered edition. It's creative, bizarre and intriguing. It's certainly not a run-of-the-mill giallo. It's a worthy film to check out.