The Murder Secret

As too often the case, the international English titles of this film are utterly insignificant and dumb. Seriously, what does "The Murder Secret" mean? And "The Broken Mirror" is even dumber, in fact. It's always better to literally translate the original Italian title, because "Don't be afraid of Aunt Martha" at least makes some sense! In case you are also a fan of the almighty demigod Lucio Fulci, you most likely have seen the best gory parts of this film already, as they were edited into his phenomenally berserk masterpiece "A Cat in the Brain". It also means, unfortunately, there aren't many reasons left to track down the obscure "Don't be afraid of Aunt Martha", except if you're an avid admirer of Italian horror/cult cinema in general. For this selected group of people, of which I'm proudly a part, "Don't be afraid of Aunt Martha" is a real treat!

By lack of a better term, I'd label this as a late 80s giallo, since there's an unseen assailant butchering people in bloody imaginative ways. The plot is completely messed up and hints at several absurd denouement-twists at the end, the spooky soundtrack is terrific and writer/director Mario Bianchi is not afraid to overuse it, there's a supposedly teenage daughter (Jessica Moore) with a perfect body taking long and gratuitous showers and the gore is so explicit that even 10-year-olds cannot escape the whirring chainsaws. Richard Hamilton receives a letter from his aunt Martha to announce that she'll be leaving the mental asylum after 30 years, and he promptly takes his entire family out to her house in the countryside. Isn't that what any good father and husband would do? Aunt Martha isn't there, but the exaggeratedly friendly caretaker ensures them she'll be arriving the next day. Or maybe the day after that. If only they wait long enough, they will meet certain death! The pacing is incredibly slow, with only Gianni Sposito's gloomy soundtrack frequently reminding us that we are watching a horror movie. Then follows an outrageous 15 minutes with more than enough gore & sickness to justify why we love watching this junk!

'The Murder Secret' aka 'Don't Be Afraid of Aunt Martha' is a strange low budget Giallo slasher flick from the late 1980's. This movie has a cool off-kilter atmosphere and an eerie unsettling tone to it, along with some cool gory death scenes. But its not without its flaws such as the awful dubbing, questionable acting/dialogue, bad pacing and predictable plot twists that really bogs things down to sub-par levels.

The plot = Richard Hamilton (Gabriele Tinti) takes his family for a long drive to his Aunt Martha's (Sacha Darwin) house after she has just been released from the asylum after 30 years. Only when they get there, she isn't there just the caretaker Thomas (Maurice Poli) and his message that she will arrive the next day, but can they survive the night with a killer roaming the area.

The direction by Mario Bianchi is competent enough considering the obvious small budget and the cottage location is used effectively enough, but as I already mentioned the pacing is very boring with almost nothing happening for the first hour, I wouldn't mind if the director used this time to flesh out the family or to build some tension. But we don't get any of that unfortunately instead we get a rather mundane set up of pointless interactions with nothing happening. Even with this wafer-thin plot there was potential to add more depth to this movie, but nope instead you're just waiting around until the last act which is where all the excitement happens. Now the death scenes towards the end are rewarding as you do get some shocking violent scenes, but it requires a lot of patience to get there and even then the climax ends on a rather sour and confusing note.

The acting was god-awful the only performance of note worthy was the main lead Gabriele Tinti who was okay but felt way too passive and uninspired to really root for. Overall 'The Murder Secret' is a confusing mess of a Giallo that takes way too long to get off the ground.

Your enjoyment of this film 80's Italian horror flick will probably depend somewhat on your expectations. If you're expecting a superior Lucio Fulci film (Fulci produced this), you'll probably be somewhat disappointed (but to be fair it's really no worse than a lot of the stuff the gore-master himself was directing at the end of his career). On the other hand though, if you've seen any of the previous work of Mario Bianchi, the actual director of this (for instance, his deadly dull "Satan's Baby Doll") you'll no doubt find this one comparatively entertaining.

A family, consisting of a father (Gabriele "Mr. Laura Gemser" Tinti), his second wife (Adriana Russo), and his three children--a young son, a voluptuous "teenage" daughter (Jessica Moore), and his adult son who shows up later--all drive out to a secluded family estate to meet the father's "Aunt Martha" who has just been released after spending thirty years in a mental institution for the criminally insane. Naturally this sounds like bad idea, but if dumb characters didn't do dumb stuff like this, we'd have a lot less gory horror movies. The place is managed by a creepy caretaker and "Aunt Martha's" arrival is mysteriously delayed. Meanwhile, all kinds of strange things begin to occur. . .

This movie is not very well paced as almost all the murders take place in a ten minute period near the end. They're suitably gory at least--one thing I like about the Italians is that they have no compunctions about doing things like decapitating annoying child actors with chainsaws. Tinti is always enjoyable, even in roles like this where he's not making "the beast with two backs" with his more famous wife. Russo and Moore both have memorable nude scenes. I think the former might be the sister of the voluptuous Carmen Russo (they look a lot alike anyway) while the latter appeared in several Joe D'Amato movies like "11 Days, 11 Nights" and "Convent of Sinners". (Here she takes a very long and very hot shower that all by itself might be worth the price of admission). Unlike most latter-day Fulci films or Bianchi's earlier "Satan's Baby Doll", this is not yet available on legitimate DVD. But it really ought to be.

maybe the real horror is watching this movie. everything in *non avere paura della zia marta* is ridiculous, and perhaps this would be a good reason to watch it. for the fans of gore, there are as usual some scenes of decapitation (with a chest! ahahah, see it and laugh!) and killing, and a final scene that could repay you of the time wasted watching this movie (when the gardener kisses zia marta...aaaaaah, what a genius this mario bianchi). to be underlined a curiosity, for lucio fulci's fans: some scenes of this movie(?) can be seen in *un gatto nel cervello* (when lucio gets to his friend's house).

After spending 30 years in a mental hospital, aunt Martha is free to leave and writes a letter to her relatives, inviting them to spend a weekend on her isolated country house. But when they get there, they meet only the caretaker, who informs them that their aunt has not arrived yet....After 50 slow minutes of virtually NOTHING HAPPENING, there are a few gory murders, and then it's time for the twisted secrets and nonsensical plot revelations. As it often happens in these Italian horror films, there is a very atmospheric score, which actually does most of the director's work for him. And I must mention that the actress who plays the daughter (Jessica Moore) is really hot. There are two scenes of her checking herself out in the mirror, and let me tell you, this girl has every right to be proud of what she sees. (*1/2)