The Third Eye

I was extremely astonished to find out that this virtually unknown italian Giallo is actually the original version of the famous BUIO OMEGA. No book on italian horror movies has written anything about this movie and it certainly holds a lot of surprises for those interested in the history of italian exploitation cinema. First, it was made in 1966, black and white, 1:1,66 widescreen. Second as gore goes it's on par with Bava's Sei Donne, so it`s pretty brutal and has an uneasy sadistic subtone. Third Franco Nero (here credited as FRANK Nero) plays the lead role, the necrophil count who has lost his wife. Fourth, theres animal snuff in there. Fifth, a quite explicit rape scene. Anyone who knows Buio Omega will be very familiar with the plot. It's virtually the same. So it is a hidden gem? Yes, absolutely. Is it a classic? Hm ... the acting ranges from wooden to ridiculous and the whole movie looks and sounds and moves more like a teleplay. So it's not really a technically good one (unlike Sei Donne). But anyway, if you have the chance to see this film, get it. Out on DVD currently in Germany with a nice, crisp print (das dritte Auge), but language only in german...

The Third Eye has been pretty much forgotten; but many fans of Italian horror will have heard of the film it heavily influenced; Joe D'Amato's notorious exploitation effort Beyond the Darkness. This one does not have the gore and savagery of the later film and it has to be said that Mino Guerrini's film is rather more arty than horrific. The film is also often seen as a precursor to the Giallo genre, though the links between the two are weak at best. Personally, I would describe this film as Gothic horror, and a precursor to later Italian exploitation. The plot focuses on Mino; a young nobleman that lives in a big house with his mother and their maid. His fiancée, Laura, is not well liked by either the mother or the maid, who seem jealous of her presence. The mother, therefore, decides to sever Laura's brakes and this results in a car accident that kills Laura. Meanwhile, the mother and the maid have a fight and the mother dies are being thrown down the stairs. This leads Mino into madness and murder; he kills a couple of women, before Laura's twin sister arrives at the house...

The film stars the great Franco Nero in an early lead role and of course he delivers an excellent performance that mirrors the one he would go on to play a few years later in Elio Petri's A Quiet Place in the Country. The atmosphere is also a major part of the film and the central location is a great place for a Gothic horror film to take place; director Mino Guerrini makes good use of it and creates a claustrophobic feel for the film. The influences for the film are clear; with Edgar Allen Poe and Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho being foremost among them. The Third Eye features some really rather morbid elements such as necrophilia, but through the way it's shot, the film always manages to retain an artful feel and this is a bit of a downer in my opinion as the film could have used a bit more impact. It does remain interest for the duration, however, and everything eventually boils down to a fitting conclusion. Overall, this is a rare film and sourcing an English language version is not easy; but it's well worth the effort for Italian horror fans.

Franco Nero plays a young taxidermist named Mino,who lives with his domineering mother and a loyal family servant Marta in a Gothic residence.The elderly widowed Countness doesn't want his son to marry his beloved Laura.To achieve her goals Marta cuts the brake cable on Laura's car causing the vehicle to roll off an embankment and into a lake and murders the Countess pushing her down the stairs.This is the beginning of Mino's madness.He takes Laura's body and preserves it and starts picking up women and choking them to death in the presence of his preserved love."The Third Eye" is strikingly similar to "Buio Omega",but nowhere nearly as gruesome and disgusting.The cinematography is elegant and stylish and the use of romantic score is a nice touch.A must-see for fans of "Buio Omega".8 out of 10.

A troubled young Count (Franco Nero), living in a crumbling villa with his domineering mother, takes comfort in taxidermy (sound familiar?) until he falls in love with a girl (Erica Blanc) his mother naturally doesn't approve of. The old battle ax tells a servant she treats "like a daughter" that she'd be forever grateful if the girl would make her son's fiancée disappear and not only does the servant kill the son's intended, she offs his mother, too. The Count takes his mom's death hard but not as hard as his fiancee's, whose body he stuffs before he starts strangling strippers. The servant tells him she'll help cover up his crimes if he'll marry her and he agrees but when his dead fiancee's look-alike sister (also Erica Blanc) shows up looking for answers, complications ensue...

To say THE THIRD EYE was inspired by Alfred Hitchcock's PSYCHO would be an understatement but it does go off on a crazy tangent of its own and was obviously capitalizing on a spate of Hammer "mini-Hitchcock" thrillers popular at the time (MANIAC, PARANOIA, HYSTERIA). In black & white with cool-looking red subtitles, the damn thing was never dull, that's for sure. Cult director Joe D'Amato "unofficially" remade this as BEYOND THE DARKNESS in 1979.

Although I only saw this movie once and over 25 years ago, the imagery and disturbing feel have stayed with me. Sure, the production values weren't up to current standards and the acting is not top drawer, but somehow what makes it to the screen gets under your skin and makes it crawl. True horror buffs should be fighting to get a copy of this for their collections - and I don't understand why it hasn't received more play in the USA. (OK, so it's foreign and involves cannibalism and other nasty things; is that any reason to pass it over?!) The young Franco Nero in this feature shows the acting promise of the later movies he appeared in, a number of them made for US audiences.