ehoshaw

I like giallos a lot, and this one was pretty good, but in some ways it could have been better. I still need to see "What Have They Done To Your Daughters" and "What Have They Done To Solange", as I've heard those two entries are a lot better than this concluding entry, which is also known as "Trauma", "Rings of Fear", and "Virgin Terror". It starts out pretty good, with the mutilated body of a teen girl named Angelo being discovered, and Inspector Di Salvo (Fabio Testi) is assigned to find her killer, before he "carves up someone else". Basically, it goes on with him questioning Angelo's friends and family and finding strange clues, such as a diary, a strange cat sketch, a lot of money, as well as many secrets kept hidden by Angelo's friends, a bunch of slutty schoolgirls named Franca, Paola, and Virginia, who call themselves the inseparables. Di Salvo does more digging and recovers many more strange things. There is a funky groovy score by Riz Ortolani, lots of red herrings, good acting, and a fun first half, but then the second half of the film kind of falls apart. The motives of the killer(s) are confused and come off as kind of laughable. Then, there are a few more strange events that lead up to a conclusion that leaves you uttering one single word: "What?". It is basically confusing. I had to rewind the last fifteen or twenty minutes and watch it again. Overall, if you're a hardcore giallo fan, go for it...but for others, you may just be bored. Hopefully the other entries in the series are better than this one!

I was really looking forward to "American Psycho", but it didn't live up to its hype. True, it was well-directed and superbly-acted, but overall it was flat, boring, and only had a few scenes that were enjoyable to watch. Everything else in the film was really silly, including Bateman describing to us what he showers with and how he puts all this face wash junk on his face, and there are always the long, boring scenes of Bateman with his snobby friends. This was really dull overall. Reese Witherspoon was good but should've been in the film more. The one standout scene takes place well into the film, and it involves closets and rooms full of dead bodies, a screaming prostitute, and a nude, snarling, chainsaw-wielding Bateman---the only exciting scene pretty much in the whole film.

I am a huge Argento fan, and I was somewhat disappointed with this film (especially the ending), but overall it is really cool and stylish. The plot deals with a beautiful opera diva named Betty being terrorized by a mysterious hooded killer after she makes her debut as Lady MacBeth. Soon, her boyfriend is savagely knife-murdered, and the killer makes her watch the whole thing by tying her up and pinning her eyes open. More murders occur as Betty tries to figure out who the mystery maniac is. The good parts about this movie: the cool music, the artsy, stylish camerawork, the lush colors, the gore murders, suspenseful scenes, great scenery, etc. The bad parts: the awful dubbing, motive of the killer unclear, and disappointing ending, a few other minor quibbles. The last few minutes are really kind of silly. Oh well. This is a really good movie though. If you are an Argento fan, do not miss it! Go for the unrated version!