For those of you sitting with their trousers round their ankles and a Kleenex nearby waiting for Edwige - she don't turn up until half an hour into the film.Sergio Martino once again proves he actually might be the master of the giallo by presenting us a film that mixes in the gloved killer of babes standard plot with the late sixties plot of rich folk fighting over money with a bit of Gothic Horror mixed with a whole lot of domestic abuse for good measure. Plus: Edwige Fenech! Anita Strinberg is the bitter, abused wife of drunken novelist Luigi Pistilli and often suffers from his violence and humiliation, mostly in front of a bunch of hippy jerks from a nearby commune. Luigi has recently lost his mum and is a bit messed up about it, even though local folklore has her as a whore who loved to receive expensive jewellery from her lovers. Luigi also likes to get it on with his black maid and a young chick from the local bookstore.Further troubles to add to Anita's miserable life is the black cat that Luigi owns called Satan, who constantly follows Anita around and attacks her, plus the sickle wielding murderer who is now slashing his way through the female cast. Worst still, Luigi's niece Edwige Fenech turns up as a randy hippy! Look out Luigi! And Anita! And the local delivery guy! I forgot to mention Ivan Rassimov, who is hanging around staring at things and has white hair, which is never explained.This is a very well handled film that balances Luigi Pistilli's madness and violent abuse of Anita with a giallo plot (which is solved well before the end!) plus other elements of the old 'inheritance' plot. It's not overly violent but Edwige Fenech adds to the sleaze with her everything goes character, and I'm sure Luigi never regretted 'mashing her paps' as it were.There's much more going on here than I'm letting on. Martino seems to grasp what folks want from a giallo and duly provides, but it's his next film that almost reaches perfection, which is the film Torso.

Content to wallow in his misery, a failed writer prone to violent blackouts when he's drunk grows increasingly alarmed at the rash of murders in a nearby village and sets out to prove he's not the culprit which draws everyone around him into danger when the killer strikes back.This was quite the fun and highly engaging Giallo. One of the strongest and most engaging qualities about this effort is the fact that there's great work done here in getting the psychological aspects of the story alongside its traditional gialli tropes. Considering that he is both prone to blacking out and in quite a steep alcohol-fueled stupor allows him to worry that the concurrent crime spree that's taking place in the nearby village is his own handiwork when it appears that there's quite a large connection between him and the victims, this helps to move the first half along quite nicely as well as setting up the rather fun and engaging connections in the storyline about the classic tale. By working in plenty of elements from that story, not only the inclusion of the beloved black cat that belonged to his mother but his jealousy protecting it while she utterly hates the creature, there's some great work to be had here with these elements in the first half as her attempts to catch and kill it provide some rather tense and gruesome sequences. Once it moves on into the later half, this one manages to come together with other great homages of his work with the stellar use of the wailing cat-cries inside the house driving her even further to the brink while also managing to utilize the concept of the walled- up bodies leading to their guilty conscience coming into play here to help bring up the fine attention that these parts of the story bring as there's a lot to like here as this builds its mystery. Likewise, the few kills here aren't bad as they're brutality makes for quite a shocking series of scenes out in the village and the stalking themselves aren't all that bad as there are some nice times to be had with the opening stalking in the town square or the attack inside the house where the multiple victims are targeted. The finale works in some solid Gothic work along the way in the basement where the true fate gets unveiled and the setting helps to add a greater atmosphere to the proceedings. Alongside the fine nudity from the performers, this has a lot to like here over the minor flaw. Since this one tends to focus more on the psychological aspects of the storyline more than the actual stalking and slashing, there's not a lot of typical set-pieces normally found in the genre beyond a few key scenes to move the story along. It still fits nicely in the genre here with the series of twists in the finale but those looking for a traditional body-count style of effort won't be really enamored with this one as it goes for the slow-burn approach more than some might like. It's not a huge detriment but it does crop up here and really prevents this from being in the upper echelon of the genre.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Full Nudity, racist language and several sex scenes.

This is a fine little giallo which borrows from and credits Poe for elements from The Black Cat. However, that comes about halfway through the tale, which makes you wonder if this was two partial plots made into one for a full film.You have a struggling writer who has a rather brutal relationship with his wife and they live together in a nice old château. But, strange things...like Murder!...start happening, sometimes within the walls(so to speak) of their own home. However, this sort of comes to a halt, as I said, about halfway through the movie, then we move on to the Black Cat portion of the tale. And, if you know the story, then you know exactly where the plot is going.Their niece comes to live with them and she's a delightful little firecracker who starts to play and play with all involved for her own desires and personal gain. All the major players are jerks, so you don't feel too bad when they each meet their own well-deserved fate(not that this necessarily means they all die). However, you have to laugh at an inspector working with a patrolman to learn the nature of a complaint about possible "cat abuse"---that's a sorry way to move a story along.The gore effects are more bloody than gory, but they're not bad. I was disappointed when the plot hit the fork in the road and went down the wrong trail. But, this is still a good film to see if you're into gialli, as I am.

After watching Martino's previous brilliant giallo: "The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh" and reading the positive posts about this effort I had some pretty good expectations... The story is very simple (despite a few twists at the end) and the way it develops is not particularly credible, but the most irritating thing was to hear a "MEAOWWW" every now and then with supposedly scary intentions (bloody hell!). Not to mention the racist and sexist dialogues which seemed a bit too unnecessary and stupid even in a B-movie such this one. On the bright side Fenech as usual gets undressed as most of the other "actresses" do; the locations are nice and the direction quite clean but surely not inventive. In other words, unless you're a fanatic of the genre, avoid this one, it is totally average and flat at best.