6/10
Sleazy Giallo
19 July 2007
Warning: Spoilers
Two Austrian sisters Dagmar and Ursula Beyne go on holiday along the Amalfi coast in Italy, in the hope of finding their mother, who deserted them when they were young, they have recently inherited some money after the death of their father and want to share some of it with their mother. Ursula is quite a fragile girl though and on medication ever since the loss of her father. She also is somewhat telepathic and can foresee bad events in an instant. They book into a local hotel where Ursula's visions continue, she tells Dagmar her sister to stay clear of Filippo, a man who hangs out in the hotel bar as she says he will cause her death. Filippo is a heroin addict whose lover "Stella Shining" is the night club singer at the hotel, but that relationship is soon in trouble and Filippo makes his move on Dagmar. Meanwhile a masked and leather gloved man hires a local hooker, he wants to be a voyeur while she makes love to another man, she agrees and he hides behind the curtains in her room to watch the proceedings. When the deed is done the stranger savagely kills the hooker. Ursula wakes from her sleep with a scream, as she has felt that something bad has happened, she pleads with Dagmar that they should leave this place before its too late, but they disagree and stay. A young amorous teenage couple are turned away from the hotel and make their bed in a deserted part of the hotel, mid coitus they are interrupted by the killer, who slashes the boys throat before doing heinous acts on the girl. The shocking murders continue in abundance as the frantic search for the killer continues……..

Well what can I say about this little seen Giallo, it is positively the filthiest Giallo I have ever seen, the film is positively verging on hardcore porn, its full of sleazy sex, there is plenty of full frontal nudity, beautiful women in varying degrees of degradation, oral sex, masturbation, including one scene where a gold chain is used, so that the the girl can feel closer to man who gave the gift, lesbian sex, arse licking, I mean this hotel is so full of deviants, that I'm thinking of booking a room myself, not least the killer who uses a large dildo to kill his prey…I'm not kidding. The film itself was made at the end of the end of the great Giallo era and as such was trying to keep the genre fresh by making it more titillating and it that respect it succeeds in bucket loads, but the film is not without its more esteemed merits, Vittorio Bernini's cinematography is excellent and captures the wonderful and stunning vistas of the area perfectly, the hotel and its surrounding buildings were well chosen and give a real feel for the area and add immensely to the atmosphere. The killer's face is never seen, we only see his eyes captured in a beam of light before he kills, it's a cliché but it works really well when accompanied by the sinister score associated with the killer. All in all a much better film that its IMDb rating would suggest and an intriguing entry in the genre, certainly not for everyone though and a caution should be taken by anyone with a sensitive nature. What also intrigues me is that there is supposed to be a mythical hardcore version of this film and if this isn't it, the real one must be off the scale for sleaze.
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