My Rating:
Story 1.25 : Direction 0.75 : Pace 0.50 : Acting 1.00 : Entertaining 1.00
Total 4.50 out of 10.00
I was expecting to enjoy this film and enjoy it I did. It wasn't as enjoyable as I expected. The reason being both the story and the direction. I like the idea of the ghostly tale, though there are way too many "Strange" events to make it reasonably believable.
A newlywed bride has doubts on her wedding night. She gets her newlywed husband to cut the honeymoon short. Once they are back at the husband's mansion, she quickly notices there are no portraits of the females of the family. The walls are adorned by the male ancestors of the family. The housekeepers' daughter informs her the women are down in the basement. The paintings scariest aspect was the women looking more macho than the men - I'd hide them down in a dark, dank cellar too. Except for one painting, showing the full figure of a woman, holding a ceremonial dagger, dressed in a wedding gown, with the woman's face cut away.
As time passes, the new bride has strange dreams and visions of murder and an unfamiliar woman. These dreams infringe on her life and force a change in her behaviour and manner. Which sets her on a sexually destructive path.
This along with the supernatural element should have been enough to hold the audience's attention. But the writer, Mathew Lewis, and writer and director, Vincente Aranda, though otherwise. So we see the strange woman at the honeymoon, as a teacher at the housekeepers' daughter's school, and buried naked in the sand sucking air through a snorkel. Way too much oddity. There's no reasonable rationale for these events either. These illogical scenes only hinder the story and damage the film. It compels the audience to wonder what the hell is happening. This brings them out of the story, instead of immersing them in it.
Vincente Aranda is not the best director in the Giallo genre. To be honest, this is one of the weakest films in the genre. This is chiefly down to the direction. A Giallo film should be full to the brim with atmosphere, suspense, and tension. This has very little. The story is told at such a slow pace I found myself starting to yawn... I wasn't even tired. Worse yet, my eyes were straying away from the screen.
I will say this though. I genuinely liked the dream-sequence of the husband's evisceration. There was so much blood, it was gloriously awesome in its outrageousness. Aranda even did a good job of filming the scene too. The slight upward angle to show the two women, the new bride's face dripping with her husband's gore. Best scene of the whole film.
As for the acting, this is okay. Like the rest of the film, there's nothing too special about it. Though, I admit I watched the film because the beautiful Alexandra Bastedo starred. I had a crush on her in my youth, when I first saw her in The Champions TV show. Thank you, BBC.
Unless you are trying to watch as many Giallo films as you can or are a fan of a cast member or the director, then I wouldn't recommend you watch this film. There are many finer films in the genre to pick from.
Take a ride on over to my Absolute Horror and Killer Thriller Chillers lists to see where I've ranked this underachieving picture.
Take Care and Stay Well.
I was expecting to enjoy this film and enjoy it I did. It wasn't as enjoyable as I expected. The reason being both the story and the direction. I like the idea of the ghostly tale, though there are way too many "Strange" events to make it reasonably believable.
A newlywed bride has doubts on her wedding night. She gets her newlywed husband to cut the honeymoon short. Once they are back at the husband's mansion, she quickly notices there are no portraits of the females of the family. The walls are adorned by the male ancestors of the family. The housekeepers' daughter informs her the women are down in the basement. The paintings scariest aspect was the women looking more macho than the men - I'd hide them down in a dark, dank cellar too. Except for one painting, showing the full figure of a woman, holding a ceremonial dagger, dressed in a wedding gown, with the woman's face cut away.
As time passes, the new bride has strange dreams and visions of murder and an unfamiliar woman. These dreams infringe on her life and force a change in her behaviour and manner. Which sets her on a sexually destructive path.
This along with the supernatural element should have been enough to hold the audience's attention. But the writer, Mathew Lewis, and writer and director, Vincente Aranda, though otherwise. So we see the strange woman at the honeymoon, as a teacher at the housekeepers' daughter's school, and buried naked in the sand sucking air through a snorkel. Way too much oddity. There's no reasonable rationale for these events either. These illogical scenes only hinder the story and damage the film. It compels the audience to wonder what the hell is happening. This brings them out of the story, instead of immersing them in it.
Vincente Aranda is not the best director in the Giallo genre. To be honest, this is one of the weakest films in the genre. This is chiefly down to the direction. A Giallo film should be full to the brim with atmosphere, suspense, and tension. This has very little. The story is told at such a slow pace I found myself starting to yawn... I wasn't even tired. Worse yet, my eyes were straying away from the screen.
I will say this though. I genuinely liked the dream-sequence of the husband's evisceration. There was so much blood, it was gloriously awesome in its outrageousness. Aranda even did a good job of filming the scene too. The slight upward angle to show the two women, the new bride's face dripping with her husband's gore. Best scene of the whole film.
As for the acting, this is okay. Like the rest of the film, there's nothing too special about it. Though, I admit I watched the film because the beautiful Alexandra Bastedo starred. I had a crush on her in my youth, when I first saw her in The Champions TV show. Thank you, BBC.
Unless you are trying to watch as many Giallo films as you can or are a fan of a cast member or the director, then I wouldn't recommend you watch this film. There are many finer films in the genre to pick from.
Take a ride on over to my Absolute Horror and Killer Thriller Chillers lists to see where I've ranked this underachieving picture.
Take Care and Stay Well.