User Reviews

There are three things to admire about this film. The cinematography by Gianlorenzo Battaglia which makes fine use of widescreen and colour. The music score by the prolific Francesco De Masi, going from sweeping charm to suspenseful. And the luminous and physical performance by Christina Nagy as Joanna.

Apart from that it is a standard story of trying to murder someone by scaring them to death. The rest of the cast are adequate, the kills moderate and the twists foreseeable the proverbial mile away. The penultimate scene goes on and on ridiculously and the last scene is annoyingly ambiguous.

Some of the credits are Anglicised so the director Alberto De Martino becomes Martin Herbert, the editor Vincenzo Tomassi becomes Vincent P. Thomas and producer Fabrizio De Angelis becomes David Colby. Francesco De Masi stays Francesco De Masi. Perhaps it was in his contract.

FORMULA FOR A MURDER is a late-stage '80s giallo from director Albert De Martino, who had previously helmed such diverse works as THE PUMA MAN, HOLOCAUST 2000, and THE BLANCHEVILLE MONSTER. His competent handling of the directorial chores means that this is a film where style often wins out over substance, but that's no bad thing in my book.

In many ways, FORMULA FOR A MURDER feels a lot more old-fashioned than your typical giallo. There's a small-scale, low key feel to the nature of the action, and the plot has many twists and turns so that sometimes you feel like you're watching a Hitchcock thriller. The genre it most reminded me of was of the old Hammer psycho thrillers, themselves indebted to PSYCHO, and particular stuff like A TASTE OF FEAR.

The film features fan favourite David Warbeck as a guy who falls in love with a disabled athlete, played by Christina Nagy. Nagy does very well in the unusual lead role; disability isn't often touched in the cinema but it seems to work well when it does pop up, and her character is completely sympathetic as a result. There isn't much in the way of gore here, but there are some great twists, harrowing dream sequences, and a wonderfully extended stalk 'n' slash climax. You could do worse.

Its great to see this hard to find movie available on DVD, but it didn't really provide a lot of thrills or tension to me. The story tells of a rich heiress named Joanna who is confined to a wheelchair due to a traumatic childhood injury. She spends her life developing various upper- body sporting skills like archery and fencing, and finds romance with her sports therapist, but it seems like her past is coming back to haunt her in the shape of hallucinations and various murders going on around her.

Now, my first thought as I watched the start of the film was anger at Shameless giving away the fact that her boyfriend (David Warbeck) is the killer by plastering this all over the sleeve of the DVD, which really isn't necessary and is a very selfish decision to use this plot twist to enhance their marketing. Way to go, Shameless!! I am sure their defence will be that the film gives away this fact in the first 30 minutes, but yeah, those 30 minutes prior to that twist are effectively ruined, as the story is doing it's best to set up red herrings like Joanna's pouty assistant Ruth, who appears to have romantic designs on Joanna herself! All for nothing.

Anyway, so once we see the unveiling of Warbeck's intentions, the film keeps going for another hour, and I will say that things do pick up as Joanna becomes more and more terrorised by his evil scheme. The last 20 minutes of the movie are well staged, as Joanna literally fights for her life without the ability to walk, but just her sporting strength to help her survive. There are several acts of violence in the story but for anyone hoping for Italian style giallo-splatter, you're not going to get it here. The special effects are very poor, all we get is a lot of the old theatrical fake knives and razors which squirt blood when pressed against skin, and it really looks rubbish. On the plus side, David Warbeck does get to bash someone's brains out with a heavy church artifact, which looks painful, and there's a brief shot of scissors spearing someone's hand. I know it sounds perverse to rate the amount of violence, but let's face it, this is what the film is peddling, so it should be doing it well.

Although the performances are all fair, the English dub does not help. Christina Nagy does well in the pivotal role of Joanna but her dubbed voice diminishes the veracity of all of her scenes of peril. She does seem to be speaking English (as does Warbeck), but the post-shoot dubbing still makes a mess of her performance. The other sad thing is that the film has not aged well fashion wise, and it's a real shame that Joanna spends the last 20 minutes of the film (the only part which has any tension) wearing a hideous outfit with a massive collar that makes her look like she's dressed as a clown.

All in all, this is not a rediscovered gem, but just a passable thriller. There are other lost Italian shockers out there that could have a much bigger impact if released on DVD (Giallo A Venezia, Nero Veneziano to name two), so here's hoping Shameless can carry on looking. Just keep your mouths shut about putting plot spoilers on the cover next time eh?

Also known as 7. Hyden Park - La casa maledetta (7 Hyde Park - The Cursed House), this movie comes to us from Alberto De Martino, the man who made The Antichrist, Strange Shadows in an Empty Room, Miami Golem and Holocaust 2000.

David Warbeck plays Craig, who has recently married Joanna, a woman crippled by mental and phsyical issues. Well, she's in a wheelchair, but still comes to him to learn fencing and archery, so she's trying to stay active.

That said, there's something horrible that's happened in her past, but guess what? Something horrible is happening now too. That's because after Craig gets that ring, he plans on killing her for her riches.

That horrifying event, by the way, was when a faceless priest tried to give our heroine a doll and then decided to take things a little too far. As he chased her, she fell down the steps and broke her back, which is why she's in a wheelchair now. And as for the priest, he may be dead or he may be the person who is dressed in vestments and carrying the doll from her childhood.

Also: there's a good chance that if Craig churns some butter with her, she'll have a heart attack when her body relives the abuse. I can promise you that there was no mental health counselor or expert on this film to verify this diagnosis.

If the house that is so cursed looks familiar, that's because Phantom of Death and Body Puzzle were both shot there. Also, if your ears hear something they have before, that's because Francesco De Masi decided to reuse some of his theme for The New York Ripper and thought that no one would notice.

Director Alberto De Martino can't be faulted for not trying: Formula for a Murder features a maniac wearing leather gloves and a dog collar, wielding a straight razor and carrying a blood-covered doll that sings a creepy song in a weird voice. The protagonist-menaced by the aforementioned killer- is a wheelchair-bound woman, physically disabled and emotionally traumatised after being sexually assaulted as a child. So far, so classic giallo, but a generic plot fails to distinguish Martino's movie from countless other Italian murder mysteries, while the slayings lack the imagination and visual style of a Bava or Argento.

Christina Nagy plays Joanna, whose new husband Craig (David Warbeck) plans to scare her to death by reminding her of her childhood trauma (not really a spoiler, since we learn the identity of the villain fairly early). This predictable premise offers very little in the way of genuine horror or tension, while the film's one unusual plot twist turns out to be a dream sequence (which seemingly becomes a reality for the film's 'WTF?' final scene). As far as the deaths are concerned, a priest has his throat slashed by a razor, another is bludgeoned by a shovel, while Craig's partner in crime, Ruth (Carroll Blumenberg), also get the cut-throat razor treatment. The final showdown between Joanna and Craig sees the woman fighting back with a fire poker and a sharp pair of scissors.

Although very formulaic, this might still have been fun in the hands of a more talented director, or with a far trashier approach, but De Martino's handling of the action is pedestrian at best, there is only a smattering of topless nudity, and the gore is very tame.

5.5 out of 10, rounded down to 5 for the awkward way that Joanna, supposedly a talented archer, holds her bow (but still manages to hit the gold every time).

The last film by underrated director Alberto De Martino ("The Antichrist", "The Killer is on the Phone") is a truly suspenseful but incomprehensibly neglected giallo, containing pretty much all the trademarks that makes this Italian horror sub genre so magnificent and addictive to the fans. There are some very disturbing themes (child abuse, phony priests…), loads of creepy moments, plot twists left & right, outstanding music and – last but not least – a handful of really sadistic murder scenes! Especially the opening sequence, which is some kind of prologue, is a powerful piece of horror! What is it about ordinary child dolls that make them so creepy? When the anonymous man, dressed up like a priest, assaulted a little girl and the broken head of her doll bounced down a flight of stairs, it really sent cold shivers through my spine! Years later, the young girl from the prologue is an adult woman bound to a wheelchair. She inherited a lot of money but uses her fortune to stimulate fellow handicapped people to practice sports and to remain positive-minded. She – Joanna – falls in love with her personal coach and they get married right away. Naturally, he's only after her money and starts terrorizing Joanna by making her relive the childhood trauma that crippled her. The repeated images of a sinister looking priest, guided by eerie tunes and a nursery rhyme, provide "Formula for a Murder" with a ton of genuine scares and Alberto De Martino's directing is very resolute. The acting is quite competent, with David Warbeck ("The Beyond", "The Black Cat") in a glorious greedy villain role. Due some plot holes and a lack of originality, this movie might not be able to compete with Italy's best horror efforts, but it definitely deserves more attention. Many formerly obscure and unknown Italian gialli received marvelous DVD-releases and, hopefully, "Formula for a Murder" will be given the same treatment really soon. In the meantime, good luck tracking this baby down!