Having seen two of his films, I’m quickly becoming a Mario Bava fan. Within genre films, he was able to skewer the rich with a keen eye for subtle satire and devious dread.
The plot of this film will read like a typical exploitation horror flick. A fashion house full of pretty models is plagued by a serial killer who slowly murders the women in gruesome and elaborate ways one by one. This film is considered one of the first to be labeled in giallo in Italy. Giallo is a sub-genre of thrillers that are highlighted by the elaborated deaths that take place in them. The word means “yellow” in Italian, which was the color of pulp thriller novels of the time.
The first victim Isabella (Francesca Ungaro) is strangled by the killer who looks like Darkman wearing the mask Tom Cruise wore in VANILLA SKY. Inspector Silvester (Thomas Reiner) is assigned the task of capturing the killer, who could be anyone associated with the fashion house. The key characters include fashion house director Max Marian (Cameron Mitchell, MY FAVORITE YEAR); fashion house owner Contessa Cristina Como (Eva Bartok); Isabella’s boyfriend Frank Sacalo (Dante DiPaolo, SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS); the model Nicole (Ariana Gorini), who is also secretly seeing Frank; model and Isabella’s roommate Peggy Peyton (Mary Arden, ON HER MAJESTY’S SECRET SERVICE); nervous model Greta (Lea Lander); mysterious model Tao-Li (Claude Dantes); Greta’s fiancée Marquis Richard Morell (Franco Ressel); sketchy clothing designer Cesar Losarre (Luciano Pigozzi); and pill-popping Marco (Massimo Righi).
Yes, the early part of the film is about body count, however it’s the way that it’s done that makes this film so much better than your modern slasher film. First off, the story works as a mystery. We know we know the killers, but the film plays with our expectations of who it may be and why. Bava builds tension brilliantly with stylish camera work.
Then when the film reveals some of its secrets, it only begins a twisting road to the grand conclusion. The film is like two films in one — a mystery and a twisted film noir. The film is more engaging because the killer is not an unstoppable killing machine, but a twisted soul with a purpose. We want to know the reason behind the killing spree and we are not disappointed.
The picture puts us into the rich and lavish world of high fashion where beautiful women have affairs with rich men and life is just one giant party. But Bava uses the murders and the deception of the characters to undercut the glitzy image of the fashion world and skewers the shallow people involved… literally. Some of the imagery in the film is classic and the colors just jump from the screen. It’s a bloody good horror/thriller that clearly has influenced countless filmmakers since its debut more than forty years ago.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
