Wednesday, August 2, 2023

70's Italian Horror Part Ten

THE FIFTH CORD
(1971)
Dir - Luigi Bazzoni
Overall: MEH
 
Jumping onto the giallo wagon, filmmaker Luigi Bazzoni's The Fifth Cord, (Giornata nera per l'ariete, Black Day for Aries), is an adaptation of D.M. Divine's novel of the same name.  Somehow the plot manages to be both unremarkable and convoluted, throwing a handful of characters at us early on that are difficult to tell apart from one another, which only makes their eventual demise or use as a red herring fall that much flatter.  Though each kills scene is expertly atmospheric and played out to almost total silence in usually heavily shadowed, minimal lighting, it is a shame that there is no amount of tension created by any of them since the audience can immediately tell that said victims are doomed the moment each set piece begins.  This inherent flaw is nothing new to the giallo/slasher framework nor is the use of filming them in a pin-drop quiet manner, which was something that both Mario Bava and Dario Argento quite famously perfected.  Bazzoni and cinematographer Vittorio Storara can at least be applauded for trying to elevate the lackluster material and pigeonholed tropes of the genre by going for an evocative look and more mood over substance.  Plus with a predominantly good-looking cast, (including a highly determined Franco Nero in the lead), enthusiasts for such movies can probably find enough here to enjoy.
 
L'OSSESSA
(1974)
Dir - Mario Gariazzo
Overall: MEH

Fairly belonging in the several-titles-deep assortment of Italian knock-offs of The Exorcist, L'Ossessa, (The Exorcism, The Eerie Midnight Horror Show, Enter the Devil, The Sexorcist, The Devil Obsession), is a hilarious lackluster one.  Director Mario Gariazzo had a handful of crime and Spaghetti Westerns under his belt by the time he ventured into horror for the first time here and this would not be his only purposely derivative Euro cash-grab off of an American blockbuster as he would also deliver Very Close Encounters of the Fourth Kind four years later.  Here, the entire plot run-down could fit on a napkin as the movie essentially features Stella Carnacina moaning or fanatically screaming in all of her scenes after a life-sized crucifix turns into the Devil, (played by diabolical character actor Ivan Rassimov), and rapes her.  To throw more sleaze into the mix than necessary, it also features a completely inconsequential side-arc that never goes anywhere of Carnacina's parents engaging in - as her dad wonderfully calls it - "masochistic tomfoolery" for one scene.  Elsewhere though, nothing is bothered to be explained.  It really is just a series of loud scenes taking various, blasphemous cues from every other movie with a Satanic possession angle from the era, all while throwing narrative anything to the wind.  Such simplicity, (cough, stupidity, cough), is almost admirable though.
 
THE CURSED MEDALLION
(1975)
Dir - Massimo Dallamano
Overall: MEH

Wonderfully photographed though boasting a hum-drop story line, Massimo Dallamano's final work in the horror genre The Cursed Medallion, (The Night Child, Together Forever, Perché?!, Il medaglione insanguinato), does not reach its eerie potential.  One of several Italian productions to feature naturally creep child actor Nicoletta Elmi as well as giallo regular Ida Galli, The Haunting's Richard Johnson, and one of the first prominent roles for Joanna Cassidy, it is all played more seriously than typical low-budget fare from the era.  This occasionally boats some unintended chuckles, (particularly where Elmi is concerned who looks like a twelve-year old, female Carrot Top), though the film's lone special effects shot is the most jarringly ridiculous amongst the otherwise exceptional cinematography from Franco Delli Colli.  The script boasts some familiar cliches such as a remote, spooky old house, a diabolical piece of jewellery, a possessed kid who is jealous of her widowed father's advances towards a new woman, an elderly mystic lady who gives cryptic warnings, etc.  None of it is interesting unfortunately and the supernatural tomfoolery at work that involves mysterious, Satan/hell inspired paintings is too underplayed to effectively deliver the chills.  Let us also not forget that mere variations of the exact same piece of music provide the only such music in the entire film, played only about nine-thousand times throughout.

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