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5
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6 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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With
a name like Spasmo
it's got to be good... Doesn't it? Well,
yes and no. Props to director Umberto Lenzi (Seven
Blood-Stained Orchids) for turning all the
expected giallo conventions on their collective
ear the familiar
clich้s of the genre are deliberately set aside.
Spasmo
doesn't feature a knife-wielding maniac in black
lunging from the shadows, no amateur detectives
cracking the case way ahead of the police. Sex
and violence are fairly minimal. It's certainly
different in both story and structure than the
vast majority of gialli I've seen. Of course,
this approach might turn off those Eurotrash fans
who seek out such films expressly for all the
naked flesh, gore, and sadism. While initially
quite willing to go along for the ride, at times
I was very tempted to just say to hell with it
and jump off Lenzi's little psychological carousel.
A confusing first hour, populated by oddball characters
spouting ludicrous dialog, almost had me throwing
in the towel. Not even halfway through I was positive
the flick would end up with a lengthy catalog
of plot holes left unresolved. Surprisingly enough
the movie manages to pay off in the end, with
everything neatly wrapped up.
In a pre-titles sequence, a young couple out
necking on a deserted road is shocked to find
the body of murdered woman hanging from a tree.
On closer inspection they see that the dead woman
is in reality an extremely lifelike rubber dummy.
For the remainder of the film the story periodically
cuts away from the main plot to show us other
such anatomically correct mannequins, all in various
states of undress, tied to trees or dumped in
the woods. Some have fake blood on them and/or
knives stuck in them. So what's the deal with
these 'phony' murder victims? Patience is required
for the answer, as Lenzi keeps stringing us along
until the very end. As for the central plotline...
Christian (Robert Hoffman)
is a rich and handsome playboy, joint heir to
an industrial empire run by his more business-savvy
brother Fritz (Eaten
Alive's Ivan Rassimov). When he meets a mysterious
British woman named Barbara (Suzy Kendall, The
Bird With The Crystal Plumage) his seemingly
enviable life takes a very bizarre turn. Invited
to her motel for a bit of fun, Christian is jumped
in the bathroom by a pistol-wielding thug. The
man, whom he's never seen before, seems intent
on killing him. Was the assassin sent by Alex,
Barbara's jealous sugar daddy? That question's
left hanging when, during a struggle for the gun,
Christian accidentally shoots him dead. Or did
he? Moments later the body disappears, with only
the pistol and patches of blood on the bathroom
floor to signify that the incident really happened.
Rather than phone
the police Christian and Barbara flee the scene.
Seeking sanctuary they break into a beach house
Barbara says is owned by a vacationing girlfriend.
But the house isn't empty. A strange couple
an elderly man and a sexy younger woman
walks in on them. Introducing themselves as Malcolm
and Clorinda, they explain that they've been renting
the property for the past month. Oddly, the woman
seems vaguely familiar to Christian. Instead of
calling the cops to report intruders, they invite
Christian and Barbara to spend the night
even after Christian blurts out what happened
at the motel. That evening Christian spies Malcolm
speaking in conspiratorial tones to a stranger
outside the house. Later Clorinda comes to his
room to seduce him. In the morning he's told that
Barbara has run off. And the hit man, the thug
he thought he shot dead back at the motel, is
following him...
As he details in the interview included on
the disc, director Lenzi wanted to make Spasmo
a strictly psychological giallo, eschewing the
blood 'n' guts that had become well-worn staples
of the genre. In this he succeeds. Despite the
claim on the packaging ("A classic giallo in
the grand, gory Euro-horror tradition!") there's
hardly any blood at all; what little's on hand
is purely PG material. Given this more cerebral
approach (and I hesitate to use the term 'cerebral'
in light of some of the atrocious dialog), we'd
really have to care about the characters and what
motivates them for it to work. The acting in Spasmo
is actually better than you'll see in most gialli,
especially by Hoffman and Kendall, but everyone
behaves so strangely that you're likely not to
care. I think the movie's title is a mistake.
10 to 1 most people watching this will expect
to see someone go 'spasmo' which a character
does finally do, but only in the last 10 minutes.
All but one of the serial killings take place
in a brief, single flashback. Structurally it's
a clever move, actually serving the story's denouement
quite well, but I suspect most giallo fans will
be disappointed. I almost was. To be honest, for
nearly an hour into the film I was scratching
my head in bewilderment when not grumbling with
frustration. ("Okay, just where the hell
are you going with this, Umberto?") Lenzi deliberately
teases and tests the audience, seeing how long
they're willing to endure the confusion to get
answers in the end. As oddly disjointed as Spasmo
seems for two-thirds its running time the story
does come together during the final act; the very
last scene tidily wraps up the mystery of the
rubber dolls. Question is, will you have the patience
to get there? Or will the film's convoluted plot
twists and bizarrely behaving characters drive
you... spasmo?
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Never released on VHS in North America, Spasmo
debuts on Region 1 DVD courtesy of niche label Shriek
Show. The widescreen (2.35:1) anamorphic transfer
is very clean and practically blemish free, boasting
rich colors. Technically, the only area where the
disc suffers is the audio. While very robust for
a mono mix, with clear, easily discernible dialog
and sound effects, there is noticeable surface noise
present for much of the duration. It's not terribly
distracting for the most part but does get annoying
in a couple of scenes. Normally I'd be a bit more
perturbed about this, especially when it's a film
scored by Ennio Morricone (as this is), but at least
the track doesn't sound flat and/or muffled as many
European titles' from this period invariably do.
Besides, Morricone's score for Spasmo
is not one of his better ones. (It's mostly rather
bland in an "easy listening" muzak sort
of way, actually.)
Extras include a smallish poster/lobby card
image gallery and trailers for three SS releases
(in addition to the promo for Spasmo):
Seven Blood-Stained Orchids,
Eaten Alive and What
Have You Done To Solange?.
A 13-minute videotaped interview with Lenzi
features the director speaking more about his philosophical
approach to the film's story than the actual production
itself. At one point he disses the gialli of Dario
Argento as "banal." 4/02/03 |
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