Strange vice of Mrs. Wardh
Edwige Fenech plays Julie Ward, a diplomats wife who enjoys a bit on the side. Her previous lover Jean. Played by Ivan Rassimov is continuing to stalk her. Julie has a strange, masochistic blood fetish and Jean appears to have been very good at triggering those, including flashbacks to kinky knife play and sexual assault. Julie isn't too keen to rekindle the romance. Instead she hooks up with George, played by George Hilton who seems to push most of her buttons without things getting too dark. Unfortunately women connected to Mrs. Wardh seem to be getting killed off by a mysterious black gloved stranger and someone seems to be targeting Julie herself. Is it an active serial killer at large or is one of the men in her life targeting her.
Strange vice ticks most of the Giallo boxes. Sexual hang-ups, straight razor killings, Black gloved killer and a twist that appears torn straight from a certain Hitchcock classic. Though I'll say no more in case someone here actually hasn't seen this one yet. Where it stands out is the direction of Sergio Martino who delivers a highly stylish and suspenseful picture with great cinematography and editing. Its also Helped a lot by the casting of Fenech who while primarily a star of comedy vehicles is a terrific and frankly completely gorgeous leading lady. The score by Nora Orlandi will stick in your brain long after the film is over. I'm sure everyone has seen this by now but if you haven't then get it watched.
All the colours of the dark
The three stars of strange vice return. Edwige Fenech plays Jane Harrison and George Hilton plays her husband Richard. Jane is having strange, surreal nightmares about a stranger with piercing blue eyes played by Ivan Rassimov. Julies nightmares appear to be bleeding into her daily life. She's got some issues, partly due to the murder of her mother when she was young, as well as the recent loss of a child in a car crash. Her sister suggests she gets therapy, something her husband is dead set against and he suggests vitamins instead. A neighbour in their apartment block suggests attending a Black Sabbath because the occult is always good for someone with mental health issues. The Sabbath just appears to make things worse and the borders between Julies dreams and reality begin to collapse entirely.
If Strange vice is a top tier example of the giallo, All the colours of the dark one-ups that and drags the genre into the arena of the genuinely surreal and disturbing. The film opens with a genuinely weird and nightmarish dream sequence which sets the tone of the film. Martino keeps the audience in Julies head space as much as possible and as a result we are never entirely sure whats real and what isn't. Its a film that doesn't shy from throwing in precognition as a plot device because when you already have satanic cult conspiracies why not? This is probably the closest Martino has come to a straight up horror movie. Big alligator river and Island of the fishmen are both more adventure films than horror. Its genuinely creepy, very suspenseful and in places its flat out nightmarish.
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