Sunday, November 16, 2008

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have The Key

(1972) ***

The story follows an investigation of a killer who is terrorizing a local village murdering beautiful young women. We are introduced to a couple, Irina and Oliviero who have a totally dysfunctional marriage. Oliviero is a dried up writer who had an incestuous relationship with his now dead mother and is now adulterous and abusive to his wife.

Oh help me I am such a vixen..uh...victim

Irina allows herself to be humiliated and victimized often being locked away in a room by Oliviero as a form of punishment. After the notorious murderer kills their maid everyone in the house is on edge. Oliviero’s niece Floriana then moves into their house and upsets the balance by seducing both Irina & Oliviero as well as one of the locals. She tries to convince Irina that she needn’t take such abuse. But is Irina really the victim she appears to be?

Yet another film based on Poe’s "The Black Cat" but this one really got in depth into the characters. The film is loaded with gratuitous sex scenes that I assume were thrown in to make the movie more adult and shocking for it’s time. Seemed to me that it was more or less a 70’s soft-core porn film with a horror edge to it. The sexual promiscuity of the characters involved takes away any sympathy you might feel for them. In the end you really don’t feel bad for any of them since they are all despicable people and any bad things that resulted were their just desserts.

3 comments:

Whirlygirl said...

I watched but did not review this one last Horrorthon. I actually really liked this movie and would have rated it higher, but I am also very biased when it comes to director Sergio Martino. He is one of my favorite Italian giallo directors. I love his highly artistic style. There are some scenes in his film All the Colors of the Dark that rival Argento. I really got into the characters of this film, they are complex and I think the acting in this film is good, particularly by the husband. It is far better than most of the acting you will see in other films from this genre. Also, all his films can be watched in Italian with English subtitles rather than that horrible dubbing that, in my opinion, always weakens the film.

Catfreeek said...

I hate the dubbing also and always opt for the original language when available. The dubbing never seems to carry forth the proper emotion. I did like this film but I have to say it wasn't one of my favorites. The acting seemed a little too soap opera for my liking.

JPX said...

I remember Whirlygirl talking a lot about this film last year. I always thought that the title was annoying and cumbersome. Nice review though!

Malevolent

 2018  ***1/2 It's 1986 for some reason, and a team of paranormal investigators are making a big name for themselves all over Scotland. ...