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The aftermath of the first death is depicted behind the opening titles, a corpse is dragged to a dungeon and feasted on by rodents and indeed there's a ginger feline nearby to lend the slit-pupil lens. Scotland in the vague Jazz Age accommodates this, a castle whose very mention has locals crossing themselves, in strolls the heiress (Jane Birkin) freshly kicked out of Catholic school. "Not much of a festive atmosphere around here." Her aunt (Françoise Christophe) is the strapped mistress of the manor, meanwhile Mom (Dana Ghia) becomes the next victim of a killer seen in black-gloved POVs. (She returns in an oneiric flash like a blanched Medusa before a gore-splashed crucifix, "just a dream inspired by the folklore of this part of England.") The heroine's ally is also a potential suspect, the supercilious scion who fancies himself an artist (Hiram Keller). "I paint every subject, sacred or profane." At the crossroads of Gothic and giallo, a mezzo-mezzo whodunit by Antonio Margheriti. The Holy Bible in the fireplace, the frosted skylight in the crypt, the simian mug at the window—there's gotta be a frisson around here somewhere. The local clerics are worldly chaps not unlike Buñuel's in Tristana, say, admitting over dinner a certain fascination with the fanged chimera adorning the family crest. Rolling in bed with the bisexual French tutor (Doris Kunstmann), the desiccated doctor (Anton Diffring) contributes his own idea of pillow talk: "Are you excited by all the blood that's flowing around here?" As the police inspector, Serge Gainsbourg slouches in and out as a favor to his inamorata while his dubber enjoys endowing him with a nasal brogue. Freda in Murder Obsession combines the two Italo-horror subgenres rather more intriguingly. With Venantino Venantini, Konrad Georg, Luciano Pigozzi, Bianca Doria, and Franco Ressel.
--- Fernando F. Croce |