TORSO
Director: Sergio Martino
Original / Alternate Titles: I Corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale, Carnal Violence
Rating: R
Running Time: 92 minutes
Description: The first time I saw Torso, I was less than impressed. This was back when, as a video store manager that often closed the store, I was first discovering the Giallo (and watching them by myself VERY late at night). I’m not quite sure what it was about this flick; it just rubbed me wrong.
I recently re-watched Torso, and I can’t figure out what it was I didn’t like the first time! Torso is a classic Giallo, with nearly all the elements covered – the flick opens with a boobie-filled three-some which identifies the killer’s penchant for eyes (eyes and sight unseen being a big part of many Gialli), there are red herrings a plenty, lots of good stalking killer-POV, Americans in Italy, red-paint blood and gore, prostitutes, drugs, the list goes on and on! Torso even features an element that I have felt is lacking from many Gialli – suspense.
The story starts out with an American student studying in Italy (foreigners in a foreign land is a very common theme in the Giallo genre), who decides with some friends to head up to a villa away from school, as some madman (as they always are in Gialli) has taken to killing young women. This is a bad idea, as the killer also heads for the hills, and works on emptying the villa!
The story is very basic Gialli territory – black gloved killer stalks and kills women. But where Torso shines is the huge amount of twists and turns (supposedly even the female actresses weren’t told who the “real killer” was during filming), good uses of the red herring (did the killer use a black scarf with red details to strangle the girls, or was it a red scarf with black details?), lots of chances to decide who the killer is (and be wrong), and the addition of the aforementioned suspense angle.
Many Gialli have a character being stalked, and yes that can be made suspenseful, especially through the use of killer-POV. Torso takes the suspense t a different level, as our heroine Jane (Susy Kendall) sits in a closet with a badly-damaged ankle, watching a murder occur just outside and trying to hold her breath. Or the many shots Sergio Martino has of doorknobs, slowly being forced open. Or the topper for this flick: Jane has to watch the masked (which is not often found in the Giallo genre, most killers faces are just not shown) killer dismember her friends as she tries to not make a sound.
Torso is a great shining example of the Giallo done very well. There are enough twists and turns to derail a train, the requisite boobies and blood, a scary stalking killer with a freaky knife, red herrings upon red herrings, the themes of both “foreigner in a foreign land” and “sight unseen” being played out, and a really hard to swallow motive for the killings (as they usually are in Gialli). I need to go get me some more Sergio Martino Gialli and see if they stand up to Torso.
4 out of 5 Black on Red Scarves
DVD Available from Anchor Bay
