The Case of the Bloody Iris
AKA
What Are Those Strange Drops of Blood on Jennifer's Body? ...
My first step into the world of non-Argento Gialli! No great shakes, but I did find stuff to like, mainly in the odd quirks and strange vein of humour (not all of it intentional). I thought director Guiliano Carnimeo made a decent stab (ha!) at bringing some style to the sub-standard material – lots of jaunty, stylised camera angles and some interesting location choices. I enjoyed seeing the crowded city streets here, in contrast to Argento’s largely uninhabited Rome. The casual attitude to death I found pretty amusing – it takes four separate murders before Jennifer thinks it best to move out of her apartment building. More chuckles in the form of the camp photographer, who both looked and sounded like Woody Allen! (does every Giallo feature a flamboyant gay stereotype?).
Very little going on plot wise – the mystery element is barley there , and the final killer reveal feels completely random from the bizarre mix of suspects. Set pieces were ok – a daylight stabbing in a crowd must’ve been seen by Argento. Saxon’s death scene in
Tenebrae feels very similar. Less successful is a crowbarred-in sexploitation scene, featuring a live sex/wrestling show! It smacks of a scene filmed solely to include in the trailer to draw in the punters – needless to say it does nothing to advance the plot! All in all, watchable, but nothing special.