In the folds of the flesh
Starting off with a decapitation and a woman burying the corpse on the grounds of her villa, with a crook witnessing the burial before getting apprehended by the cops, the film then enters the realm of the surreal. From the swirling paint colours of the opening credits with a quote from Sigmund Freud that gives the film its title, to the bizarre murders and plot points including pet vultures, Concentration camp flashbacks, incest and a climax where peoples identities seem to change more rapidly than a catwalk model changes clothes. In the Folds of the flesh is one of the weirdest, sleaziest and most outright delirious Giallo's made. It's a Spanish-Italian co-production that incorporates a lot of the surrealism and savagery of Spanish cinema mixing it with the style of the Italian thriller. Worth picking up.
Perfurme of the Lady in black.
Another 'slow burn' Giallo that's likely to test the patience of people expecting wall to wall sleaze. Mimsy Farmer plays an industrial scientist who starts having vivid hallucinations that seems linked to childhood trauma. Its about 40 to 50 minutes before the bodies begin to pile up and even then its fairly tame, Perfume instead focuses on a strange, supernatural plot where the line between psychosis and the paranormal disintegrates entirely. I like it, I have a lot of time for the film. I can totally buy why some don't. It seems however that the 'marmite' giallo's can be the most interesting.
Autopsy
More Mimsy Farmer. This one is a different beast to Perfume however. The film opens with a series of shocking suicides, followed by Farmer's character working at the morgue where shes doing autopsy's. She begins to have hallucinations where the corpses come to life and begin screwing and wandering about. The first ten minutes are amongst the darkest , weirdest and nastiest in any Giallo. It's suggested that sun spots are contributing to the wave of suicides that Farmer is researching for her dissertation and Also her own fragile mental state. However it also appears to be also down to her sexual hang ups. She's dating Riccardo, played by the late, great Ray Lovelock. She won't invite him up 'for coffee' saying she's too focused on her work , however it becomes apparent she has issues with sex. Her dad on the other hand has no issues and she meets his latest squeeze who promptly heads out and is found dead on a Rome beach seemingly of suicide. The woman's brother, a priest with a hair trigger temper doesn't believe she killed herself and works with Farmer's character to investigate. As one would expect, the corpses begin to pile up.
I really like Autopsy. Its not outright sleazy but it manages to generate a genuinely disturbing atmosphere throughout. Its only out on DVD right now but really needs a good HD release.
A blade in the dark
Lamberto Bava's film follows a composer hired to score a film. He moves into a villa in order to get his work done in peace. Unfortunately friends and neighbours end up getting brutally dispatched one after the other and the composer like any good Giallo Protagonist decides he needs to investigate.
The script comes from one of the best writing teams for genre cinema Elisa Briganti & Dardano Sacchetti. The plot is solid as a result and for the most part makes sense. Though it lacks the bizarre flights of fancy of some of the stranger Giallo pictures out there. Apparently it was intended to be a TV mini-series which would explain the lengthy run time but overall its worth checking out.
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