All the Colours of the Dark (1972)
Sergio Martino's genre bending Giallo which plays out for the most part as a frenetic horror film.
The story concerns Jane, (Edwige Fenech) a young woman living in London, who following personal tragedy is having recurring nightmares of a man with blue eyes stalking her with a knife. From here the film delves deeper into Jane's psyche as she is coerced into taking part in a Black Magic rite as all her dreams seemingly become a nightmarish reality.
Sex, violence, hallucinations, murder...you name it. In All the Colours of the Dark director Sergio Martino leaves his giallo / crime comfort zone and drags us kicking and screaming into a terrifying dream world of violence and sexually explicit black magic. The film has a disorienting effect the longer it goes on, as Jane's reality becomes lost in her nightmares and gives the viewer a woozy unrelenting confusion as you feel trapped alongside her, seemingly as unhinged as she is. The film really gets under your skin due to Martino's eerie surreal camera work and a traumatic score from Bruno Nicolai.
It's only in the final reel that the film sports any resemblance to a giallo thanks to some unconventional plot twists and turns.
A cracking cast of supporting players including Julian Ugarte, Nieves Navarro and Martino regulars George Hilton and Ivan Rassimov never waste a moment but it's the outstanding Fenech, in her best performance really holds the film and keeps the viewer on the edge of their seat.
Martino's film is often mesmerizing, extremely gripping and always unpredictable. Quite simply, All the Colours of the Dark is one of my favourite Italian horror films of all time.
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