christopher-underwood There is much to enjoy in this film, not least the wild killings and surely the longest dragging of a body scene in cinema. The film is uneven, however, uneven in pace and in quality of scenes. I have just learned that this was originally intended as a four part TV series. This explains the stop, start nature of proceedings which would have made more sense with the movie plot up. Nevertheless there are some great moments and two of the most horrible and drawn out murders in giallo, its just that momentum is not maintained. It also doesn't help that the basement area of the villa used for filming is so vast with numerous rooms and closets, all a drab off white colour. Surely Lamberto's father would have had a field day here, cheering things up eerily with a full pallet of projected colours. Mario Bava would also have made sure that even if he was basically just showing a series of kills that we would be fully involved and feeling some concern and therefore horror as events pan out. So, some great moments but not a great film and for a film about a composer, the music wasn't particularly inspiring, maybe blame the 80s for that though!

Mr_Ectoplasma "A Blade in the Dark" follows a musical composer staying in a remote Tuscan villa to work on the score of a horror movie. A series of murders begin to occur in the villa after his arrival, sparking local interest.Directed by Mario Bava's son, Lamberto Bava, "A Blade in the Dark" is one of the later giallo films to come to fruition, debuting in 1983. Haphazardly dubbed in English (which, as others have noted, is some of the worst dubbing you're likely to ever see), the narrative twists and turns in relatively predictable ways, though there are a few nice surprises to be had, and Bava toys with the movie-within-a-movie trope by having the protagonist scoring a horror film.The film does succeed at achieving a relatively strong atmosphere, and the hilltop Italian villa locations are breathtaking and eerie. There are some great murder sequences as well, and the film strikes a nice balance between suspense and violence. The performances are decent, although the aforementioned dubbing does distract a bit. The ending is clever and very much in line with the film's giallo dedications, as absurd as it may be.Overall, "A Blade in the Dark" is, like many films of its type, atmospherically and visually interesting, but narratively convoluted. As an early-eighties entry into the giallo subgenre, it doesn't do much to distinguish itself, and that is where its biggest problem lies. It is reasonably suspenseful, however, and warrants a view from genre fans. Just don't expect Lamberto to live up to his father's legacy. 6/10.

Red-Barracuda This is the second of Lamberto Bava's impressive string of horror films in the 80's. It followed in the wake of the excellent Macabre and preceded the highly entertaining Demons. This one was firmly in the slasher/giallo style of films. It's another polished effort from the director and is one of the best gialli of the 80's. Unlike the 70's proto-type Bava's film doesn't really focus too much on the mystery side of the story, although it is still definitely there. It's more a stalk and slash affair, although one with some style and suspense.It stars, amongst others, future director Michele Soavi. And it is basically about a film composer who rents a remote villa to create the music for a new thriller. While there vicious murders begin to happen.The story line is nothing out of the ordinary and I would even say things pan out a little predictably. In fact, it's a pretty pedestrian film when it isn't focusing on scenes involving tension or violence. The mystery itself is not especially well thought out and the film as a whole does not have a very good script. The dialogue isn't helped, though, by the particularly bad dubbing. But I can hear a lot of people asking so what, hasn't it ever been thus in this sub-genre of film? Well, this is true but these aspects are made more damaging by the fact that the movie is definitely overlong for what it is and consequently, there is too much padding. It could easily have been trimmed by twenty minutes without sacrificing anything important. If the editing had been tighter, focussing more purely on the horror content at the expense of much of the melodramatics, it would have been a considerably better film.But I have to say that where A Blade in the Dark really scores is in Bava's good handling of tension and horror. When the film does hone in on this, it's often really effective. I would even go as far as to say that it can be genuinely frightening at times. No mean feat to be honest, considering how most films of its type rarely are. The whole finale in the villa with the killer stalking around half-seen speaking with that creepy voice is really effective. While from a horror perspective there is a bathroom killing sequence that is particularly inventively nasty. The atmosphere throughout is helped by some good camera-work and a fairly decent, if repetitive, score. There are also some memorably stylish moments such as the scene in the pool with roaming underwater photography. The action rarely moves from the villa which probably hinders the story developing its mystery thread but it's a reasonably effective setting, even if it is a house that is for some reason fitted out with a somewhat disproportionately impractical number of cupboards. The characters themselves act completely stupidly throughout, however, and at any given opportunity actively ignore events that appear incredibly suspicious. For example, tape is ripped from a recording machine and pages in a diary are thrown in a fire indicating a house-invading intruder but our protagonist merely treats these occurrences with mild concern. And when a mysterious girl emerges from a cupboard in his house he doesn't appear to consider this very strange. But I suppose he subsequently then mixes up a spider with a cockroach and later repeats this strange mistake, so I suppose we are not dealing with a character with too much common sense in fairness.Overall, seeing as this is an 80's giallo I have to cut A Blade in the Dark some slack. Its daftness is sort of endearing to at least a certain extent and it's hardly alone in this when you consider other similar films from the time. But, at the same time, it is successful as a horror film. There's good tension generated at times and it does have a nicely stylish presentation for the most part. It's not going to trouble your brain too much but it's pretty good value as an entertaining example of 80's Italian horror.

morrison-dylan-fan Being left bored by Lamberto Bava and Stanko Molnar muddling first collaboration Macabre,I entered their second collaboration with greatly decreased expectations.and since having learned that Bava had a three year break between his first and second film,the gap in time seems to have made Bava much more focus,with his second effect being a tense,speedy Giallo/Slasher-hybrid.The plot:Scoring a horror film in a rented villa,Bruno asks the director to give him the final reel of the film for him to score,which she weirdly seems keen on holding on for herself.Later on that night,Bruno meets a woman at the villa called Katia,who he cant remember having ever met before.With having enjoyed his chat with Katia,Bruno looks all over the villa to find her again.Falling to find Katia, (who,unbeknown to him has been vicusly murdered)Bruno instead stumbles upon a deranged looking diary.Suspecting that something nasty is accruing at the villa,Bruno goes to meet the director to find out the truth about the villa and her horror film.Eventally she caves in,and starts to tell Bruno that one of the main infolances of her film was her sister,who was also the previous tente of the villa,until she had suddenly disappeared.Returning to his recording studio,Bruno begins to fear that he is not alone in the villa,when he finds that the diary and the reels of film have been cut to bits by a very sharp blade... View on the film:On the making of included on the excellent Blue Underground DVD,Lamberto Bava mentions that with having been given only six weeks to shoot the film,he had to rush like crazy to complete the film on time,which surprised me quite a bit,due to Bava showing a lot of attention to creating a tense film which moves at a strong,brisk pace.For his vastly improved directing,Lamberto uses a good number of great tracking shots,which helps to give a strong creeping sensation that the killer may be about to appear from any corner of the isolated villa.Along with the tracking shots,Bava turns the film into a fantastic Giallo/Slasher genre mash-up!,with the scenes of the killer slowly heading down to the next floor where Bruno is attempting to hide being truly edge of the seat stuff,with Bava cranking the tension up to as high as he can.Along with the Giallo murder mystery side,Lamberto shoots most of the great,gory murder scenes with a strong "Slasher" eye,with the blade constantly shimmering in the scenes,as the murders are shoot in a more impact-focus way,and a noticablely less pop-art stylised way.For the screenplay writers Dardano Sacchetti and Elisa Briganti cleverly make sure that you never have a moment to step back from the movie,to notice that 90% of the film is taking place in one building.To cover any signs of budget/shooting limitation's,Sacchetti and Brigant create a Giallo that keeps branching out sections of the story into new,scary area's.And although some of the characters are disappointingly under- written,Sacchetti and Brigant include a brilliant sting in this Giallo/Slasher tale,which completely got me by surprise,and had a good impact on me due to the tense mystery which Bava had been building up since the start of the film.Final view on the film: An extremely brisk,well-paced Giallo/Slasher mash-up,with a good cast,a tense,tightly-written screenplay and stunningly improved directing from Lamberto Bava.