Sam Panico We went to see Blood and Black Lace in the theater a few weeks ago and there was a speaker before it. Maybe he's bad at speaking in public, but the guy gave short shift to the film, mumbling out about how it influenced Friday the 13th (I'd say Bay of Blood did more than this movie) and how it had a different title. And that was it. I was incensed. I wanted to get up out of my seat and scream that Mario Bava is the reason why lighting is the way it is and his use of color and how I can site hundreds of films that he influenced. But I sat in my seat and boiled while the movie unspooled, because I'm really passionate about Mario Bava and don't need to make a scene and miss seeing one of his films on the big screen.That said — Shock is Bava's last film. It's called Beyond the Door II here in the U.S., but I like the original title better. It's an ecomonical film — there are only three characters (well, three living characters). Dora (Daria Nicolodi, who should be canonized for giving birth to both Suspiria and Asia Argento, as well as roles in Deep Red, Inferno, Opera and so much more) and Bruno (Yor, Hunter from the Future's Overlord) are a newly married couple who have just moved back into her old home — the home where her drug addicted husband killed himself — with her son, Marco.Dora's had some real issues dealing with her husband's death. And Bruno is never home, as he's a pilot for a major airline. Either she's going crazy again or her son is evil or he's possessed or ever single one of those things at once. You have not seen a kid this creepy perhaps ever — he watched his mother and stepfather make love, declaring them pigs. He tells his mom he wants to kill her. He makes his stepfather's plane nearly crash just by putting an image of the man's face on a swing.While Mario was sick throughout the filming (and his son Lambarto would fill in), you can definitely see his style shine through the simple story. There's one scene of Dora's face and her dead hsubands's and then her face that repeats vertically that will blow your mind up.Read more at https://bandsaboutmovies.com/2017/10/17/shock-1977/

Michael_Elliott Shock (1977) ** 1/2 (out of 4) Dora Baldini (Daria Nicolodi) moves her new husband (John Steiner) and her son (David Colin, Jr.) from a previous marriage into the house that she once lived with the kid's father who committed suicide. It doesn't take long for strange things to start happening and the mother believes that the dead father has possessed the body of his son. SHOCK has a pretty bad reputation, which I think is somewhat unfair for a few different reasons. I think a lot of people automatically hated this picture because it was originally released in America as BEYOND THE DOOR II and many were upset that it had nothing to do with the 1974 picture. Another reason people hate this film is because it's not your typical Italian horror film as there's not any real gore and for the majority of the running time there's not a single thing that happens. I think SHOCK really is the perfect example of a very talented director being able to take a rather lackluster screenplay and a low budget and working some magic with it. There's no doubt that Mario Bava was a genius that could do things with a limited amount of funds and he does a pretty good job here. There are several great scenes that are really brought to life by the director's style and this includes the various hauntings. When the horror elements finally kick in they're pretty effective including a now famous scene involving the little boy running up to his mother. I certainly won't spoil what happens but it's certainly a creepy little sequence. I thought Bava did a pretty good job at covering the psychological elements of the film as we really do seem to get into the mind of Nicolodi as she starts to crack under all the pressure she's under. Speaking of Nicolodi, she turns in a fine performance as all of her emotional states are perfectly captured and I thought she was very believable as the tortured soul. Steiner is also good as the caring husband and Colin, who also appeared in BEYOND THE DOOR, isn't too bad. What really keeps this film from being more is the screenplay, which is pretty mediocre to say the least. I think the entire plot involving the suicide is pretty predictable and there's really not any shocks. If the term "by-the-numbers" means anything to you then this film is the perfect example of it. When you see how bland the screenplay is, it's even more impressive that Bava was able to do so much with it. SHOCK is certainly a flawed movie but the effective moments make it worth sitting through and it certainly deserves a better reputation.

Polaris_DiB Italian horror cinema, especially it's more exploitative stylings such as giallo, is so hit-and-miss. Some directors are great, others are terrible, even when they're contemporaries. Within oeuvres, some director's movies are quite effective, others are nearly useless (I'm glaring at you, Dario Argento). And, in some cases, even a single movie has its amazing parts and its terrible parts--yes, like Shock, Maestro Mario Bava's final directorial effort.The concept itself is very good. A mix of Shining and Amityville Horror style haunted house narrative, a woman and her family move into the house of her youth, only to be beset by spectres. Dora, the mother, is first beset by apprehension, then anxiety, then horror, and finally insanity as the house slowly destroys her mind. Young Marco, her child, almost immediately gets possessed -- by what is not so clear, but that's actually a good way to go about it. Bruno, Dora's second husband and Marco's step-father is ostensibly the voice of reason, but first his absence's sink the security of Dora's psyche, and then his sordid past comes back to destroy all vestiges of hope for the family. If you're looking for skeletons in the closet, that's basically the best way to describe this movie.However, it's execution is spotty at best. There's the aforementioned possessions, ghostly happenings, psychoses; there's also voodoo, token objects, endless dream sequences, and a trippy montage in the middle of the movie that comes out of absolutely nowhere. There are some sequences that are superbly executed (one shot near the end of the movie involving a hallway and Bruno suddenly changing into someone else has to be one of the most terrifying moments in cinema I've ever witnessed), and then there are others that do more than drag down the narrative (Dora slowly going hysterical while Bruno just sits there watching goes on too long while little reaction from Bruno makes it entirely unbelievable). In classic Italian cinema means, the imagery is mostly beautiful but their penchant for dubbed post-production sound is very disconcerting, making the movie a little harder to get into.I'd really only recommend this one to fans of Bava, the other Italian giallo filmmakers, and those who really do love really flamboyant horror movies of all sub-types. It's a shame, too, because some sequences are deserving of recognition for their skill and execution, but the whole does not support the parts, and vice versa.--PolarisDiB

Scarecrow-88 Dora(Daria Nicolodi)returns with her new husband, pilot Bruno(John Steiner) and son Marco(David Colin Jr)to the home she once shared with her former husband. It's brought up as the movie continues that her first husband, a pianist whose best days were behind him as he progressed into drug addiction bringing Dora down with him, had committed suicide. Bruno tries to keep her calm because we immediately notice she's quite emotionally fragile. The idea of returning to the home of a devastating past is hard to accept at first without some reservations. With Dora's husband often away flying commercial aircraft, she begins to notice strange behavior from son Marco who even informs his mom that he is to kill her! That admitting such an atrocious deed coming from a boy is alarming to say the least. Soon Dora is plagued by disorienting nightmares and is often spooked by inanimate objects which often fall around her. With her son's bizarre behavior and some past recollections regarding what REALLY happened to her dead husband Carlo, Dora's sanity will be tested. The rocky marriage to Carlo sent to an emotionally distraught Dora to a sanitarium and being haunted by his spirit will only further complicate matters. Why is Carlo tormenting her to begin with? And, why is he using his son as a "go-between" to frighten his former wife? And, why is blood oozing from a brick wall down in the basement? And, more importantly, how is Bruno connected to the whole ordeal? In one scene, we hear the angered spirit, speaking through Marco, refer to Dora and Bruno as pigs.Bava's final film has some really cool set-pieces such as the corpse hand often fondling Dora's throat as she sleeps or caressing her ankle after causing her to fall. We see doors swing open out of the blue, a chandelier fall nearly on top of her head, furniture spring towards her, and even a razor blade(which has significance in the grand scheme of things)suspended in air coming towards her, at one point, slicing a gap in her gown. David Colin Jr is quite creepy as the possessed Marco and Daria is pretty much in a state of near hysteria throughout. One thrilling sequence shows Marco coming towards her changing into Carlo upon arrival. May not be Mario at his best, but very entertaining with a great score. Probably the nightmare sequences have the style we often are accustomed to when watching a Mario Bava film as he implements visual techniques that make Dora's visions so bizarre, surreal, & disturbing. The film's revelation regarding Carlo's fate is really neatly presented.