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Alberto De Martino’s The Antichrist is easy to dismiss as a shameless rip-off of The Exorcist. But that would be to diminish the stylistic verve that De Martino brings to the project. In fact, aside from the more overt story elements relating to the occult, De Martino’s direction owes more to other Euro contemporaries like Walerian Borowczyk and Sergio Martino than to William Friedkin.

Densely plotted, if overlong, The Antichrist proves more enamored with matters of sexual repression than demonic possession. As the film opens, Ippolita (Carla Gravina) attends a madhouse religious ceremony—featuring snakes, writhing bodies, and a possessed man (Ernesto Colli) who hurls himself from a cliff to his death—alongside her aristocratic father (Mel Ferrer), in an effort to try and walk again. She’s been paralyzed since she was 12, the result of a car accident that also killed her mother. Needless to say, her...

Stars: George Lazenby, Anita Strindberg, Nicoletta Elmi, Adolfo Celi, Dominique Boschero, Peter Chatel, Peter Chatel | Written by Francesco Barilli, Massimo D’Avak | Directed by Aldo Lado

Who Saw Her Die? (Chi l’ha vista morire?), directed by Aldo Lado, is a striking entry in the Italian horror genre that flourished during the late 1960s and 1970s. The film combines the typical Giallo elements of mystery, psychological tension, and stylized violence with a moody atmosphere that sets it apart from its contemporaries.

Set against the hauntingly beautiful backdrop of Venice, the film tells the story of sculptor Franco Serpieri (played by George Lazenby), whose daughter, Roberta, is brutally murdered shortly after arriving in the city. As Franco delves into the mystery of her death, he uncovers a series of child murders that eerily mirror the fate of his own daughter. The film is notable for its brooding atmosphere, where Venice’s foggy canals...

Black Cats and Incest.

Last week we used our discussion of Mark Pellington’s The Mothman Prophecies to recover from our month-long theme on toxic masculinity, which included episodes on Funny Games, Deadgirl, Murder by Numbers and Hard Candy.

This week we’re diving back into the world of Giallo with prolific Italian director Sergio Martino‘s Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key (1972), which is truly the best title ever.

In the film, Irina (Anita Strindberg) is in an abusive marriage with Oliviero (Luigi Pistilli), her drunk womanizing writer husband. When his niece Floriana (Edwige Fenech) comes to visit, a plan is hatched to wreak revenge against the destitute author. As the film progresses, however, it’s no longer clear who is playing who.

Can Irina and Floriana trust each other? Or will the women turn on each other in madness and despair?

Be...

Severin Films is bringing out the big guns and starting 2023 with a bang, exclusively telling Bloody Disgusting this afternoon about the first two releases they’re bringing to the new year.

On January 31st, Severin Films unleashes two definitive action releases: Violent Streets: The Umberto Lenzi/Tomas Milian Collection includes Almost Human, Syndicate Sadists, Free Hand For A Tough Cop, The Cynic, The Rat And The Fist and Brothers Till We Die. January also brings the North American debut of the 1981 Australian action classic Attack Force Z, starring Mel Gibson, Sam Neill and John Phillip Law.

Violent Streets: The Umberto Lenzi / Tomas Milian Collection: Italian director Umberto Lenzi had recently completed a landmark string of kinky gialli with Hollywood outcast Carroll Baker. Cuban-born/Actor’s Studio-trained Tomas Milian had become one of Spaghetti Westerns’ most popular stars. But when these two notoriously mercurial talents came together for a series of...

Hey everyone! We’re back with a whole new batch of home media releases that will be arriving on Tuesday, and it includes quite an eclectic array of titles that genre fans are going to want to check out. If you missed out on the previous edition, Arrow is releasing the Standard Special Edition of Legend this week which is absolutely worth checking out, and for all you cult film fans, Severin Films is showing some love to Don’t Go Into the House with their Special Edition presentation.

Kino Lorber is resurrecting Alberto De Martino’s The Antichrist on Blu-ray this Tuesday, and if you’re looking to catch up on some recent horror, Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City and Student Body are both being released on multiple formats as well.

Other releases for February 8th include Santo: El Enmascarado De Plata Box Set, Bloody Mary, Hiruko the Goblin,...

Arrow Video’s August films include a brilliantly original American indie comedy, a pair of out-there arthouse masterworks, a rediscovered 70s horror creepfest, a terrifying Korean ghost story, and definitive, collectable editions of an awe-inspiring science fiction blockbuster.

The releases will come in limited edition packaging, with beautiful new artwork, pristine restorations giving the films a new lease of life, brand new expert commentaries and feature-length documentaries,reversible sleeves, as well as goodies including fold-out posters, art cards, books and illustrated booklets.

First in August, Arrow Video presents the mind-blowing ‘acid-western’ El Topo, which shocked and bedazzled audiences upon its controversial original release, single-handedly inventing the American midnight movie phenomenon. A countercultural masterpiece which ingeniously combines iconic Americana symbolism with director Alejandro Jodorowsky’s own idiosyncratic surrealist aesthetic, El Topo is an incredible journey through nightmarish violence, mind-bending mysticism and awe-inspiring imagery. This era-defining film is now presented in a...

[This October is "Gialloween" on Daily Dead, as we celebrate the Halloween season by diving into the macabre mysteries, creepy kills, and eccentric characters found in some of our favorite giallo films! Keep checking back on Daily Dead this month for more retrospectives on classic, cult, and altogether unforgettable gialli, and visit our online hub to catch up on all of our Gialloween special features!]

One of my favorite professors in college would start and end every class session with the same sage words of wisdom, “You don’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been.” This quote, resonating loudly in the absence of video stores, in the disposal of physical media by major retailers, with the undeniable influence of social media on creative output and in the shadow of a global pandemic, paints an entirely new perspective on the future of film and the paths that will be taken based on the past already paved.

The narrative theme we will describe as “looking back” is not a new concept for storytelling. Whether searching history for stories about famous figures, critical moments, or rare circumstances, returning to the past is grounds for interesting stories.

Looking back at the footprints set by genre film; from Méliès to Wiene, from Murnau to Browning,...

[This October is "Gialloween" on Daily Dead, as we celebrate the Halloween season by diving into the macabre mysteries, creepy kills, and eccentric characters found in some of our favorite giallo films! Keep checking back on Daily Dead this month for more retrospectives on classic, cult, and altogether unforgettable gialli, and visit our online hub to catch up on all of our Gialloween special features!]

Happy Gialloween! The timing on this year’s theme is actually pretty perfect, because I have slowly begun dipping my toes into the giallo waters over the past few months. Once upon a time, giallo and Italian horror in general was a big “no” for me. It all seemed too weird and too unfocused. I just didn’t connect with Italian storytelling and would always wind up frustrated and bored.

But over time, I have come to warm to more loose, more abstract styles of storytelling, and decided to give it another go. And I really have been enjoying what I have been seeing. Sometimes age, life experience, or just changing tastes merit another chance on some of the art that you initially pushed away.

Over the past few months, I have watched (and enjoyed) films like Tenebrae, Don’t Torture a Duckling, Deep Red, and The Bird with the Crystal Plumage.

By Hank Reineke

The 1972 Giallo Who Saw Her Die? (Chi l'ha vista morire?) was Aldo Lado’s second film as director, his first being Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971). That film was a somewhat less-than-traditional Giallo, photographed inexpensively behind the Iron Curtain in the cities of Zagreb and Prague. Short Night of Glass Dolls was a complicated film that told its story in backward fashion, much in the style of the celebrated playwright Harold Pinter. It was also an unusual Giallo in the sense that its overtly exploitative sex scenes were unevenly mixed with the genre’s level of on-screen violence than European movie-thriller fans had come to expect. Lado had entered into the film business only some five years earlier, serving as the assistant director on a handful of Sergio Leone-inspired Spaghetti western knock-offs and a couple of action films, before getting the opportunity to work with the...

This week’s horror and sci-fi Blu-ray and DVD titles are an eclectic bunch, led by a pair of cult classics—Fright and Straight on Till Morning—which were both directed by Peter Collinson. Arrow Video put together a special edition release for Who Saw Her Die?, which this writer is really looking forward to checking out in the coming weeks, and Unearthed Classics is resurrecting Nightwish on both formats as well.

In terms of new films, The Velocipastor arrives on Tuesday on both Blu and DVD, and for those of you who missed it in theaters, Dark Phoenix rises again on multiple formats, and Clownado touches down this week on DVD as well.

Other notable releases for September 17th include The Night Sitter, D-Railed, The Bloody Ape, Return of the Scarecrow, and The Films of Sarah Jacobson: Mary Jane’s Not a Virgin Anymore & I Was a Teenage Serial Killer from Agfa.

Giallos run hot and cold, but this one has plenty to recommend it — a serious outlook, a focus on elements other than gore, beautiful cinematography on terrific locations in Venice, and committed performances from Anita Strindberg, Adolfo Celi and an unusual choice, ex- 007 George Lazenby. Director Aldo Lado takes this one in a different direction than Giallo maestro Dario Argento — with a humanistic bent and a compelling performance by child actress Nicoletta Elmi. Plus a piercing music score by Ennio Morricone, sung by a children’s choir.

Who Saw Her Die?

Blu-ray

Arrow Video

1972 / Color / 2:35 widescreen Techniscope / 94 min. / Chi l’ha vista morire? / Street Date September 17, 2019 / 39.95

Starring: George Lazenby, Anita Strinderg, Nicoletta Elmi, Adolfo Celi, Dominique Boschero, José Quaglio, Alessandro Haber, Rosmarie Lindt.

Cinematography: Franco Di Giacomo

Film Editor: Angelo Curi

Original Music: Ennio Morricone

Written by Francesco Barilli, Massimo D’Avak in collaboration with Aldo Lado, Ruediger Von...

Former Bond star George Lazenby headlines this classic giallo directed by Aldo Lado as compelling for its haunting atmosphere, twists and turns as for its parallels with another great Venetian horror/thriller Nicolas Roeg s Don t Look Now.

Sculptor Franco Serpieri (Lazenby) welcomes Roberta his young daughter from a failed marriage to Venice, unaware that a disturbed child-killer is stalking the city s canals. When Roberta s body is found floating face-down in the river, the lives of Franco and his estranged wife Elizabeth are ripped asunder. Desperate for vengeance, Franco turns detective in a bid to track down his daughter s killer, and in the process unearths shocking evidence of depravity and corruption which implicates some of the most respected figures in Venetian society.

Released at the height of the giallo boom, this gripping mystery thriller boasts some of the most iconic names associated with the genre on both sides of the camera.

By Tim Greaves

The name Sergio Martino will strike a chord with anyone who has even a passing interest in Italian exploitation pictures of the 70s and 80s. Once seen, who can forget The Great Alligator or The Island of Fishmen – both of which are favourites of this writer in their showcasing of Barbara Bach at her most radiant – or premium Suzy Kendall giallo Torso, or for that matter once ‘video nasty’ and Ursula Andress headliner The Mountain of the Cannibal God? Marking Martino’s second giallo, The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail (o.t. La coda della scorpione), was released in 1971, sandwiched between a couple of his most highly regarded titles, The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh and All the Colours of the Dark. Scorpion’s Tail isn’t quite on a par with either of those, but it’s still a respectable entry in the sub-genre.

When...

Tuesday, July 17th looks to be another busy day for home media releases, as we have a rather interesting blend of titles, both new and old. As far as recent flicks go, Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare, The Housemaid, Rampage, and You Were Never Really Here are the big highlights of this week’s Blu-ray and DVD debuts. And for those of you who are looking to expand your cult cinema collections, Arrow Video is keeping busy with new HD releases of The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail and Doom Asylum.

Other notable releases for July 17th include the new EndoArm edition of Terminator 2 in 4K, the Church of the Damned/Bad Magic double feature Blu-ray, Amityville Prison, and The Antithesis.

Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare

Lucy Hale (Pretty Little Liars) and Tyler Posey (Teen Wolf) lead the cast of Blumhouse's Truth or Dare, a supernatural thriller from Blumhouse Productions.

One of the major consequences of Western Europe s post-war Economic Miracle was the proliferation of international travel. Eager to tap into audiences desire to experience the glamor of the jet set lifestyle, the popular filmmakers of the day rushed to make the most of the exotic locales at their disposal.

Arguably no other giallo captured this trend as vividly as The Case of the Scorpion s Tail. The film begins in London, where Lisa Baumer learns that her husband has died in a freak plane accident. Summoned to Athens to collect his generous life insurance policy, she soon discovers that others besides herself are keen to get their hands on the money and are willing to kill for it. Meanwhile, private detective Peter Lynch arrives to investigate irregularities in the insurance claim. Teaming up with a beautiful reporter, Cléo Dupont, Lynch resolves to unearth the truth… before he too...

Shudder will take viewers to the place that's "not as brightly lit" this Halloween season, as the 1980s anthology series Tales From the Darkside will be available to watch in its entirety on the horror streaming service beginning October 1st:

Press Release: New York, New York – September 26, 2016 – The AMC-backed streaming service, Shudder, is The entertainment destination for everything you need to watch this Halloween season. Whether you’re a hardcore horror fan or simply looking for the scariest films to celebrate this time of year, Shudder has something for everyone in its sweeping library, carefully curated by some of the top horror experts in the world.

As Halloween approaches, Shudder is expanding its database with a variety of new titles including cult favorites, blockbuster hits, and classic thrillers. Additionally, for the first time ever, Shudder will be offering horror TV series to complement its expansive film library.

Premiering October 20th...

Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key calls to mind what Orson Welles said of Paper Moon – “That title is so good, you shouldn’t even make the picture, you should just release the title!” For the first twenty or thirty minutes of Your Vice, I thought Welles’ advice especially apt. People keep dying in grisly ways around Oliviero (Luigi Pistilli), a failed writer who’s nonetheless held onto a pretty great mansion and is plenty creepy enough to be a rather obvious suspect. He regularly hosts parties for hippies as a way to amuse himself, feel connected to the kids, and provide a public platform from which he can get off on abusing his wife, Irina (Anita Strindberg). She’s timid, trapped in a hellish marriage, and genuinely terrified of Oliviero’s late mother’s cat (in her defense, the cat is named Satan...

Throughout the history of cinema there are countless adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe’s work, from D. W. Griffith’s early take on The Sealed Room through Roger Corman’s series of lo-fi refittings of the 60s up to last year’s attempt to adapt The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether in Stonehearst Asylum. Looking back at two loose Italian adaptations of Poe’s classic horror short The Black Cat, Arrow’s new Edgar Allan Poe’s Black Cats set sees a towering duo of giallo cinema auteurs picking and choosing their favorite elements of the original tale and molding them to their supernatural, blade-wielding will with blood-spilling glee and cinematic aplomb.

Released in 1972 on the tail end of a trio of more classically typified gialli in The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail and All the Colors of the Dark, Sergio Martino...