Arrow Video’s Blu-ray box set of the Giallo films makes a welcome return to the market, this time with a couple of extras that make it worth the high asking price. That said, those who are more interested in finding horror gems from Italy than they care about collecting fancy packaging may want to look elsewhere for their blood money
Giallo Essentials Volume 2 (1973-1975) is a collection of 4 films from the Italian giallo genre. Arrow Video has released the set on Blu-ray in a limited edition box set. The film is reviewed here.
Verdict
Summary
These three flicks, which are all up to Arrow’s excellent standards, will appeal to giallos fans.
What Have Your Daughters Been Through? Plot: Plot: Plot: Plot: Plot: Plot: P
Police investigate an adolescent girl’s apparent suicide and unearth information about a teen prostitution ring. They are on the lookout for a serial murderer who rides a motorbike.
Review:
a naked woman A 15-year-old girl was discovered hanged in her residence. Detectives are sent to establish if the girl committed suicide or was the victim of foul play. Inspector Silvestri (Claudio Cassinelli) and the Assistant District Attorney (Giovanna Ralli) meet to review the options. They look into it and discover that the girl had a number of older partners, so they hunt them down and interview them. The funeral takes place, and another girl attends. When the investigator interviews her, she reveals that she and the murdered girl had the same psychotherapist. The doctor, it turns out, has been conducting a prostitution ring outside of his clinic, drugging his patients and offering them for sex to well-paid and well-respected members of society. Another corpse is discovered, and the Assistant District Attorney is then targeted by the same assassin that killed the prior victims. A serial murderer is on the run, and Silvestri must piece together all of the clues and set up a trap for the perpetrator before anybody else is killed.
What Have They Done to Your Daughters? is a firmly depressing procedural with gory aftermath scenes of killings and disturbing sexuality themes. It’s a meaty blend of poliziotteschi police thriller and giallo horror film. It’s a tad boring for the most part, but there are enough of action and violent leaps to keep you engaged. What Have You Done to Solange? is the greater predecessor to this, so if you liked that one, you should appreciate this one as well. Massimo Dallamano is the director.
Arrow’s release includes a 2K restoration of the picture, as well as an audio commentary, a video essay, additional cast and crew interviews, trailers, unused material, and a reversible cover.
Plot: Strip Nude For Your Killer (1975)
A prominent Milanese fashion firm is being rocked by a series of extremely sexualized killings.
Review:
An illegal abortion operation (I was not anticipating that in the opening scene of the film!) When anything goes wrong, the patient has a heart attack and dies. The doctor and a disguised accomplice dispose of the woman’s corpse, leading to the conclusion that her death was a murder by investigators. The lady was a model, and her coworkers at a fashion house began to die in horrifying ways (usually stabbed to death while in the nude). The murderer dresses up as a motorcycle rider and wears a helmet, and selects his or her victims based on their proximity to the first murder. A stunning new model is assassinated. The spouse of a big lecherous creep photographer gets stabbed to death. Other victims are picked and detectives are tasked with investigating them. There are just a few suspects: Is she an envious model? Is it you, one of the photographers? Who is the company’s CEO? Is it an insider or an outsider looking in?
Strip Nude For Your Killer is a highly sexualized giallo thriller that has more explicit nudity and sex scenes than similar films. There’s increasing nudity every few minutes, culminating in a kill scene. The film has the vibe of a sleazy softcore porn thriller at parts. Aficionados of Italian stalker / slasher flicks from the 1970s will like the picture, which also hits the mark for fans of exploitation films. I stopped caring who the murderer was or what his purpose was after a while, but the bare body and sleazy atmosphere pervade the proceedings, so there’s that. This film by filmmaker Andrea Bianchi isn’t the finest of its genre, but it’s worth a look if you have a giallo itch.
This title is offered in a 2K transfer on Arrow’s Blu-ray release. A new audio commentary, a new video essay, archival interviews, different versions of the opening sequence, and more are among the special features.
The plot of Torso (1973) is as follows:
Beautiful young ladies are being murdered and dismembered by a serial murderer.
Review:
A crazed lunatic is stalking, killing, and dismembering beautiful young women (and some guys if they get in the way), and one of the latest victims was known to a group of lovely young ladies in a college art history class. The girls load up and go to the countryside for a weekend break to re-calibrate their ideas and feeling of security… However, they have no idea that the murderer is following them. Jane (Suzy Kendall), one of the girls, seems to be in the killer’s sights, as he murders and dismembers all of her pals one by one, reserving her for last…
Torso is a simple and highly sexualized giallo by filmmaker Sergio Martino that is noted for having a lot of sex and nudity in it, and the sheer quantity of T & A becomes a distraction and exploitive aspect that distracts from the nearly nonexistent plot. The film lacks suspense until the protracted finale, which has the final girl hiding and trying to survive the killer’s relentless pursuit in a villa. Some of the kills are graphic, with one victim having their eyes gouged out before being gutted (in the nude, of course), but the film lacks suspense until the protracted finale, which has the final girl hiding and trying to survive the killer’s relentless pursuit in a villa. Torso doesn’t have enough meat on its bones to keep any attention, which is tough to complain about when there’s loads of nudity from a bevy of attractive ladies.
The film’s 2K transfer is extremely great, and it comes in two forms: English (90 minutes) and Italian (94) minutes, as well as a combination of both languages, which I saw for this review. Audio commentary, interviews, articles, and a changeable slipcover are included.
Watch This Video-
The “horror express creepshow” is a box set that contains the first three volumes of the Giallo Essentials series. The Arrow Video Blu-ray release features all three films in their original Italian language with English subtitles.
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