 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 1983 Italian giallo film a blade in the dark And I enjoyed this film Just so you know I'm big into giallo if you haven't been watching more of my reviews And if you are also into giallo actually have a playlist on my channel for just giallo film reviews So I've been putting a lot in there. I don't even know what number I'm at at the moment But it's been thrown them in there and I've been having fun with it Available on shutter most of them when I'm doing the reviews, but not all of them So blade in the dark directed by Lamberto Bava Yes He is the son of Mario Bava who I also have reviews for on my channel and an entire playlist of Mario Bava film reviews I like my old Italian horror Bava's done other films such as demons demons to demons 3 the ogre macabre you'll die at midnight Delirium and the mask of Satan although that's not all of them The script for this film was written by Dardano Siketi as one of the people he's done other scripts big scripts such as the cat and nine tails Shock Cannibals in the streets city of the living dead the beyond the house by the cemetery the New York Ripper The scorpion with two tails Demons demons to demons 3 the ogre killer crocodile killer crocodile 2 and a Bay of Blood just to name some he has a lot of credits And he wrote this script with his wife Elisa Briganti who's also written scripts for zombie Yes, the Lucho full G zombie Manhattan, baby 1990 the Bronx Warriors and the exterminators of the year 3000 which sounds interesting Just so people know right up front the titular killer in this film Tony who goes by Linda at some point and what kind of I'll dive into that whole situation probably at the end of the review is played by Michelle Suave who is well known for Directing the film stage fright. He also has had some small roles in other films throughout his career such as He had a very small very small cameo in the New York Ripper by full G also full cheese city of living dead and Bava's Demons, but he has a much larger role in this obviously as the killer This film was also titled House of Dark Stairs So I don't know if I think I might like that one a little bit more because it it Has more meaning to the actual storyline with the film No sets were actually built for this film as the whole script was written to take place in the Italian villa Where it was filmed as you will you know recognize it's all in one place where this is filmed I like films like that part of the reason being I think it kind of Creates more of an air of the characters being kind of locked in stuck in this area With the killer or whatever evil it ends up being So I like that aspect of it. It kind of ratchets the tension up that way But also I think especially with a film like this where there's kind of an adventurous nature where characters are going around the place You get more of a sense of the actual layout you feel familiar with How everything is laid out with the house at least in this film And I just like having that knowledge when I'm watching a film and actually this house belonged to producer Luciano Martino Just so you know and he's been involved with a bunch of other giallo and just in general Italian horror films in the past As a producer, but he's also done some writing. I don't think he's done any directing, but definitely writing Argentos to knee bray one of my favorite giallo films was actually an influence for Bava for this film because he acted as an assistant for Argento during the filming of to knee bray and I guess you you can kind of see some of the influence there one of the main Influences being the brutality at times with it and the real violence in some of the kills in particular I my favorite kill. I'll talk about in a little bit. This is probably a lot of people's favorite kill, honestly It was initially shot for TV in a four-hour block Or no, I'm sorry a two-hour block that was supposed to be four episodes That's what it's supposed to be But they said it was too violent and too gory So they ended up editing it down from the two-hour block to release it as an actual feature film Would have been interesting to see what was cut out of it and what constituted that full two hours The version that I watched on shutter was like an hour 48 So they only really cut out like 12 minutes, but 12 minutes can actually add a lot to a film So this film has a nice start with the bloody ball coming out of the basement after the kid goes down and Screams note that there was a heartbeat sound when the kid was going down the stairs now We realized that we don't initially when we're watching the film We don't realize that that is a film within a film Which is a very meta thing and there are a bunch of meta things in this film that cicchetti rip and Brigante wrote in which I think is kind of cool about it's a horror film about people make well, it's a horror film giallo film about people making a horror film basically and It's cool, and there's some other meta stuff that I'll talk about but Initially you think these are the events of how we're setting things up This is what we're doing and it's a good attention grabber to start that way with the little kids It looks creepy looks scary going down the stairs like I said note There was like a heartbeat sound of the kid You know being scared as he was going down and then the bloody there's a scream Then the bloody ball comes up and hits the wall and leaves that blood there very cool I like that then later we realize oh, they're just working on a movie But we do realize that there is a significance between what happens in real life in this win real life in this film And what was happening in the film itself that it was a story taken from the killer by Sandra I believe her name is and put to film. So yeah, and which is why Linda ends up going to destroy the film The close-up of the exact in life cutting the picture of a nude woman shows an underlying hatred for the Female form and female in general, which obviously at the end we end up Understanding I mean understanding within the context of the film that is I say that Tony Was that kid who was told who was you know poked fun at and told that he was a wuss that he was a female to go down the stairs Otherwise he was too scared and he was a female and that was some sort of childhood trauma I'll talk more about that later how that is currently a problematic thing But we also need to keep in mind when this was done, but once again, I will revisit that later. So yeah But the cutting with the exact in life of the picture of the female form sets it up to say there is some sort of hatred for women for one reason or another which we end up finding out as Bruno describes in the end of the film that it was Tony trying to Get rid of the female portion of himself And he was just externalizing that when he was in the mindset of Linda Jen going and killing other women, you know as like an external outlet for trying to kill the inner female himself I Like how Bruno isn't at all suspicious or concern that the character of Katia was lurking in the house that he's staying in and Why was she in a closet and why was her diary left behind? Because the diary was in the closet with her. So There's a lot of stuff that doesn't really make sense per se in this film Like I said the first thing being why is he not Just shocked by this random person having broken into the house that he's Living in now that he's renting Then she was in a closet like she was hanging out in a closet literally that would indicate that she's hiding from him Maybe up to something nefarious and then she also left her diary behind which is weird But he's just like immediately so friendly to her and it's such a weird thing. I just don't get it Very unnatural and there's you know Another one of the things that isn't perfect about this film Katia's death behind the wiring looks stupid. I hate this death scene. I think it's really dumb There were a few of the shots that looked good But the fact that initially and they show it for so long the knife It's the killer's trying to get the knife through the wiring and it won't go and then all of a sudden after trying for so long It just goes Which doesn't make any sense. So either they were holding it back for like torturing purposes or It just makes no sense because the shape of it didn't change over time and the wiring didn't look different It was all the same size So I think that whole scene is drawn out and it's stupid. It's not a good scene in my opinion But the exacto knife that knife the retractable knife is a cool weapon. I like it I specifically like when they do the close-ups of it and you hear the noise of it clicking up It's just the indicator of here we go. Someone's gonna get killed I like the Bruno picks up a whispering conversation on his recording equipment And then he's able to hear it by enhancing it and writing it down that kind of starts the Investigation so to speak and in general, that's one of the things I love about this film is the investigative nature Of Bruno trying to figure all this out himself as he kind of sneaks around the house Well, not really sneaks walks around the house Investigates tries to figure out what's going on taking everything in and I feel like the way the writing in a script was It's really good pacing at what intervals we get little tidbits of the backstory But also like these revelations as Bruno's finding them of you know, here's some evidence something weird's going on here The pacing of that's very very good And I think for that reason the film feels like it really moves and doesn't really drag much at all So and it being a like an hour and 48 minutes. That's a pretty big triumph in my opinion I'd like the exploratory nature of how the film moves throughout the house and the grounds of the house as well Once again, like I was saying I like kind of getting a feel for the actual layout of it When the caretaker says the owner only rents to short-term tenants my suspicion immediately went to Tony being the killer and so I Very early on guessed who would end up being the killer I never deviated from that honestly because that bit of dialogue is very odd and it would only be there for a Specific reason because things that are scripted are there for a reason and so when the caretaker says he only rents Short-term I was like there is no reason to rent short-term like this other than you want to be able to kill those people And be like oh well everyone short-term, so there's a lot of turnover, so people just come and go so Just saying They basically tell you the caretaker is not the killer when Julia talks about horror movie cliches and says Quote and obviously it's the caretaker just another one of those things about being very meta this film They talk about kind of horror movie tropes a little bit Julia in particular in that moment She also she makes a a comment about the play that she was working on and the the Main theme of it ends up being kind of the main theme of how you get to the killer in this movie So yet another one of those meta moments So there are a lot of kind of clues littered out throughout the film But they're presented in ways that people wouldn't necessarily take them seriously as being a hint But on a second viewing you probably would catch them So many comments are made about a bad smell at the pool with this Which really made me believe very early on that the bodies are around the pool That ends up being the case with that. I don't know what that was. It was like some giant metal vat But that was near the pool. It was like in the pool house, I guess That the caretaker ends up finding and then he gets killed With the wrench bludgeoned to death with that wrench, which is a terrible another terrible kill scene The way it was shot and acted it looked really bad like it was corny and crappy That one sucked. So obviously this is not a a perfect film The shot of the killer's hand stroking the knives and the noises they make sounds like the killing is A little bit sexual now that ends up not being the case But at that time I was like man, it sounds like they're like getting off just like Running their finger over these knives And that's an important part too because that's the first time that you see A hand with nail polish on it and it's red nail polish Which they try to throw you a red herring with no pun intended on that With julia because later on julia in the bathroom when she's talking to bruno is putting on red nail polish So they're trying to kind of throw you for a loop there But when they're initially showing the hand with the red nail polish like touching those knives That's the first time you get any sort of misdirection that it is actually a female so But to me when I saw that I thought The only reason they would actually be showing this is because they want you to think that it's a female Because otherwise with pretty much every other giallo They're wearing gloves because they don't want you to know it is a is it a feminine hand or is it a masculine hand? So just saying this is how I view the films because I've watched a lot of giallo So this is how I view them when I watch them Angela's death is pretty messed up and violent now. This was my favorite death I thought it was really well done because it's so messed up. It's so violent. It's gory It's really well done That was the one where she gets her hand stabbed through And then like she pulls her hand through it Which seems painful then she gets the bag over her head and is suffocated and then after she's well actually while she's Suffocating she's getting her head slammed into the counter and then after she's dead from that Her head is hung over the bathtub and her throat slit and all this blood comes out and then she gets turned over and you just see the slit throat and It's intense and that was a very well done kill scene in my opinion and that in particular I think was very inspired by tenebrae with how bloody tenebrae really is honestly so The pace at which bruno discovers things and the film is done really well Not much downtime where I talked about that childhood trauma turning a person into a monster This is used a good deal in horror. So there's actually a quote Of childhood trauma turning a person into a monster. I believe that's something that sandra ends up talking about in context of the movie that she was making and that was mined pretty well, I think in older horror films Now it shows up in a you know now at times problematic way in this film, but I'll you know still I'll talk about that a little bit more The strong focus on the segment of film made Made me believe it was steeped in real events and the focus on the chance of female Made me believe it had a strong role Now the fact that they focus they really did focus a lot on the kids chanting over and over female female female So you put that together with them, you know intentionally showing the hand with the nail polish on it and then also The childhood trauma thing being talked about all all those clues just kind of coming together to build the case that it is in fact, tony and and the Renting thing and also the fact that there is a moment where tony just randomly shows up and he doesn't really have a reason to be there If you do a rewatch, you know Take take note of that Although I think that it's probably written off most commonly as well. He owns the place so he can kind of show up whenever so They work julia pretty hard as a focus for a killer They really create a lot of suspicion around here the jealousy that she has which is pretty intense because of other women being around Bruno Randomly just showing up at times which we then find out later She's lying about the fact that she was involved in this play That seemed suspect the red nail polish which I talked about and the fact that she says they met playing tennis And there's that connection with linda having all those tennis balls per sandra because sandra knew linda So they would they do work her pretty hard. They really want the audience to be like, oh my gosh, it's julia. It's gotta be julia No, you can't fool people with no giallo It's a solid reveal when sandra calls linda and they showed that she answers the phone at The property when they show in the background that you see the house I think that was kind of like the the pool house or I think maybe there was like a guest house there basically Um, that that is a cool reveal I you know, I expected that she would still be there, but um for some people aren't following it necessarily as closely That's cool reveal The care. Oh, yeah It this does bear repeating though the caretaker being beaten to death with the wrench was a terrible scene. It looked awful How did all the tennis balls fall from the ceiling? In the end when linda is going after julia All those tennis balls just fall on julia from the ceiling. How did that happen? Like how was that set up? It doesn't make any sense. It's such a random thing I I thought it was dumb Bruno was so close to being able to save julia and that He was very like literally he was seconds like maybe 10 seconds away or so from being able to to catch julia Now I will say that scene where she finds where she's being chased through the hall by linda Is well done not just for the standpoint of it's intense and how fast it moves And then she gets stabbed and it looks good because of that But also because they do a good job of showing enough of linda But not showing too much of linda that you know at that point. It's not a female necessarily so well done A very lame finish to the film though with with linda accidentally stabbing herself. I just It it looked dumb. It's a dumb way to end it. There should have been something way better. I mean Just have bruno killer Just have bruno kill tony slash linda. Just just do it that way. It would have been much better So I don't like the ending but there's a lot of stuff. I do like about it as you've heard me say Like his father, uh, limberto baba has a good use of shadows He does a lot of cool stuff with shadows in this not not necessarily for any real purpose But sometimes just for it looks cool visually so take note of that when you if you rewatch the film Also, he another thing he picked up from his father, which he did once in the film Which I thought looked really good, but but mario baba used to do it a lot was The rotation around in like a circular circular or semi circular motion around one character Now limberto baba does it in this film The part where one of the parts where bruno's sitting in like his setup of all his recording equipment And it goes from like the left I think like his left side and goes all the way around like behind him. It looks cool. There's a cool rotation You have to understand the time this film was made Okay, lots of films correlated anyone other than heterosexual as being abnormal and therefore being unhinged and capable of murder Now if this film was made nowadays, I would look at this and say Yeah, that's not good. You should definitely not make the film that way now that said when I watch films that are older I always watch them with the mindset of the time period they came out and how did people try You know try to think how did people think back then what was deemed as acceptable? What was deemed as not acceptable because then you can understand what the film's trying to go for And just also the context for which the audience was receiving it Another thing is I know a lot of people will see a film like this and say well, you know We shouldn't promote this film nowadays because it has these problematic themes in it Like saying that people who aren't heterosexual are mentally unhinged and yes, that is problematic But as long as people understand that that's how it was viewed and that's not how we do things now That's the important thing. I'm not a proponent of Erasing history in this way because it's good to be To be reminded of what it was To be able to look now and see how far we've come Especially with with an instance of this like I said This is kind of a thing that was used quite a bit in film And I'm glad that we've gotten away from that now and it not even that long ago It was still kind of used. I mean, I think it was in the 90s the film cherry falls with jay more in it And uh britney murphy that did something very similar. So Just keep that in mind. So I'm all for keeping these things to where it reminded Aspects of this remind me of black christmas I don't know if anyone saw this coming or if anyone saw it in the film like I did the single location Which I love that about black christmas. I loved about this one The whispering and the weird sounds that the killer makes there are if you really pay attention Linda makes a lot of weird noises in this that really reminded me of the weird noises that are being Made by the killer in black christmas, which I think is good. It ups the creep factor quite a bit And then the suffocation scene with angela There you go, which there's another very good suffocation scene in black christmas obviously. So yeah Um, yeah, and that's all I have to say. I really did enjoy a blade in the dark I think it was very fun. Obviously I point out their problems with it, but I thought it was really fun I mean out of five stars with half stars in play. I'm gonna give it four stars I was kind of between three and a half and four, but how much I enjoy it. It's just fun The other thing is the directing and the cinematography is really good It's very smooth and that pacing that pacing is a big thing, especially with older films like this A lot of them had not that great pacing pacing is great in this one. So four stars for me Let's get nerdy. Let's talk about this one If you want to talk about this, but other giallo as well, we can do that as well Let's get nerdy now do me a quick favor though. Hit that subscribe button if you haven't already That is your best way to repay me if you like any video I've ever done this one included because I don't make money doing this I'm just spending my time putting this out there so I can connect with cool nerdy horror people Like you probably are watching this. 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