Customer Reviews

A Blade in the Dark

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

A textbook example of the giallo, Lamberto Bava's A Blade in the Dark is an obvious homage to Dario Agento, the Italian director who (along with Bava's father Mario) served as his filmmaking mentor. Bava worked as assistant director on Argento's Tenebre, shot the year before; that film's influence is readily apparent. A major plot element is lifted from Argento's Deep Red (1975) as well - Blade's story also revolves around a composer who finds himself embroiled in a bizarre series of homicides. But Argento was working with much bigger budgets, longer production schedules, and better stories. Unfortunately, A Blade in the Dark can't begin to compare to its inspirational sources.
Originally envisioned as a limited, episodic series for Italian TV, it was shot with a European theatrical release also in mind. The spare scenario (penned by prolific exploitation scribe Dardano Sarchetti) establishes only the most bare-boned of plots. Bruno (Andrea Occhipinti), a young composer, rents a large, rambling villa in which to work on his latest project, the score for a horror film being directed by his friend Sandra (Anny Papa). To the detriment of Bruno's solitude the house comes complete with a suspicious-acting caretaker (are there any other types in Italian horror?) and some unexpected visitors - Katia (Valeria Cavalli) and Angela (Fabiola Toledo), two attractive women, acquaintances of the former tenant, who live nearby. When the women mysteriously disappear shortly after he meets them, Bruno begins to suspect they've been murdered on the premises... He can't find any bodies, but clues abound. (Knife-holes and bloodstains would certainly qualify in that regard!) Someone definitely entered the villa uninvited and destroyed his latest demo tape, that much is sure. Stupidly, Bruno never once picks up the phone to dial the police.
If our dimwitted hero did the smart thing, however, there'd be no movie. More people die horrible deaths. Meanwhile Bruno wanders about the house and its grounds, poking around and peering into the dark. There are a lot of such scenes in the flick, which will severely test the patience of even the most avid giallo fan. (Rapido, Lamberto!) Obviously this was done to pad out the running time; too many of these sequences are obvious red herrings, devoid of any suspense, or just plain pointless.
Bava does pile on the shocks, though, in the film's two main murder sequences. The stalking/slaying of Katia owes a lot to Tenebre in look and style (particularly the murder of the hotelier's daughter in that film), but Bava ends
the set-piece with an original motif - the victim is trapped behind a sheet of chickenwire through which the killer slowly slashes her to death with a box-cutter - that's guaranteed to get your flesh crawling. The death of Angela, when she's attacked in the villa's bathroom, is a real doozy: a brutal, nihilistic bit of filmmaking that some could easily interpret as an exercise in misogynistic sadism. (Here Bava does for hair-washing in the sink what Hitchcock's Psycho did to taking a shower...) But amidst the unrepentant brutality Bava injects an occasional touch of sardonic humor, most notably when Sandra the horror director is strangled with a spool of her own film - murdered with her own movie.
Aside from the visceral thrills and chills generated by these murder scenes the film is pretty much a misfire. The characters are all uninvolving ciphers. It's not much of a mystery, either; most of the red herrings offered up by the plot are plainly obvious for what they are. As mentioned, an inordinate amount of time is spent following Bruno as he wanders about the villa, checking this room and that - scenes devoid of dialog but accompanied by repetitious theme music that quickly becomes annoying. In one way the dearth of dialog is a good thing... The English dubbing job is poor, featuring ludicrous translations ("You're a female!";"I am not a female child!" etc.) that might be funny in a Godzilla movie, but not one about a sadistic serial killer. At times it seems evident that the translators weren't even looking at a copy of the script - how else can one explain the scene in which Bruno chides Katia over her fear of a spider, telling her with a straight face that the bug isn't even a spider, but a cockroach... at the very moment we're shown a close-up shot of (yep) a SPIDER. Huh???
A Blade in the Dark has fans, no doubt appreciative of its effective, wince-inducing set-pieces. We love gialli, too - just not this one. We'd much rather watch Bava's supernatural splatterfest Demons (1985) for the umpteenth time than sit through this one again.

"Just a case of being a bit overwrought."
Sandra sums up the movie

Anchor Bay does a fine job with A Blade in the Dark considering it's a fairly obscure title here in America. The transfer is letterboxed and anamorphically enhanced for 16x9 TVs; as the film was originally shot in 16mm the picture is understandably on the grainy side. The Dolby mono audio track is serviceably clear. In addition to the theatrical trailer, a short (10 min.), interesting video interview with director Bava and screenwriter Sarchetti is included. (This is in Italian, with easily readable English subtitles. Do not watch this before viewing the film itself. It's chock full of spoilers, including the murderer's identity.)

A composer is hired to score a slasher film and is sent to an old dark house for inspiration. Strange things begin to occur and bodies start to pile up..only to disappear. This is one of the better giallo films of its time and its miles ahead of the typical 80's slashers that were coming out of the US. After working under his famed father Mario, as well as Dario Argento among others, Bava displays great atmosphere in this film as well as some shocking violence. Another reason to own this film on DVD is that AnchorBay is releasing this in its longest, most complete cut (longer than the EC import laser). On a side note, look for director Michele Soavi (Cemetery Man) in a small but interesting role.

It's great that all these Eurohorror obscurities are now readily available. Why Bava would revert from making giallos is puzzling after this...masterpiece?

In the beginning we see three young boys, two taunting the other saying he's a female. Now we go the present where a pianist has taken residence in a house inhabited formerly by a "Linda." Brutal murders happen in this house, and it is investigated. The ending reminds me of Psycho.

Beautifully choreographed murders. I was sure I figured out who the killer was until the final moments when the red herring was finally ruled out. This has an intriguing storyline also. I would highly recommend this for horror buffs, and also fans of Argento, Fulci, Mario Bava and Lamberto Bava. Lamberto Bava is an underrated director, though the proof comes in this brilliant film that is because his films are of varying quality. I want to seek out more of Lamberto, then eventually Mario. Long live horror!

The most interesting aspect of the film is the bizarre screenplay by Dardano Sacchetti, the prolific writer who worked with Bava Jr. on several pictures, notably DEMONS and DEMONS2, and also created the main stories for a number of Lucio Fulci's successful films, including THE BEYOND (1981), CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD (1980) and ZOMBIE (1979).

The screenplay is excellent (that is, if you like extremely twisted and creepy story lines with haunting if unnatural dialogue).

Lamberto Bava's direction is quite good: the Gothic Southern atmosphere is played to the hilt. Acting is off-the-wall.

Photography is also very good. Lots of interior shots. effective lighting. Good art direction.

A MUST for any fan of the Italian "Horror" genre.

From the opening sequence with the bloody tennis ball to the grotesque and surprising ending, A Blade in the Dark is never short of suspense, style, or shock. Next to the Demons movies (which are nothing like this), this is Lamberto Bava's finest work. An eerie soundtrack, interesting characters, and murder with an Exact-o knife make this truly disturbing film well worth one's while.

This is the only Lamberto Bava movie I've seen, and it's pretty good. It's a giallo, and massively influenced by Dario Argento's work, particularly 'Tenebre'. (On which Bava was a assistant director, I believe) And no, it's not as good as that movie, or 'Deep Red' or 'Opera', but if you like all those films I think you'll at least find this to be quite watchable, and there's a good chance that you'll rather like it.

As with all giallo or slasher films, the quality of this film is primarily derived from how interesting the murder/horror scenes are. Fortunately, the ones here are quite good. Unfortunately, all the other aspects of this film are a bit sub par, but this doesn't effect the overall enjoyment level of this film much. 'A Blade in the Dark' was originally made with Italian television in mind, which likely hurt the film in a number of ways. First of all, it doesn't appear to have been made with an English audience in mind, so the dubbing isn't up to snuff, either in terms of performance or translation.(And the dubbing/dialogue never tends to be very good in this sorta film) It is never really incoherent, I guess, but it's pretty damn inelegant most of the time, and is occasionally laughably stilted and unrealistic. That, and there are some rather weird translations, such as when one character refers to another as 'cockroach', in a manner which suggests that this is a term of endearment. The basic plot is that there is a musician living out in a large, empty house, where there are a number of murders.(Or apparent murders. They don't find the bodies until late in the film.) Part of the reason it doesn't work as a mystery is because it's trying to hard to hide the killers identity. Virtually everyone is setup as a potential suspect, but no one really stands out, and the only way to figure out the killer's identity would be to be abundantly familiar with the genre's clichés. And there isn't really much of an investigation. The characters just sorta sit around and talk about who the killer might be, or whether there really is a killer at all.

Yeah, this film is far from plausible, but I don't really buy that it is any less plausible than your average Argento film. Sure, nobody calls the police, but no charred dummies are mistaken for corpses, nor are vengeful ravens used to identify the killer(Opera), no apartments are left unwatched by the police despite the fact that the killer is known to have dropped a note off there, in person, and will almost certainly do so again (Tenebre) and the entire investigation does not depend upon sheer luck and happenstance (Deep Red). (Well, actually it arguably does, but that only makes it equally implausible) Still, the whole murder-mystery is less interesting than in those films, for the aforementioned reasons. The film also has some pacing problems, which I suspect may have been created by it's intended medium.(It would need to fit into a time slot, on TV) Thus, the latter portions of the film are a bit too talky, with characters frequently just sorta rambling on without really discovering much.

This film isn't as stylish as lots of other Italian stuff, but it's nicely crafted, particularly during the murder scenes. It lacks any elaborate camera movements or surreal sets and lighting, but it is nicely shot, and the murder scenes have got a nice rhythm to them. Sadly, the first two death scenes are definitely the most interesting ones. The first one is the best, and it's really quite brilliant. It's a very extended scene, showing both the stalking and killing, juxtaposed with shots of our musician protagonist working on his music, and the following disposal of the body, and the near discovery of it by said protagonist.(I can't come up with his name right now. Sorry.) The most effective part is when the killer is dragging the body over a staircase, with the head brutally thumping itself against the steps again and again. The next, more famed scene, is less extensive, but still quite impressive. It is one of the most brutal murders I've seen in this sort of film, and it has a fairly nice, extended buildup, but there are a few basic execution flaws. Most notably, it involves smashing someone's head against a counter, repeatedly, but the attempt is less than convincing, as the killer sometimes lifts the head all of an inch of the counter before smashing it again, and it often doesn't seem to be being done with any real force. That, and I swear the sound isn't quite in synch some of the time, so that the smashing sound doesn't come at the right moment.(I haven't watched it carefully enough to know for sure, however). Still, it's a very effective scene, with a very cold and vicious finish. The rest of the murder scenes aren't as interesting or original, but they get the job done. The film isn't terribly gory, but it is very forthright and harsh with the violence, which probably works better overall, and is fairly typical of this sort of film.

The film looks and sounds pretty decent, as you'd expect for an Anchor Bay release. Lastly, in case you didn't notice, you ought not to buy this version of the film, as there is the 'A Blade in the Dark'/'Macabre' disc which is also available. I haven't actually watched 'Macabre' yet, so I can't vouch for it's quality, but that disc only costs half as much as this one, and I'm betting that `Macabre' is worth -15 dollars, at the very least.

Lamberto Bava's A BLADE IN THE DARK from 1983 is one of the greatest giallos of all time regardless of the dubbing, which is rather incongruous and weird at times. This movie is a combination of the great Dario Argento's DEEP RED (my favorite giallo) and TENEBRE (Awesome ending!), where a composer is drawn into a bizarre murder mystery involving the former tenant of the villa that he's rented to compose a horror movie score. This movie had me on the edge of my seat whenever the killer was on the loose; the box cutter clicking made my skin crawl and the bathroom scene made me cringe with fear! The scene where the director of the horror movie in question gets strangled by the film of her own final reel, the one she doesn't anyone to see, left an impression on me; this was perfectly ironic and kind of humorous when you consider that the director is killed by her own movie! I also like the humorous tone of this movie (I actually read the booklet that came with the DVD, which is how I learned about the sense of humor); this must be a precursor to SCREAM in that respect.
Lamberto Bava learned a lot from his father Mario and Argento, with whom he worked with on INFERNO and TENEBRE, which is why this film is so good. I loved the music score in this one as well and I still have it stuck in my head as I write this review! In my opinion, although I knew about this movie since I read about it on Terrortrap.com (which summarized the entire film), the way the killer is revealed made me scream just like the ending in TENEBRE did! A must for giallo buffs and horror movie fans alike!

This is a good movie to own-on VHS. I would not waste the money for a DVD version of this, because it just isn't good enough to where I would see it over again soon like, say, Tenebre or Cat O' Nine Tails. Also, there aren't enough extras on the DVD to tempt me to purchase it. That said, the movie still has redeeming qualities. For Giallos this one plays by the rules: the obvious culprits are sure-fired red herrings; the somewhat obvious/maybe whodunnits are also ruled out; finally, the most absurd, absolutely unbelievable scenerario is the veritable smoking gun (case and point: Tenebre) For me, the most fascinating element of the film was the violence against women. It almost seemed as though the death of the groundskeeper was an afterthought on director Bava's part when you consider the sophisticated choreography of the four women's deaths in the course of the film. These deaths are the truly great moments of the film. I can't say that it is the most suspenseful. Maybe this is because I've seen so many other Giallos from Argento, Fulci, and the other Bava and I just sorth of know what will come. Also, most of the scenes in the film take place under full light-either daylight or lamplight. There isn't that much darkness in the film. I guess the only darkness is the identity of the killer and that person's motivations.

In an interview, Lamberto Bava explained that he quit directing gialli (Italian thrillers) because he disliked seeing women killed. This is unfortunate because the world probably missed out on some good gialli. "A Blade in the Dark" was his masterpiece. It exemplifies the Italian giallo because it has the following: 1) Gorgeous women; 2) Murder sequences that are creative and gruesome; 3) Numerous suspects and red herrings; and 4) A great rock-n-roll score that is literally heart pounding.

A handsome musician, Bruno, moves into a large, secluded villa in order to compose the music for a horror script. In and around the villa, beautiful women are stabbed to death with the retractable blade of a box cutter. Soon Bruno fears that someone is hiding in the house, waiting to kill him or anyone who pays a visit.

Lamberto is the son of the late Mario Bava, the Master of the Macabre. Mario was famous for taking a low budget film and making it appear as though it had a huge budget. Unfortunately, it is obvious that Lamberto's "A Blade in the Dark" had a small budget. The sets are few. The secluded "villa" is very modern, antiseptic, sparsely furnished and is situated within arm's length to similar structures. A large, spooky chateau in the country would've provided a nicer setting and the victims could've been other guests and the housekeeping staff. Lamberto's father would've filmed the movie at a crumbling castle with a gothic atmosphere.

I enjoyed "A Blade in the Dark" much more than Lamberto's directorial premiere, "Macabre," which was too slow. The critics claimed "Macabre" wasn't violent enough. Therefore, Lamberto increased the gore and violence in "A Blade in the Dark." Later, the critics complained this film was too violent. You can't always please the critics. However, I was very pleased with the end product despite its low budget and minor plot improbabilities. I highly recommend "A Blade in the Dark" for fans of Italian gialli.

Five Stars for Bava, who - before sliding into the nirvana of Demons and the abyss of Italian TV Giallos - directed this crisp, vicious, claustrophobic thriller. It looks and feels like a Dario Argento Movie, but actually has a better script. The perfect double bill for Tenebre. Buy it at all costs.

The DVD transfer itself is excellent. The important light and sound recordings clearer than on every other available dvd (there's a german one out there).