Customer Reviews

The Bloodstained Shadow

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Solamente Nero (Antonio Bido, 1978)

Bido's second film (after The Cat with the Jade Eyes) is good, solid giallo. A bit raw in places, but that's defniitely not a reason to miss this one.

Stefanio D'Archangelo (Lino Capolicchio, of The Last Days of Mussolini and The House with the Laughing Windows fame) takes some time off from his professorship to go back to his childhood home, an island near Venice, to unwind. On the way there, he meets Sandra (Stefania Casini, fresh off her amazing performance in Suspiria), a lovely young thing who gets him thinking about all sorts of fun diversions. They quickly take a back seat, however, to events on the island; a serial killer starts murdering the members of a circle of friends who are outcast from the community at large. The murderer believes Stefanio's brother, Paolo (spaghetti western staple Craig Hill), saw the first murder, and has been delivering threatening notes to try and shut him up, to no avail. Stefanio divides his time between wooing Sandra and trying to find out who the killer is to put a stop to the notes that are driving his brother nuts. And how does it all tie into a decades-old murder?

Bido handles most of the movie with aplomb, keeping the tension at just the right level. The movie does slow down a bit, though, and as to be expected, both the setup and the climax are remarkably cheesy (really, can you imagine standing in front of a killer and explicating the route you took to figure out the crimes? It didn't work in Agatha Christie, and it doesn't work now). Pacing and dialogue issues aside, though, this is fine stuff. It's well-shot and well-edited, easily on a par with any of Argento's gialli (Argento was Bido's mentor, so this should come as no surprise). It is surprisingly not graphic (with the exception of one memorable scene), which may be a way to hook fans of regular mystery films into giallo. Both Casini and Cappolicchio are very good here. Soundtrack is (uncredited) by the giallo masters Goblin. All in all, a good hour and a half of pure entertainment. *** ½

The Bloodstained shadow is a pretty decent giallo. As is usual for this genre a series of murders occurs and the race is on to find the killer from among a wide cast of candidates - many of whom go on to become victims. To this end, a strangulation that is not well carried out is soon followed by some more spectacular murders. These take place with a medieval weapon and a powerboat among other things, but the biggest shocker is the old woman who gets pushed head-first into the fireplace and goes up like a roman candle (I know I shouldn't laugh). On the trail of the killer is actor Lino Capolicchio playing a Professor returning home for a break and his brother the local priest who's character is played spiritedly by Craig Hill. The action takes place primarily on an Island near Venice and this creates a very nice backdrop for the movie. The tempo is a touch uneven and one very well set up stalking sequence turns out to be a false alarm (this will disappoint most giallo fans). Less disappointing is the casual love scene with Stefania Casini doing her bit alongside Lino Capolicchio to put a tick in the nudity box and ensure the movie genuine giallo status. The soundtrack was arranged by the members of Goblin and sounds great as you would expect. Overall, there is plenty to like about this film. It doesn't have the artistic qualities of some other giallo movies, but it still manages to entertain. If you like giallo films this is worth getting hold of and I'd recommend buying it as part of the four movie boxed set put out by Anchor Bay.

The Bad

1. Two overly romantic scenes - one in a boat with annoying 70s music and the other a love scene that is not only a bit embarrassing but distracting as well. Even the director regretted these scenes.
2. A very silly hat placed one top of our hero's head - but fortunately only for a one scene.
3. The climax (an important death scene) is too swift and somewhat unrealistic
4. The color seems a bit off - but maybe that is intentional. It seems every day of filming was very overcast.
5. The music is very uneven - ranging from very good and suspenseful to hokey and distracting especially in the synthesizer sounds and in the romantic scenes.
6. The opening scene has a cheap look, music, and sound - I'm sure trying to be artistic
7. One rather annoying and overplayed scene with a retarded man and his pet rat.

The Good

1. A very coherent, believable, engrossing mystery. Very well written.
2. Very good acting all around - every single actor for once is excellent... especially considering this genre of film.
3. For once - very good dubbing. If you tuned in at any point you would not know the film was dubbed.
4. The movie is actually scary and very suspenseful at times - and has a few high powered shocks. The suspense and shocks do not rely on gore...instead good direction, music, acting and editing.
5. Very compelling subject matter - touches a lot of bases including child abuse, murder, religion, the soul, guilt and the occult.
6. The movie is always interesting and has a more polished and professional look. The director shows his respect for his audience by not insulting the viewer's intelligence with ridiculous and unbelievable scenarios as some other Giallo directors have been known to do.

I'm not sure that the average Giallo lover would enjoy this film for its lack of gore. But I really think that most everyone who enjoys a good suspenseful mystery, containing a few jumps and jolts would get a lift from this film.

Id give this film more stars if not for but a few flaws. But know that the flaws are due to the dating of the Italian Cinema of the 70s.

Directed by Antonio Bido, "The Bloodstained Shadow" is a modern, gothic giallo. Though it imitates the works of Dario Argento, Mario Bava, and Lucio Fulci, it has a very original plot that is also complex. I didn't have a clue to the murderer's identity until the very end.

This movie was filmed in beautiful Murano, outside of Venice. Stone buildings, narrow alleys, and cobbled sidewalks are built next to numerous canals lined with small boats that serve as the main mode of transportation. Top notch acting, a great musical score by Goblin, and a good body count keep this film moving along.

The mist enshrouded graveyard and narrow alleys reminded me of a Mario Bava movie, especially "Baron Blood." The plot is similar to Dario Argento's "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" and "Deep Red" in that someone, a priest in this case, witnesses a murder. There are superstitious villagers and cases of child molestation as in Lucio Fulci`s "Don't Torture a Duckling."

I recommend that all fans of Italian gialli see "The Bloodstained Shadow" as well as the other giallo that was also directed by Antonio Bido, "Watch Me When I Kill." (See my review on this original, innovative giallo.) Both movies deal with murders committed in the past.

It was a beautiful day indeed when Anchor Bay released a box set of four classic Italian gialli films. Most fans of Italian horror films know all about these colorful murder mystery pictures-- thanks to Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, and Dario Argento--but how many of us know about the lesser entries in the genre? Antonio Bido's "The Bloodstained Shadow" contains many of the elements we know and love about the giallo picture. We've got the enigmatic murderer, plenty of murders, red herrings, and so many potential suspects that the number boggles the imagination. "Bloodstained Shadow" also gives very strange paintings containing clues to the identity of the killer, bizarre flashbacks, and style wafting off the screen in waves. Bido's film is, if not an absolute carbon copy of many of the great gialli masterpieces, definitely a giallo film in tone and style. In my opinion, it's nearly as good as the films made by the masters of the genre. This picture comes close to approaching the greatness of Argento's epic films "Deep Red" and "Tenebre," and close if not touching to Lucio Fulci's massively entertaining "Don't Torture a Duckling." Without a doubt, "The Bloodstained Shadow" ranks as one of the better discs in the box set.

"The Bloodstained Shadow" begins by introducing us to a scholar named Stephano (Lino Capolicchio) returning home after many years for a visit with his brother Father Paul (Craig Hill), a trusted local priest. Right from the start, the film also introduces us to some tensions in this little town. Paul hints at problems he has had with a few locals involved in some sort of séance group. The members consist of Nardi (Juliette Mayniel), a woman who acts as a midwife to pregnant mothers but harbors a secret she keeps hidden in her house; Count Pedrazzi (Massimo Serato), an unsavory character whose hatred for Father Paul knows no bounds and who is involved in highly suspect activities with his young male assistant and the children entrusted to him by local parents; and a doctor who accidentally shot and killed his wife years before while cleaning a firearm. A nice bunch, eh? All suspects in the coming bloodbath, too, I might add. On the very first night Stephano spends with his brother, the murder of the woman who leads these séances takes place right outside. Father Paul witnesses the crime, in fact, but is too late to do anything to prevent the tragedy. Oddly, both Stephano and his personal assistant were outside at the time. Hmmm. It's starting to look like even Sherlock Holmes would have a tough time putting this one in the bag.

Stephano starts to spend a fair amount of time with Sandra (Stefania Casini), an art student he met on his journey back home. Between cuddling and taking boat rides with Stephano, Sandra takes care of her ailing mother. When her new boyfriend finally stops in to visit, he notices a bizarre painting hanging on the wall that brings back horrific flashbacks of an event during his childhood, an event involving the murder of a young girl at the hands of an unknown assailant. As if bizarre flashbacks aren't sinister enough, something weirder starts happening to Father Paul. He begins receiving cryptic, typewritten messages hinting at horrible things. As members of the séance group fall prey to a shadowy murderer, it is up to Stephano and Father Paul to figure out who is committing the crimes and why. If Stephano could remember who pulled the plug on that girl in his flashback, he feels, he and his brother might figure out what is going on. The conclusion to "The Bloodstained Shadow" isn't really surprising if you're at all familiar with the giallo genre. What did surprise me was how Antonio Bido cribbed a scene from the final sequences of Lucio Fulci's "Don't Torture a Duckling" in order to wrap up his own murder mystery.

Despite the obvious plagiarism at the end, I immensely enjoyed "The Bloodstained Shadow." Perhaps the best elements of the film are the controversial characters and situations he injects into his story. The Count Pedrazzi character is a really sleazy guy, plagued with the same problem the Grant character suffered from in Samuel Fuller's "The Naked Kiss." Moreover, Bido doesn't pull away when aiming shots at the Catholic Church, which takes an incredible amount of bravery in a country like Italy. I've seen so much Church bashing in so many gialli that I'm beginning to think I need to add it to the list whenever discussing the central elements of the genre, right next to the black gloved killer and the red herrings. Less impressive points of the film revolve solely, at least for me, around the fact that there isn't enough gore in the killings. Oddly enough, most of the gialli included in this boxed set pull back when the sauce begins to flow. It's sad, really. Especially when someone like Dario Argento filled his gialli to the rafters with cringe inducing bouts of bloody mayhem. I definitely think "The Bloodstained Shadow" would have benefited from more of the red stuff.

Anchor Bay once again delivers the goods with the DVD. The picture and audio quality are great, and several extras help round out the disc. "Solamente Bido," a thirteen-minute interview with the director, provides good insight into the film. The director discusses his likes and dislikes of the movie, expresses his love for the giallo genre, and even muses aloud that he would like to make another one soon. Throw in a trailer and a director's filmography and you have everything you need for an enjoyable couple of hours. I can't wait to see Anchor Bay's next gialli collection, hopefully available sometime this year.

This is a pretty minor entry in the giallo genre. I bought this as part of the 4-dvd set from Blue Underground. Though this is minor, it's pretty good and is a good example of the genre as a whole. It lacks the flamboyant style of Argento but it's handled competently enough.

Basically it's about a guy who goes back to his hometown and meets with his brother who is a priest. Years ago there was a murder of a young girl and when the brother comes back, there are more murders. It's not the most original set-up but it's entertaining.

It's not terribly gory but a lot of gialli flicks weren't. The genre is rooted in traditional murder mysteries (like Agatha Christie and Edgar Wallace) and they got more and more violent as the years went on.

So if you can get this for ten bucks or under, it's worth it. Not a classic but will feed your giallo fix on those lonely Friday nights.

-Jordan Krall, author of the spaghetti western/giallo FISTFUL OF FEET

The movie is a decent one if you're into Italian Horror, mainly Giallo. It takes some patience to watch. Meaning you really need to be in a mood to watch this type of movie. If you're looking for gore, stick with Argento's movies of the same genre. Not much gore in this one. Again, this is a good movie, so add this one to your collection if you're into Italian Horror. If not, don't worry with it.

Antonio Bido's "The Bloodstained Shadow" is something of an unremarkable and by the numbers giallo. The director shows knowledge, enthusiasm and appreciation for the form, but sadly fails to endow his slow moving and lethargic effort with the style, panache, and quirky humour one associates with the more successful exponents of the form.

Bido however was no stranger to gialli, his previous film the 1977 effort "The Cat with the Jade Eyes" proved the young director was capable of knocking out a serviceable contribution to the genre, but rather like "The Bloodstained Shadow" was largely derivative and predictable. Bido sees Dario Argento has his major inspiration, but his films lack the visual splendour and the wild and exaggerated aesthetic stylisation of Argento's troubling and baroque universe. Instead, to his credit, Bido opts for a more plausible and realistic approach and one which takes a more objective approach to the rather routine murder mystery at the heart of proceedings. Like the majority of these films the convoluted narrative rests on a past event which has been repressed and which comes bubbling to the surface to haunt its perpetrator. This pivotal narrative event opens the film and precedes the credits, and is shot in an imaginative way, providing the only major instance of style in the film. This event is later commemorated in the film, in an often used motif in gialli by a painting, the purpose of which is to provide the enigmatic key which unlocks the puzzle several years later. This plot device was first utilised by Argento in "The Bird with the Crystal Plumage" and Bido is clearly referencing it.

The films rural setting on an island off Venice aids the sense of buried memories, repression and hidden histories which Bido is seeking to uncover. The community like the one witnessed in Pupi Avati's unforgettable masterpiece "The House with Laughing Windows" is presented as largely hypocritical and wallowing in perversity and lunacy. In this regard Bido's effort slots neatly into a strain of gialli which locate the events of the film in a rural community, and sits alongside other contributions such as Avati's aforementioned effort and Lucio Fulci's "Don't Torture a Duckling". These are films which set up oppositions between the largely unhelpful and unwanted forces of modernity and a simpler and less self-indulgent type of living (the rural communities however are normally seen as dens of hypocrisy and perversion in which murders are covered up.)

Fulci's "Don't Torture a Duckling" is the masterpiece of this strain, a film in which he juxtaposed a hideous giant motorway that fragments and eats into the countryside bringing with it vice and immorality, with a superstitious community who think nothing of chain whipping the local witch. Bido reverses this by suggesting the vice is already there and not a product of the modern world, but a product of Catholic doctrines and dogma. The religious tone of the film is most notable and Bido must be commended for bravely challenging the purity of Catholicism. There is a great deal of value in this film, but the interest remains thematic rather than visual, but a fine soundtrack written by Stelvio Cipriani and performed by Goblin adds a touch of class to raise this slightly above its average competitors.

This is an excellent piece of cinema. This movie is just so suspenseful, and the plot is one of the best I've ever seen in any movie. I'm glad Anchor bay released this film on DVD, as it is one of the best ever. Watch out though, it seems that the disc has some serious audio problems in the middle of the film. But don't let that stop you, the DVD is highly enjoyable, just don't watch it alone if you're easily frightened. Buy it now!

This seventies flick has all the trademarks of the "Giallo" films that came out of Italy during that time. The word "giallo" refers to the controversial series of savage Italian suspense thrillers that shocked international audiences throughout the world. This one is a lot tamer than some--"Twitch of the Death Nerve" for instance. However, the movie has no extraordinary visual pleasures as one would expect; the music becomes annoying; there are several padded scenes that add zero to the movie, and the plot wrinkles are evident.
Craig Hill, who I remember from a sixties series called WHIRLYBIRDS, plays the priest with the right amount of religious fervor, but doesn't handle his fright scenes too well. And who is it that jumps out at him in the cemetery? That is never explained. Massimo Serato (Black Sunday) plays a homosexual count, and the lovely Stefania Casini plays the heroine. Lino Capolicchio as the hero is so frail looking, one has a hard time seeing him in this role. The movie's biggest flaw is when the murderer is revealed, there is no explanation for why he killed the young girl in the opening credits. One can only imagine.
There are a couple of suspenseful films, but many times director Antonio Bido chases a character around without any obvious reason for such.
Not a good representative of the true Giallo films.