Art Film Or Ambien With Murders?Who Saw Her Die? More importantly: who managed to stay awake through it? Aldo Lado’s giallo is often praised as moody, atmospheric, and haunting. It’s definitely moody. It’s definitely atmospheric. It is very haunting if you find meandering plotlines and endless walking shots traumatizing. For a movie about a murdered … Read More “Who Saw Her Die? (1972) – Gorgeous Venice, clueless thriller shuffle” »
Neon, Blood, and Cheap BeerSome exploitation movies sleaze their way across the screen and vanish. The Swinging Barmaids kicks the door in, orders a round of shots, and dares you not to have a good time. Ostensibly about a serial killer targeting cocktail waitresses at the Swing-A-Ling Club, it somehow manages to be both grimy … Read More “The Swinging Barmaids (1975) – Booze, boobs, and body bags” »
If you built a murder mystery out of hotel ledgers, bad memories, and a priest with anger issues, you’d get something very close to Seven Blood-Stained Orchids. Umberto Lenzi’s giallo is one of those movies that looks straightforward on paper—someone is killing women connected to an old incident, our attractive leads play detective—but on screen … Read More “Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (1972) – Half moons, full mayhem mystery” »
My Dear Killer wants you to believe it’s one of the crown jewels of the giallo genre. Critics have called it “vibrant” and “well designed,” which is technically true if you’re only grading the wallpaper. Visually, it’s a sleek, handsome little thriller. Intellectually, it’s what you’d get if you fed a crime novel to a … Read More “My Dear Killer (1972) – Gorgeous giallo, brain made of Jell-O” »
If you’ve ever thought, “What my Christmas needs is less caroling and more attempted stepmother homicide,” then Home for the Holidays is basically your Hallmark movie from the darkest timeline. Long before prestige streamers started doing ironic yuletide thrillers, this 1972 ABC made-for-TV slasher was quietly stuffing stockings with paranoia, family trauma, and a killer … Read More “Home for the Holidays (1972) – Snow, sisters, and a pitchfork” »
If you’ve ever wondered what it would look like if a rancid joke book and a gallon of stage blood tried to solve a murder together, The Gore Gore Girls has your answer. Herschell Gordon Lewis’ last major splatter outing isn’t so much a movie as it is a sloppy dare: “How long will you … Read More “The Gore Gore Girls (1972) – Cheap meat, cheaper mystery” »
Portrait Of The Artist As A Walking Violation There are films about struggling artists, and then there’s The Driller Killer, where “struggling” means “one bad gallery rejection away from going full Black & Decker on the neighborhood.” Abel Ferrara’s grubby little classic is part slasher, part black comedy, and part cinéma vérité panic attack, shot … Read More “The Driller Killer (1979) – Art, madness, and power tools” »
Killer On A Morality CrusadeOn paper, The Centerfold Girls sounds like pure grindhouse junk: a religious nut with a medical bag and a serious women’s-magazine problem crisscrosses the countryside murdering centerfold models for their sins. In practice, it’s weirder, sharper, and more thoughtful than its sexploitation label suggests—like someone hid a nasty little art film … Read More “The Centerfold Girls (1974) – Sleazy, strange, smarter than expected” »
Scenic Murano, Now With Extra Murder There are “slow-burn thrillers,” and then there’s The Blood Stained Shadow, which smolders like a damp cigarette in a Venetian ashtray. Antonio Bido’s giallo wants to be a brooding nightmare of sin, religion, and repressed childhood trauma. What it mostly delivers is a travel brochure for Murano with some … Read More “The Blood Stained Shadow (1978) – Pretty Murano, very dumb mystery” »
Haunted By Something Worse Than Your ExThe Wailing (El llanto) is the kind of psychological horror that doesn’t just want to scare you; it wants to move in, rearrange your furniture, and then sob softly in the dark corner you forgot your therapist warned you about. Pedro Martín-Calero’s feature debut follows women stalked by an … Read More “The Wailing (2024) – Three women, one very clingy ghost” »