Movie review of Torso

Horrorphile

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Torso (Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence)

March 7th 2007 02:57

Italian exploitation maestro (can a sleaze director be capable of an aria??) Sergio Martino directed this film in 1973 and it since went on to gain a worthy cult following. The original Italian title translated as Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence (wahey!). For other parts of Europe it was shortened to Carnal Violence, while the American distributor re-titled it as Torso (obviously a word play on “bodies” as both objects of sex and death).

Several murders occur on a Rome campus (and a very attractive campus it is too). The women are strangled and then horribly mutilated. The police are baffled. Everyone looks wary or suspicious. Four female students decide to retreat to an isolated cliff top villa overlooking a village to escape the obvious threat, but the killer has followed them and so the carnage continues.

Carla Brait, Angela Corvello and Tina Aumont

Technically this movie is a giallo (Italian murder mystery), but it is also one of the early 70s precursors to what would eventually be known in the 80s as the stalk’n’slash flick. For its time it is a effectively brutal and disturbing movie, despite some superficial acting and less than impressive gore effects (the intention is always what lingers in the mind).

The killer's knife glints in the pale moonlight

This has to be one of the best looking movies of its kind! It’s a psycho-sexual thriller, and bearing that in mind the killer's weapon of choice is a plush red and black scarf and a nasty looking knife. The killer is plagued with misogynistic tendencies from a traumatic childhood experience (we get to the tenuous reasoning at film’s end). Hmmm, sounds like Dario Argento. Director Martino might not command quite the gung-ho visual flair that Argento utilizes, but he still knows how to throw a great sequence together with style, panache and dynamic use of editing and music.

There's nothing scarier than a silhouette amidst the trees!

The production values are high (special effects aside) with stunning use of Rome locations, both urban and rural. The soundtrack by brothers Guido and Maurizo de Angelis is easily one of the most interesting and effective scores from the giallo genre using a mix of folk, rock, orchestral and even some pseudo-psychedelica (there’s an amusingly provocative scene of an alfresco gathering amongst the more uninhibited university students). The early 70s Euro fashion is also of captivating note (which the director pays close attention to …)

The gorgeous Angela Corvello as lesbos lover Katia

And of course, as is de rigueur, all the women are stunning. Some of the men aren’t half bad either (must be something in the olive oil). English actress Suzy Kendall (who starred in Argento’s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) is Jane, our Final Girl. The other voluptuous beauties beg to be mentioned; Tina Aumont is Dani, who seems to be the initial lead, until Jane enters the picture. Angela Covello and Carla Brait play Katia and Ursula, our glorious lesbian lovers, while bombshell Patrizia Adiutori (Flo) and the luscious Cristina Airoldi (Carol) are offed by the creepy masked killer during the movie’s first half. There’s even the crucial bit-part of a streetwalker played by the caramello allure of Rosaria della Femmina (that’s a siren’s name if ever I heard one!)

Ahem, yes, I might sound as pervy as the movie itself, but I can’t help myself; these beautiful women combined with the beautiful automobiles and the beautiful architecture make for a sensational movie! I’ll admit it, Italy, Malta, Greece …. I have a fetish for those beautiful contours.

But I digress … Torso has many memorable scenes, especially the final cat-and-mouse game between Jane and the killer in the villa, played out with expert suspense, and punctuated with grisly (although tame by today’s standards) detail. Also notable is the swamp stalking of Carol (her image used on some of the poster art), this is a particularly creepy and atmospheric scene.

The usual dubbing is nowhere near as bad as some Euro flicks, thankfully the voices used more-or-less match the actors on screen (Suzy Kendall and the late Tina Aumont were the only legitimate English-speaking actors).

As in all giallos a couple of red herrings are thrown into the psycho stew, but you’d be half-asleep if you hadn’t considered correctly whom the killer was. Still, it's the spectacle of the whole dark affair we're here for. There is the re-occuring visual motif of a porcelain doll whose relevance is made clear upon the killer’s own revelation; “They’re all just stupid dolls, made of flesh and blood!” The loathing and retribution is oh so potent in horror movies.

They're all just stupid dolls made of flesh and blood

From the movie’s opening three-way carnal follies to the gyrating, pot-smoking hippies to the sensual Sapphic caresses to the lecherous village louts to the deranged and desperate co-ed killer's rampage, Torso is smothered in the darkly delirious pleasurable allure of early 70s sleaze and macabre perversity … Perfect for that after hours sofa-bound nightcap and distracting fondle. Muah-ha-ha-ha-ha!

Here are two wildly different trailers, firstly the US version with the hilarious voice-over:

And here's the psychadelic international version:

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Comments

8 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by JohnDoe

March 7th 2007 03:16

Film & TV on DVD

Great review of quality exploitation, B grade fun with a nasty streak...I remember digging this one. same as your last few though, no DVD release yet so its been years since screening...sounds like it will hold up.

Comment by Damo

March 7th 2007 09:10

This was released in Australia I think under the title of Torso.

Comment by JohnDoe

March 7th 2007 09:17

Film & TV on DVD

Might have slipped under my radar, will have a look for it...thanks for the heads up Damo.

Comment by Bryn

March 8th 2007 00:08

Horrorphile

Actually I thought it was released under the Carnal Violence title ... and cut too.
Definitely worth checking out though. The sexiest women in a slasher flick I've seen in a long while.

Comment by KylieW

March 8th 2007 01:53

Celebrity Obsession

I love the US trailer! The script for that rocks.

Just to make sure I've got it straight. He's a psycho-sexual killer right? Well, I'm sure that my screen will definitely be saturated with terror when I watch it.

Saturated with terror??? Who came up with that line?

Looks like there's plenty of gratuitous nudity as well. Which any good slasher flick requires.

Comment by Bryn

March 8th 2007 07:01

Horrorphile

Cheers Kylie! Yeah, a psycho-sexual killer alright. Totally screwed up.
But the way the guy in the US trailer says "Torso!" ... it's like he's selling some kind of cleaning product! LOL!!!
"Saturates the floor with terror!!!" LMFAO!!!

Comment by Anonymous

March 27th 2007 01:34

“They’re all just stupid dolls, made of flesh and blood!”

Since I'm working backwards, you starred in this movie?

Ponti had good taste all around. He was Mr. Loren after all, more than once.

-lilith