May be some small spoilers:
Although I believe that horror is each to his own, there are a few common characteristics that make a good horror film. Torso has a few of those elements but only some of the time. The rest of the piece is an incorrigible soft core porno film, yet when I was intrigued with the film, I was enamoured with it. This is one horror flick that had me feeling tense in many parts and for that I have to give it credit. It is unfortunate that most of the brilliance was bunched into one thrilling 20 or 30 minute scene, but better to have 20 or 30 minutes of intriguing terror than 88 minutes of sheer acrimony. (When you use the word acrimony in a review about a horror film, then not much else can be said to try and make the film sound better than it really is. And although I am not saying that I was acrimonious <or apathetic for that matter> towards this film, I am saying that there were many areas that could have been improved upon). This didn't look like it had a very grandiose budget, in fact it looked as though the producers spent parsimoniously when you take into account the lack of certain necessities like lighting, but you can have a small budget and still have an effective horror film--see Texas Chainsaw Massacre for example.
Torso begins with the murder of some college students. Many of the murders in this film are beautiful women and many of the stars are sinfully, perfect, nubile vixens that seem starved for some licentious saturnalia, seeing as all they seem to do is either sunbathe in the nude, have lesbian sex, flash their assets to the local men and run around like women in the Spanish film, When The Screaming Stops. In short, this is a typical Italian 70's style horror film. In fact, for the most part of the early going in the film, I was actually quite disappointed with the film's vacuous attempt to entertain us with scantily clad women. Although nice to look at, it did little to enhance the film. And not only that but the film did seem a slight bit abstruse at times. There were characters that came and went and sometimes they looked like each other and then other times, certain people just disappeared from the film completely. Perhaps this was done to confuse us and send us looking for the red herring, but it just confused and annoyed me more than anything.
What is good however, is the directing. The story may have been the weakest link of the film but the direction was quite well done. Sergio Martino may be an early pioneer to the slasher genre and perhaps Polanski and Carpenter and Craven really did get some of their ideas and inspiration from some of his work. There are three scenes in the film that really had me singing his praises. The first starts at a party where everyone seems to be stoned to Palookaville. One of the girls eschews some sexual advances from two hippies and wanders out into the woods alone, dazed, confused and in a cataclysmic state of oblivion. She just seems to be wandering for the sake of wandering. When she finally realizes how far she has drifted into the woods, it is too late. The killer stalks her and taunts her in some ways. The killer knows he has her and he takes his time before he slices her open. What is so laudable about this sequence is the pacing, the camera shots and the music. Music is an apodictic part of any successful horror film and this is a perfect paradigm as to why. If you took the stingers and the stalking type of music away from this film, it may not have as much credibility as it does. But as it stands, the music adds much atmosphere to the film.
Another perfectly done part of the film is the final 20 minutes in the film when our heroine, Jane wakes up one morning to find her three friends butchered. The killer doesn't know that she is in the house and she horrifically watches as he begins to cut the corpses into two pieces. She is then trapped in the house and he eventually discovers she is in there. What ensues is a tight and tense cat and mouse game that really did leave me with goose pimples. There are some excellent overhead shots, reaction shots and POV shots. If you look at any Friday the 13th film, you can almost see Sean Cunningham and Steve Miner studying Martino's agility and style with the camera.
What is not so good however is the killer and why he kills. If this film would have tightened it up a bit and given the killer a better reason to kill, then I think it would have ranked a lot higher than it does in my books. I am still giving this film a 7 out of 10, but with a more in depth analysis of this killer, then the film would have stood out even more. But all we get is a brief, half-assed explanation as to what happened to this guy as a kid and how he developed his complete hatred towards certain people. The writing certainly could have provided us with more than that.
Torso surprised me. It starts out very circuitously but finally does settle into a well done, effective entry into the Italian horror legends. Fulci and Argento are still kings of the cinema but Martino certainly makes a valiant attempt. The result is a farrago of shock, tension and some small gore. I would recommend checking this film out. It is much better than what most of Hollywood asks us to swallow. And if you can find that, then you've won half the battle. I would like to see the unrated version of this film because this did seem to be chopped and edited to hell.
7 out of 10-- A little confusing at times but worth the ride.
Although I believe that horror is each to his own, there are a few common characteristics that make a good horror film. Torso has a few of those elements but only some of the time. The rest of the piece is an incorrigible soft core porno film, yet when I was intrigued with the film, I was enamoured with it. This is one horror flick that had me feeling tense in many parts and for that I have to give it credit. It is unfortunate that most of the brilliance was bunched into one thrilling 20 or 30 minute scene, but better to have 20 or 30 minutes of intriguing terror than 88 minutes of sheer acrimony. (When you use the word acrimony in a review about a horror film, then not much else can be said to try and make the film sound better than it really is. And although I am not saying that I was acrimonious <or apathetic for that matter> towards this film, I am saying that there were many areas that could have been improved upon). This didn't look like it had a very grandiose budget, in fact it looked as though the producers spent parsimoniously when you take into account the lack of certain necessities like lighting, but you can have a small budget and still have an effective horror film--see Texas Chainsaw Massacre for example.
Torso begins with the murder of some college students. Many of the murders in this film are beautiful women and many of the stars are sinfully, perfect, nubile vixens that seem starved for some licentious saturnalia, seeing as all they seem to do is either sunbathe in the nude, have lesbian sex, flash their assets to the local men and run around like women in the Spanish film, When The Screaming Stops. In short, this is a typical Italian 70's style horror film. In fact, for the most part of the early going in the film, I was actually quite disappointed with the film's vacuous attempt to entertain us with scantily clad women. Although nice to look at, it did little to enhance the film. And not only that but the film did seem a slight bit abstruse at times. There were characters that came and went and sometimes they looked like each other and then other times, certain people just disappeared from the film completely. Perhaps this was done to confuse us and send us looking for the red herring, but it just confused and annoyed me more than anything.
What is good however, is the directing. The story may have been the weakest link of the film but the direction was quite well done. Sergio Martino may be an early pioneer to the slasher genre and perhaps Polanski and Carpenter and Craven really did get some of their ideas and inspiration from some of his work. There are three scenes in the film that really had me singing his praises. The first starts at a party where everyone seems to be stoned to Palookaville. One of the girls eschews some sexual advances from two hippies and wanders out into the woods alone, dazed, confused and in a cataclysmic state of oblivion. She just seems to be wandering for the sake of wandering. When she finally realizes how far she has drifted into the woods, it is too late. The killer stalks her and taunts her in some ways. The killer knows he has her and he takes his time before he slices her open. What is so laudable about this sequence is the pacing, the camera shots and the music. Music is an apodictic part of any successful horror film and this is a perfect paradigm as to why. If you took the stingers and the stalking type of music away from this film, it may not have as much credibility as it does. But as it stands, the music adds much atmosphere to the film.
Another perfectly done part of the film is the final 20 minutes in the film when our heroine, Jane wakes up one morning to find her three friends butchered. The killer doesn't know that she is in the house and she horrifically watches as he begins to cut the corpses into two pieces. She is then trapped in the house and he eventually discovers she is in there. What ensues is a tight and tense cat and mouse game that really did leave me with goose pimples. There are some excellent overhead shots, reaction shots and POV shots. If you look at any Friday the 13th film, you can almost see Sean Cunningham and Steve Miner studying Martino's agility and style with the camera.
What is not so good however is the killer and why he kills. If this film would have tightened it up a bit and given the killer a better reason to kill, then I think it would have ranked a lot higher than it does in my books. I am still giving this film a 7 out of 10, but with a more in depth analysis of this killer, then the film would have stood out even more. But all we get is a brief, half-assed explanation as to what happened to this guy as a kid and how he developed his complete hatred towards certain people. The writing certainly could have provided us with more than that.
Torso surprised me. It starts out very circuitously but finally does settle into a well done, effective entry into the Italian horror legends. Fulci and Argento are still kings of the cinema but Martino certainly makes a valiant attempt. The result is a farrago of shock, tension and some small gore. I would recommend checking this film out. It is much better than what most of Hollywood asks us to swallow. And if you can find that, then you've won half the battle. I would like to see the unrated version of this film because this did seem to be chopped and edited to hell.
7 out of 10-- A little confusing at times but worth the ride.