Casa della paura, La aka The Girl in Room 2a, (1973) William L. Rose A sadistic cult that preys on vulnerable women, uses a local women's prison as a place to get these unfortunates into their lodging house, where they commence mind games while using hallucinogens to prepare their victims for their fate. Margaret Bradley is one such girl just released penniless from her imprisonment,so she takes up an offer to stay at the Grant's lodging house where she can stay for free until she finds some finance, almost immediately though she becomes suspicious of her hosts strange behaviour and the nocturnal events that keep her awake. She finds a friend in a stranger who is looking into the disappearance of his sister who also stayed at the Grants house, together they commit to finding out the truth.
The film starts promisingly with a kidnap and torture of a young girl who is then impaled on a spike by a crimson hooded killer, who does show up on occasion throughout the film, but there is very little in the way of spectacular giallo killings after that, the story kept me interested, but overall its not a Giallo I'd recommend, the visuals are uninspired, the score is at times laughably unsuitable but the biggest crime of all is the under use of Rosalba Neri who is restricted to about 3 minutes screen time, the identity of the Hooded killer is also rather obvious. 5/10
The film starts promisingly with a kidnap and torture of a young girl who is then impaled on a spike by a crimson hooded killer, who does show up on occasion throughout the film, but there is very little in the way of spectacular giallo killings after that, the story kept me interested, but overall its not a Giallo I'd recommend, the visuals are uninspired, the score is at times laughably unsuitable but the biggest crime of all is the under use of Rosalba Neri who is restricted to about 3 minutes screen time, the identity of the Hooded killer is also rather obvious. 5/10