A Blade in the Dark (La Casa con la Scala Nel Buio) is directed by Lamberto Bava, but displays little of his skill. It is slow-moving, predictable and fails to entertain.
A musician moves into a villa to write a score for an upcoming horror film. Meanwhile, a killer on the property brutally murders women and hides their bodies. The musician starts to suspect that a killer is on the loose and is hiding the bodies in the large house. More and more women who show up at the villa end up disappearing. Are these disappearances (and killings) related to the former tenant in the house? How is the film that he is working on connected to the strange disappearances?
I was so disappointed in this movie...I was expecting a fun ride but all I got was a trip on the SS Snoozeville. I couldn't care less about the characters, the acting was pretty iffy, the plot didn't go anywhere, the pacing was offensively slow, I figured out the killer by the middle of the film and the killer's motivations were sorely lacking and unbelievable. This film is chock full of unnecessary scenes that seem to exist solely to fill time. The pacing is slower than molasses and in serious need of a kick in the pants. There is no suspense and no tension. If you are a giallo fan like me, you will know who the killer is halfway through the film.
The kills aren't very memorable, though there are a few bloody bits; nothing we haven't seen before, though. There are a few great camera angles, such as the one used underwater in a pool. Unfortunately, this wasn't a kill scene.
Unless you are a collector, skip this borefest and rent one of the many better giallos...perhaps even a Mario Bava (Lamberto's father) film.
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