Italian horror films

To put it simply this is one of the best horror films ever made, without a doubt. I thought I was too old to have a film scare me, but this proved me wrong; The Drop of Water segment made all my hairs stand on end, and the best thing is it isn't gore or violence that made it happen but pure atmosphere, I think the last time a film scared me was back when I saw 13 when The Blair Witch had came out, obviously at the time without the internet I was fooled in to thinking it was real and I'm definitely glad I was fooled because it made the ending one of the best moments in horror. It's taken me 6 or 7 years to find another film to scare me. If The Drop Of Water didn't make all your hairs stand on end you must be emotionally numb.

The most under rated horror film of all time. It's so good that it makes up for all of the crap horror that came out in the 90's. This is what horror filmmakers should be doing. This film is intelligent, has great characters, atmosphere and brilliant camera work. The last great Italian horror film.

No other film has grown on me this much.

The look of this film is amazing, it's a shame that most horror films these days have to have that unattractive green tint about them. The score is right up there with Halloween's, sounds amazing in surround sound!

The begining of this film is probably my favorite of all time.

I really forgot just how great this film is. More or less perfect. David Warbeck is bad ass in this.

Brilliant film and highly influential. The lighting is great throughout. Although The Girl Who Knew Too Much is the first attempt to adapt the giallo genre to the bif screen this is the one that really solidified the genres conventions that would be imitated countless times, you have the gloved killer (though that originated from Black Sabbath), elaborate death sequences, stylish camera work and of course the attractive women. Thought not exactly being a slasher itself (I'd say Twitch of the Death Nerve is really the first slasher) This is where the roots of American slasher films come from although many of which weren't as carefully constructed as this film. Also an extremely daring film for the time.

The second death sequence was probably my favorite, brilliant lighting and suspense.

I boosted the rating to a 5. It's unfair to give it less just because of the transfer.

Who needs a plot or characterization when your film looks this damn good?

This film has so much atmosphere that you don't really care about anything else. Nobody can beat the Italians when it comes to that.

I wouldn't really recommend this to the average horror fan as the film is more of a period drama/romance than a horror film but I loved it all the same. Slow moving but, surprisingly well acted, amazing cinematography, probably the best looking full length Bava film. Pretty shocking for the time. Not Bavas most enjoyable film but its so incredibly made that it'd be a crime to give it less than 5/5. Pretty much every shot after the 20 minute mark is a masterpiece.

Definitely Bavas gothic masterpiece.

For some reason I could see Tim Burton remaking this and placing Johnny Depp in Christopher Lees place. It would turn all emo kids in to S&M maniacs.

I prefer Inferno but this is probably the best directed film in Argentos career next to Suspiria.

Great thriller, very Hitchcock. Very very well directed and probably the best looking black and white film I've seen. Hugely influential and spawned the genre that Argento and Fulci eventually found fame in. For that this film gets huge respect.

Was rather dissapointed on first watch because I wanted something more like Black Sabbath. Which was rather unfair. Great film.

Great film. Nice pace which is rare for Italian horror, good dialog, brilliantly shot (as if it wouldn't be with Bava on both directing and cinematography). And intentionally funny, Bava actually referencing himself was a shock, it happens all the time now but I doubt it happened very often back in the day. I loved how John tried to use Black Sabbath to cover up his murder.

American Psycho borrowed heavily from this one.

Love this film, this along with Evil Dead are the main reasons I became an avid horror fan and started my obsession with Italian horror films. Brilliant music, some great shots, awesome makeup effects and gore. Shoddy acting aside from the two leads but the film still stands up great.

Great cinematography and direction but that ending is horrible.

Bad films should never be this entertaining!

Pretty good giallo even if I did guess who the killer was pretty much instantly... well sort of. The end definitely had me thinking "WTF!" I'm not to sure what to think of the pacing, the pacing was great in the last hour of the film, very slow and brooding and it helped to create a really creepy atmosphere. The first 45 minutes are a different story; far to slow when it absolutely didn't need to be. There were things that definitely could have been removed. I'm not too sure what to think of the cinematography... it reminded me of the style of photography that Fulci had in his gore films... only not quite as successful. It was the director of photography's first job so I guess it isn't that surprising that it didn't look to hot. This film would have looked so much better if it had Sergio Salvati on board.

Slightly above average giallo, not as good as any produced by Fulci or Argento though. Loved the editing and manic psychedelic scenes but unfortunately there wasn't enough of them. The ending ties up everything far to neatly which takes away from the films impact overall... it turns out Fenech isn't insane at all and that there really was a cult of madmen after her... boring way to end it...

Good film, very well directed but needs some cutting down badly, cut 20 minutes off this film and I'd rate it a lot higher. The scene with Evan tearing his heart out is great.

Mixed views on this film. I hate the fact that they killed animals for it but as far as exploitation goes this is as good as it gets.

Average slasher, the end scene was golden though Haute Tension took the scene and made it far more effective. Definitely a film that could have benefited from more gore, however for the time this must have been quite a strong film.

Trashy fun. Nothing that great about it but enjoyable all the same. Argento should have given it to Soavi to direct. Lamberto Bava is a nothing compared to his father.

Rather bland and ugly looking film from Argento, the film is simply an ugly rehash Tenebrae and Profondo Rosso. Argento films never really have a strong plot or dialog and rely mainly on style so when you take that style away as seen in this film not much is left. Great opening sequence though.

Pretty disappointing, the film felt like an idea for a 30 minute filmed stretched out over and hour and a half which of course leads to real bad pacing issues. The last ten minutes were good but the rest was pretty boring.

Really average film. You can tell that Lamberto had way more to do with this than Mario did. Aside from the hallucinary sequences this didn't have Bavas touch at all. Dario Argenos Inferno (which Bava worked on) felt far more like a Bava film than this one did.

Meh sub par. Wasn't as awesomely funny as Burial Ground. Had some golden moments though.