Since having read a while ago that Swedish director Arne Mattsson has recently been re-evaluated as the "creator" of the Giallo sub-genre thinks to his 1958 feature Mannekin In Red,I was thrilled to find this 1973 movie,which would give me the chance to see the creator of the Giallo at work.
The plot:
Being locked in her bedroom as an attempt to make her go "cold turkey",Lotta finds the pain of wanting a final "hit" incurable,and ends up committing suicide by jumping out of her bedroom window.Getting to Lotta's "rehab" building just a bit to late,Lotta's brother Stefan is devastated to discover that all the drug dealers who feed Lotta's habit have finally led to her taking her own life.Calecting the few artifacts in his sister's possession,Stefan discovers a reel to reel tape containing audio of Lotta talking to some of the cities biggest drug dealers.Liserning to the tape,Stefan hears his sister call some of the drug dealers by their full names,which leads to him deciding to go on a hunt for them,in order to get revenge for the fatal damage that they did to his sister.
View on the film:
Although screenwriter Olov Svedelid is mostly known for a series of Nordic Noir novels based around a cop called Roland Hassle, Svedelid surprisingly only includes a few brief Giallo/mystery moments, (such as the reel to reel tape) and instead goes for a revenge-drama plot for most of this fun film's running time.Disapointingly revealing the voices on the tape pretty early on, Svedelid regains some ground from that lost potential by focusing on the wonderfully deranged,seedy gangsters,with two of the best ones being one who has a dummy in his mouth the whole time,and the other one wearing razor gloves which would leave a scar on Freedy Kruger's face.Showing some smooth stylish flashes with a film projection light being used to create a "flickering" effect in a room,director Mattsson makes some of the movies stupider moments go down smoothly thanks to displaying a real relish of being in on the joke,which is extremely noticeable in scenes where Mattsson shows his ruthless gangsters to be slipping on ice all over the place.
The plot:
Being locked in her bedroom as an attempt to make her go "cold turkey",Lotta finds the pain of wanting a final "hit" incurable,and ends up committing suicide by jumping out of her bedroom window.Getting to Lotta's "rehab" building just a bit to late,Lotta's brother Stefan is devastated to discover that all the drug dealers who feed Lotta's habit have finally led to her taking her own life.Calecting the few artifacts in his sister's possession,Stefan discovers a reel to reel tape containing audio of Lotta talking to some of the cities biggest drug dealers.Liserning to the tape,Stefan hears his sister call some of the drug dealers by their full names,which leads to him deciding to go on a hunt for them,in order to get revenge for the fatal damage that they did to his sister.
View on the film:
Although screenwriter Olov Svedelid is mostly known for a series of Nordic Noir novels based around a cop called Roland Hassle, Svedelid surprisingly only includes a few brief Giallo/mystery moments, (such as the reel to reel tape) and instead goes for a revenge-drama plot for most of this fun film's running time.Disapointingly revealing the voices on the tape pretty early on, Svedelid regains some ground from that lost potential by focusing on the wonderfully deranged,seedy gangsters,with two of the best ones being one who has a dummy in his mouth the whole time,and the other one wearing razor gloves which would leave a scar on Freedy Kruger's face.Showing some smooth stylish flashes with a film projection light being used to create a "flickering" effect in a room,director Mattsson makes some of the movies stupider moments go down smoothly thanks to displaying a real relish of being in on the joke,which is extremely noticeable in scenes where Mattsson shows his ruthless gangsters to be slipping on ice all over the place.