Murder obsession (Follia omicida) (1981)

Director:

Riccardo Freda

Writers:

Antonio Cesare Corti (screenplay)
Antonio Cesare Corti (story)

Release Date:

24 February 1981 (Italy)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery

Plot:

Michael is a successful actor, but he has a scandal in his past: at a tender age he knifed his father to death...

Plot Keywords:

Past | Weekend | Housekeeper | Fear | Actor

Cast

Stefano Patrizi	...	Michael Stanford
Martine Brochard	...	Shirley
Henri Garcin	...	Hans Schwartz
Laura Gemser	...	Beryl
John Richardson	...	Oliver
Anita Strindberg	...	Glenda
Silvia Dionisio	...	Deborah
Fabrizio Moroni

Also Known As:

Delirium
Fear
Follia omicida (Italy)
L'ossessione che uccide (Italy) (alternative title)
Murder Syndrome (USA)
Paura
Satans Altar
Svenuto
The Wailing (International: English title) (dubbed version)
Unconscious

Runtime:

USA:92 min

Country:

Italy | France

Language:

Italian

Colour:

Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:Not Rated | Italy:VM18 | UK:18

Company:

Dionysio Cinematografica

Movie Connections:

Featured in Zombiethon (1986)

More horror fodder from Riccardo Freda

Riccardo Freda is considered one of the maestros of Italian horror based on the strength of three films in the late 50's and early 60's--"I, Vampiri" (which we now know was mostly directed by Mario Bava), "The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock", and the sequel to the latter, "The Ghost". Unfortunately, everything he did after that pretty much ranges from awful to disappointing. This one falls more into the latter category.

An actor nearly strangles his female co-star during the filming of the scene. Everyone seems strange unperturbed about this including the actress herself, who later has sex with him(of course, it helps that this character is played by Laura "Emanuelle" Gemser who pretty much has sex with everybody in her movies). They all repair to the troubled actor's eerie, decrepit estate complete with a creepy butler named Oliver and a mother who is "not well". Actually, she looks pretty good for someone who is supposedly the mother of a grown man and, not surprisingly, she has a close, Oedipal relationship with her son who looks EXACTLY like his musical conductor father, "the Maestro", who was mysteriously murdered years earlier (and you can pretty much bet it was by one of two people). The actor's girlfriend is also along for the ride and she suspects something is up between the two of them when the son introduces her to his a mother as his secretary and insists that they sleep in separate rooms. Meanwhile, someone is dispatching the various guests with the usual over-elaborate giallo methods--a bathtub drowning, a chainsaw, etc.

Freda brings an interesting Gothic sensibility to the giallo genre here, even though his main focus is obviously on the gory murders. At least he is somewhat in his element, unlike with the abysmal "Iguana with a Tongue of Fire" he did earlier. The acting is awful and the special effects during the murder scene are laughable, but fans of Freda and Laura Gemser could do a lot worse I guess.