Dora Baldini (Daria Nicolodia) returns back to her old place with her new pilot husband Bruno (John Steiner) and her son Marco (David Colin Jr.) to start a new happy life, but the place brings back bad memories of her dead ex-husband who committed suicide at sea. After a couple days, nasty surprises with her son acting up and nightmarish delusions start to plague Dora and slowly push her towards the edge of madness.
After recoding it off TV and forgetting about it sitting on my shelf, I finally got around to seeing Bava's final film. I'm not overly familiar with his work, other than being amazed by the exquisitely stylish "Lisa & the Devil" a month or two earlier. Anyway, it's only my second dose of this talented filmmaker. So, I still reasonably have fresh eyes towards his work and when I finished this film, I just didn't know what to feel. Indifferent might be the best way of putting it, well for most part I felt that way. Nothing too much about it really drew me in. Wait! Actually what I'm whining about, the film did grab me in parts, but just a couple things didn't. I'm speaking more towards the plot, as the direction holds up rather well and elevates the feature, I thought. The ponderously dire first hour felt like a real drag as the loose plot springs to life with well directed sequences of tension, mystery and discomfort, but these moments aren't sustained for that long, as they come and go, although that's until it reaches its thrilling finale that pumps up the energy with some nerve wrecking hallucinations and surprising jolts. The slow nature of the film does help build on the stressful situation and slowly gets under your skin to jump you with a macabre climax. But the unconvincing story just didn't pull me in or make me care for these characters. Although I'd say the character's relationships were well thought out and believable, but it just didn't go anywhere with it. It's not to hard to figure what's going to happen around each corner, as you just know something is terribly wrong to begin with. The plot was rather one-note, with it leaning more towards the shocks and that's what kept my attention more than anything. It worked in some interesting segments, but just not as a whole. The performances were good, I guess? Daria Nicolodia is reasonably effective as the woman losing her grip on reality and haunted by her dead ex-husband. David Colin Jr. was an irritating brat of a child, but that kind of work for the character he was playing, especially when all that changes and he become a possessed little monster and John Steiner is decent enough as the worried husband who seems to be hiding something. The acting was better than expected, but for me the characters were nothing but your usual cardboard bystanders in a predictable story.
The story might be very simplistic and a tad restless, but you can't deny the professional nature of the production. It's filled with a great blend of atmosphere. The eerie atmosphere that it starts off with suddenly turns unsettling and the bloodcurdling images that pop up, have you and not just our protagonist on the edge. The unusual score seemed odd in parts but the persistent tune that was repeatedly used really does eat away at you. Graceful camera-work of the house's interior and surrounding features adds to this slickly made feature. The visuals are definitely its strongest part and that also goes for the well-crafted climax that totally wipes the floor.
Mario Bava gradually strings some genuinely spooky shocks and creates a really uncomfortable state in this haunted house tale, but overall it just didn't do enough to entirely wow me over. But that doesn't make it a bad film; actually it's far from it. Who knows maybe it will improve on another viewing? Well, at least the film has kind of added to my curiosity of seeing more of his work.
After recoding it off TV and forgetting about it sitting on my shelf, I finally got around to seeing Bava's final film. I'm not overly familiar with his work, other than being amazed by the exquisitely stylish "Lisa & the Devil" a month or two earlier. Anyway, it's only my second dose of this talented filmmaker. So, I still reasonably have fresh eyes towards his work and when I finished this film, I just didn't know what to feel. Indifferent might be the best way of putting it, well for most part I felt that way. Nothing too much about it really drew me in. Wait! Actually what I'm whining about, the film did grab me in parts, but just a couple things didn't. I'm speaking more towards the plot, as the direction holds up rather well and elevates the feature, I thought. The ponderously dire first hour felt like a real drag as the loose plot springs to life with well directed sequences of tension, mystery and discomfort, but these moments aren't sustained for that long, as they come and go, although that's until it reaches its thrilling finale that pumps up the energy with some nerve wrecking hallucinations and surprising jolts. The slow nature of the film does help build on the stressful situation and slowly gets under your skin to jump you with a macabre climax. But the unconvincing story just didn't pull me in or make me care for these characters. Although I'd say the character's relationships were well thought out and believable, but it just didn't go anywhere with it. It's not to hard to figure what's going to happen around each corner, as you just know something is terribly wrong to begin with. The plot was rather one-note, with it leaning more towards the shocks and that's what kept my attention more than anything. It worked in some interesting segments, but just not as a whole. The performances were good, I guess? Daria Nicolodia is reasonably effective as the woman losing her grip on reality and haunted by her dead ex-husband. David Colin Jr. was an irritating brat of a child, but that kind of work for the character he was playing, especially when all that changes and he become a possessed little monster and John Steiner is decent enough as the worried husband who seems to be hiding something. The acting was better than expected, but for me the characters were nothing but your usual cardboard bystanders in a predictable story.
The story might be very simplistic and a tad restless, but you can't deny the professional nature of the production. It's filled with a great blend of atmosphere. The eerie atmosphere that it starts off with suddenly turns unsettling and the bloodcurdling images that pop up, have you and not just our protagonist on the edge. The unusual score seemed odd in parts but the persistent tune that was repeatedly used really does eat away at you. Graceful camera-work of the house's interior and surrounding features adds to this slickly made feature. The visuals are definitely its strongest part and that also goes for the well-crafted climax that totally wipes the floor.
Mario Bava gradually strings some genuinely spooky shocks and creates a really uncomfortable state in this haunted house tale, but overall it just didn't do enough to entirely wow me over. But that doesn't make it a bad film; actually it's far from it. Who knows maybe it will improve on another viewing? Well, at least the film has kind of added to my curiosity of seeing more of his work.