This plays out less like a giallo film and more like a simple murder mystery, or, to be unkind, an adult Scooby Doo episode that mated with Gilligan's Island.
A group of acquaintances are staying together in a lovely villa while the men-folk discuss business. The business at hand involves a professor's new formula for an industrial resin that has the potential to make someone a lot of money. Several of the guys offer the professor million dollar checks for the formula, but he's not ready to sell out just yet. So, naturally, someone is just going to have to DIE! So, the only boat on the shore seems to have been set adrift, leaving the "friends and lovers" to figure out whodunit, and how to get home.
If I recall, all of the death scenes are off-camera, and Bava is having some fun with music scores and dark comedy. As the bodies pile up, the still-living decide to wrap the corpses in plastic and hang each of them in the meat locker next to a massive slab of beef to swing to and fro on hooks to a strange musical ditty that seems to be the "Meat Locker Theme." There is some blood, but it's tame, and you'll probably realize by the way these people treat each other, even supposed spouses and lovers, that none of these jerks deserves to make it back alive. The worst aspect of the film is the unbelievability with which the remaining cast carries on their daily routines on the island knowing there is a killer among them. They barely act upset when someone dies. Oh, there may be some tears, but they get over it real quick! I enjoyed how Bava set up so many of the scenes from the exact same camera points in the house or on the beaches, but had different action taking place. I wouldn't recommend this for giallo fans, but if you like Italian thrillers or just Mario Bava in general, search this one out.
A group of acquaintances are staying together in a lovely villa while the men-folk discuss business. The business at hand involves a professor's new formula for an industrial resin that has the potential to make someone a lot of money. Several of the guys offer the professor million dollar checks for the formula, but he's not ready to sell out just yet. So, naturally, someone is just going to have to DIE! So, the only boat on the shore seems to have been set adrift, leaving the "friends and lovers" to figure out whodunit, and how to get home.
If I recall, all of the death scenes are off-camera, and Bava is having some fun with music scores and dark comedy. As the bodies pile up, the still-living decide to wrap the corpses in plastic and hang each of them in the meat locker next to a massive slab of beef to swing to and fro on hooks to a strange musical ditty that seems to be the "Meat Locker Theme." There is some blood, but it's tame, and you'll probably realize by the way these people treat each other, even supposed spouses and lovers, that none of these jerks deserves to make it back alive. The worst aspect of the film is the unbelievability with which the remaining cast carries on their daily routines on the island knowing there is a killer among them. They barely act upset when someone dies. Oh, there may be some tears, but they get over it real quick! I enjoyed how Bava set up so many of the scenes from the exact same camera points in the house or on the beaches, but had different action taking place. I wouldn't recommend this for giallo fans, but if you like Italian thrillers or just Mario Bava in general, search this one out.