Two years after the enigmatic "Life's But", Lorenzo Lombardi decides to come back to the scene. A director from Umbria, with undoubted artistic and cinematic gifts, he turns the page and brings to the public a decidedly different work from the previous. The new work is inspired from the recent horrors movies by Roth and has some dialogue in pure Tarantino style. On the other hand, it is not a mystery that the two "sacred monsters of the kind" find favour with the director from San Giustino. It doesn't mean that the film is a faded copy of Quentin and Roth's works, rather that, "In The Market" is a horror-movie with excellent stylistic qualities that are personal enough to fascinate the fans of the genre. The budget available wasn't the maximum one, but we could trust in a cast of great quality: the WhiteRose Production could depend on the experience of Sergio Stivaletti (Dario Argento's collaborator) in charge of special effects, and on Ottaviano Blitch, a good Italian actor whom we surely remember for his appearance in "Italians". In Lombardi's cast there are always the irreplaceable Nicola Sainti Amantini (photo), Elisa Sensi, Rossella Caiani and Marco Martini. These last three actors interpret the protagonists of the film who are Nicole, Sarah and David. Their performance is good, surely capable of improvement in some aspects; however gestures and expressions are never left spontaneous, that's the most important thing when we produce a certain kind of movie where we have to make a realistic scene to create the necessary suspense and waiting. The movie tells about these three boys on a trip. Unfortunately they are robbed and have to arrive at a market, which is the only frequented place nearby. As they enter the market, David proposes a plan to Sarah and Nicole: that is to spend the night inside, so as to be able to eat and be safe. It's a pity that inside the boys have to face Adam (Ottaviano Blitch), a merciless butcher\cannibal who wants to kill and eat the three protagonists. In Lombardi's latest work the strongest point is surely the shooting, which is well elaborated and very intriguing, as in the central part of the film where there is the meeting between David and Adam (epic scene). Other praiseworthy points are surely the dialogues of the three protagonists, even if sometimes they're much too long, but they are well played by Elisa, Rossella and Marco. They are interesting dialogues, however long and not always digestible, especially in the initial part, where, in my opinion, references could be avoided to great films of the past within the dialogues themselves; but it is only a small defect that doesn't ruin the quality of the film. Other worthy scenes to be remembered are surely those of the robbery, with some very appropriate subjects such as the two robbers and the gas station attendant! Perfect scene for a film "on the road" like this (notice some small references to the previous work "Life's But" in the attached poster on the telephone box's glass. Refinements that cannot be missed by the spectator's careful eye!).We must quote the great work by Emanuele Frusi regarding the soundtrack, damned and embracing one, especially in the scene where the protagonist Rossella Caiani is in the air duct of the market. Looking carefully at the acting we can say that the director's followers, such as Elisa Sensi and Marco Martini (they're already present in the first work of two years ago) didn't disappoint the expectations and did a good job, exalted in the central part of the movie where the two young actors perform in a scene not easy to act. I didn't know Rossella Caiani but she's surely a talent, with good potentialities that we can notice in different occasions, such as in her nervousness after the fortune-teller's prophecy, a very realistic state of mind she follows for the rest of the film. In conclusion, in the Italian horror panorama, "In The Market" is surely a movie to take into account for the professionalism with which it has been performed, despite its modest budget.
Francesco Rossi
Francesco Rossi