Eileen Dunlop (Thomasin McKenzie) is a secretary at a home for bad boys, but is mistreated by her fellow workers. At home, it isn’t much better because her father, Jim (Shea Whigham), is a retired cop who beats her every night. At least she can fantasize over Randy (Owen Teague), a guard at the center.

Rebecca Saint John (Anne Hathaway) is the new therapist at the facility, working with Lee (Sam Nivola), who stabbed his father, something Eileen has dreamed of. 

One night, after work, the two women go to a bar together and share a kiss. On Christmas Eve, Rebecca invites Eileen to her home, but then tells her that it’s really Lee’s mother, Anne’s (Marin Ireland) home; she wants to coerce her into confessing to abusing her son and needs Eileen as a witness. While drugged, Anne reveals that she helped her husband to assault her son, as it gets her husband interested in her again.

Eileen and Rebecca dragged Anne into unconsciousness, and Eileen suggested framing Jim for the shooting of his mother. In love with Rebecca, Eileen wants to run away with her. They load Anne into the car, and Rebecca tells her that she will meet her. She doesn’t show up; Eileen takes the woman and leaves her in the car as it fills up with exhaust.

Directed by William Oldroyd and written by Luke Goebel and Ottessa Moshfegh, who wrote the book it’s based on, Eileen is as much about abuse as it is about being a modern giallo. Would you kill someone for Anne Hathaway? I mean, yeah.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Cinematic Void will be playing at the Los Feliz 3 on Monday, Jan. 12 at 7 PM. It’s sold out, but you can also see it at the Music Box Theater in Chicago on Friday, Jan. 23 and Saturday, Jan. 24 at 11 PM (tickets here). For more information, visit Cinematic Void. 

Pupi Avati made Zeder, the zombie movie that really isn’t a zombie movie, so I was excited to see his take on the giallo, basing it on a story he heard about a priest being exhumed in his childhood.

The Valli di Comacchio area has a fresco on the rotting wall of a church that may be the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. Painted years ago by the long-dead and always mysterious Legnani, it is being restored by Stefano (Lino Capolicchio, who was the Italian voice for Bo Duke), who is also living in the home of the painter’s sisters. Those very same sisters — according to town legend — assisted their brother in torturing and killing people so that he would have inspiration for his artwork.

No one wants Stefano to fix this painting. People start dying and the secret behind the murders may be in the very painting that our lead is fixing. What a time to start a romance with school teacher Francesca (Francesca Marciano)!

I love when the giallo moves out of Rome and into the small cities, such as Fulci’s masterful Don’t Torture a Duckling and Antonio Bido’s The Blood Stained Shadow. Why should the metro locales have all the deep, dark secrets and horrific murders, right?

Don’t go in expecting sleaze and gore. Do expect to be surprised and delighted by the world and mood that this movie creates. This one needs to be unearthed and celebrated by way more than know it now.

A girl and her mother are mushroom hunting when the young child finds a thirty-year-old skeleton, directed by a glowing boy who has been missing since 1975.

Ah, 1975, a time when a young priest hung himself — maybe — in a church tower. Shortly after his funeral, a mysterious girl appears in the village who everyone thinks killed the priest. After all, she’s afraid of crosses.

Another flashback: Erwin, his nephew Albert and Martin Delacroix get all messed up on absinthe. Albert makes a doll from brooms and rags, telling the others about the Sennentuntschi, a legend of three herdsmen who make a doll that comes to life. The next day, a girl dressed like the doll shows up and despite Erwin telling Martin that the story ends with all the men dead, they assault the girl, leading to Erwin losing his sheep and goats before being stabbed, Albert dies in a fire, and Martin dies of tetanus after being bitten by the girl. Oh, Martin. You didn’t break up with your lover. You killed her and were hiding here.

Meanwhile, a cop named Reusch is the only one who wants to save the mysterious girl. Even the bishop rallies the people around him, as he claims that she’s a demon and once showed up 25 years ago looking the same. That woman was really her mother, who the bishop raped. She went into hiding in the mountain house of the herdsmen, but was thrown from a cliff by the holy man. He then murdered the herdsman and kept their child in an underground chamber. When she escaped, she became the mystery girl in town. 

After she runs into the woods, Reusch finds her alive, having turned the skins of Albert, Erwin and Martin into a doll. This makes the officer angry, so she runs again, falling to her death in a foggy ravine. When he finds her body, he kills himself. Those are the bodies found at the beginning.

Directed by Michael Steiner, this movie is based on “The Guschg Herdsmen’s Doll,” which was already made in 1989 as Sukkubus. This may involve a confusing amount of time travel, but it’s an interesting idea.

You can watch this on Tubi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Cinematic Void will be playing this tomorrow at 7:00 p.m. at the Music Box Theater in Chicago (tickets here). I considered flying to Chicago just for the occasion, as this will be shown on an ultra-rare 16mm print. Never released to home video, this is one of my favorite movies. For more information, visit Cinematic Void. 

Marisa Mell is the female George Eastman. No, she doesn’t act like a wide-eyed gigantic maniac in every movie. It’s just that no matter what movie she appears in, just her name being in the credits guarantees that I will watch the film.

Also known as …dopo di che, uccide il maschio e lo divora (…After That, It Kills the Male and Devours It), which is one of the best titles ever.

A wealthy landowner named Don Miguel (Stephen Boyd, who was in Ben-Hur) is haunted by his dead mother and missing wife — who may have been murdered — when he meets a gorgeous runaway named Marta (Mell), who may have killed the man who she was running from.

I haven’t seen any of José Antonio Nieves Conde’s films before, but this movie makes me want to watch every single one of them.

The strange thing is that this movie pretty much became true in a way, as Boyd and Mell fell in love, as they made this and The Great Swindle one on top of the other*. Despite Boyd not wanting anything to do with Mell at first — was the man made of stone? — he eventually fell for her and they married in a gypsy ceremony near Madrid, cutting their wrists and sealing their blood. The couple was so possessed by the mystical and sexual desire they felt for one another that they even went to have it exorcized in another ritual.

Boyd had to run from her, as the relationship physically and mentally exhausted him. As for Mell, she’d tell the Akron Beacon Journal that “We both believe in reincarnation, and we realized we’ve already been lovers in three different lifetimes, and in each one I made him suffer terribly.”

In the same year that all this happened, Mell was also dating Pier Luigi Torri, an aristocratic nightclub owner who fled the country after a cocaine scandal. Arrested in London after it was discovered he had a $300 million dollar gold mine and had also scammed a bank, he somehow escaped his jail cell and ran from the police across rooftops, escaping to America for 18 months. Evidently, Mell dated Diabolik in art and in life.

So let’s talk about the Mell relationship in the film instead of reality. She has come to live with Miguel, who collects insects and has two servants who keep things tidy. She enters his life by claiming that she is on the run for a self-defense murder. Miguel decides to protect her from the police because she looks like his wife Pilar (also played by Mell) who has left him or was killed. He’s also tormented by the death of his sainted mother while she may not be who she says that she is.

Oh yeah — and now Marta is acting as Pillar to throw the police off the scent of the man whom she either wants to marry or destroy.

Marta is a gothic-style giallo but is also dreamlike throughout. There’s a continual obsession with placing Mell in front of mirrors. And for someone who was rarely used outside of her sex appeal in films, she absolutely haunting here. Somehow, Spain put this movie forward for Oscar consideration and if I ran those popcorn fart boring awards, I would have given this every single award.

Sure, this movie rips off Hitchcock, but it also wallows in sin, which is what I demand from the giallo that I come to adore. Somehow, someway, this aired on broadcast TV as part of Avco Embassy’s Nightmare Theater package, along with A Bell from Hell, Death Smiles on a Murderer, Maniac Mansion, Night of the Sorcerers, Fury of the Wolfman, Hatchet for the Honeymoon, Horror Rises from the Tomb, Dear Dead Delilah, Doomwatch, Witches Mountain, The Mummy’s Revenge and The Witch. Man, how did any of those air on regular TV?

*Credit to the Stephen Boyd Fan Page and Marisa Mell: Her Life and Her Work for this information.

Directed, written and produced by Samson Aslanian and John Hopkins (The Dorm That Dripped Blood), Torment seems like a 70s movie made in 1986. That’s a compliment.

Bob (William Witt) has come to San Francisco to kill women. Detective Michael Courtland (Warren Lincoln) is so obsessed with the case that he postpones his wedding to Jennifer (Taylor Gilbert). During the two weeks that he wants to wait, she will stay with his mother (Eve Brenner), who is obsessed with people breaking into her home. So when Bon starts casing the house and even watching Jennifer sleep, everyone thinks Courtland’s mother is crying wolf.

Bob ends up attacking Mrs. Courtland, who stabs him and barricades herself in a room with his gun. Once things are calmed down, Jennifer’s father — in town for the wedding — comes to visit. He’s Bob! Wow — that one surprised me.

How low-budget is this? Aslanian shot the film at his parents’ house, and his father cooked all the food and catered for the crew. That said, it has big ideas and is way better than I expected.

My only question: What would two weeks do? Does Courtland really think he can solve this case that quickly?

You can watch this on YouTube.

Editor’s note: Cinematic Void will be playing this movie on January 10 at 7:00 PM at The Sie Film Center in Denver. You can get tickets here. For more information, visit Cinematic Void.

Lucio Fulci wanted to make a giallo. But then Flashdance happened, and the producers knew Keith Emerson (yes, the Keith Emerson from Emerson Lake and Palmer), and the result was…Murder Rock! Or Murder-Rock: Dancing Death! Or Slashdance! Or The Demon Is Loose!

We start at the Arts for the Living Center in New York, where Candice (Olga Karlatos, the only actress to be in both Zombie 2 and Purple Rain)  watches Margie (Geretta Giancarlo from Demons) choreograph dancers for an upcoming talent agent visit. Only three girls will be selected, so they all need to be more perfect.

That night, Susan, one of the dancers, is murdered in the locker room. First, she is chloroformed. Then, as if Fulci had simply waited too long for something violent to happen, a giant hatpin is inserted into her breast. I imagine Lucio sitting in his director’s chair, saying, “Why do I have to show all these pretty girls in leotards when everyone just wants to see me rip out one of their eyeballs?”

Lieutenant Borges (Cosimo Cinieri, The New York Ripper) and Professor Davis (Giuseppe Mannajuolo). Show up to investigate, choosing Candice, the head of the academy, Dick Gibson (Claudio Cassinelli, What Have They Done to Your Daughters?) and Susan’s boyfriend.

We find Candice at her apartment, where Dick shows up to tell her that he isn’t sleeping with any of the students. Anyone who tells you this is pretty much telling you that they are totally sleeping with the students. The studio DJ also calls her to update her on the murder.

Back at the school, everyone is back to their routine, which upsets Dick, who tells the cops about the rivalries between the dancers. Later that night —after we see her on stage by herself, showing off for the crowd—he shows up at her place, wanting to talk. She finds a photo of him with Susan, but when she turns to see him, he is gone. Worse, her bird is dead, stabbed by a hairpin. And soon, so is she, as a hairpin is thrust into her heart.

But what of Candice? Well, she’s having nightmares of the killer, who she sees chasing her with the long hairpin. She sees his photo on a billboard and tracks him down. The man is George Webb (Ray Lovelock, The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue), who isn’t the handsome model in the ads any longer. He’s now a mess, so she runs from him, leaving her purse in his room.

What would a giallo — or a Fulci movie — be without a red herring? It comes in the form of Bart, a dancer who confesses to the murders because Susan was crazy and Janice was Hispanic (but in a much more racist way). Borges believes that he isn’t the killer, but when George comes to the Academy to return Candice’s purse, Dick tells the cop that that’s their man.

At lunch, Candice tells George about how her dancing career ended after a hit-and-run accident with a motorcyclist. Now, she can only be a teacher. And she’s not convinced that George is on the up and up, as she learns from a talent agent that George once had an affair with a younger girl who died.

Oh yeah — and Margie attacks Candice just like the killer, but Dick saves her.

The killing doesn’t stop, though. Jill is killed while Molly, a girl in a wheelchair, takes photos of her. Molly tries to take pictures, but the killer escapes. Dick tries to run away, but he’s arrested. But again, the killing doesn’t stop. Gloria is murdered in the locker room with the trademark hairpin.

It all leads to Candice going back to George’s hotel room, where she finds the murder weapon. She runs away, and George tries to see her, but she’s at the police station, telling the Lieutenant, who agrees to meet her at the Academy.

Ready for the big reveal? When she gets there, she sees a video of every dancer who has died, leaving her screaming their names. George appears with the murder weapon and asks why she set him up. She responds that she knew he was the hit-and-run driver who cost her so much, and that she killed the girls because of her jealousy of them. They had the life she would never know and had to die…and he has to pay for all he has done to her. She grabs the murder weapon and kills herself with it, pushing the weapon into George’s hand. The police arrive, but they already knew she was the killer, thanks to the buttons on the killer’s jacket being on the left side and Candice knowing details about the murders that they never made public.

That’s the plot, but please imagine that there is a leotard-clad dance-off every ten minutes or so.

Murder Rock was part of a planned trilogy entitled “Trilogia della musica” and would have been followed by Killer Samba and Thrilling Blues, but Fulci became ill for two years and abandoned the project.

This film looks gorgeous! It has some stunning shots of the killer coming at the camera, and while there is some blood, it isn’t at the expense of the story. I literally expected nothing and was rewarded with a lot of fun. Your ability to enjoy flashdancing and 80s outfits may, however, impact your enjoyment of this film!

Director and writer José María Elorrieta also directed and wrote La llamada del vampiro, The Feast of Satan, and 1001 Nights. Here, Charly Reed (Aramis Ney) is stalking women when he isn’t working in an industrial laundry company. His latest target is Maria Preston (Maria Perschy, The Ghost Galleon), a stewardess who lives with Elena O’Hara (Maritza Oliveras, Curse of the Devil). As she worries about this man constantly showing up in her life, she goes to a therapist, Dr. Palacios (Sancho Gracia), whom she starts dating. 

Soon, Charly breaks into her apartment and touches her. She wonders if she’s just a ghost. No, he’s real, and he’s after you. As for Charly, he was tried for war crimes back in Vietnam and is filled with PTSD that shows up with him burning himself with cigarettes, making out with baby dolls and walking around to take photos of women’s legs Then, he goes to the club and picks up Nicole (Betsabé Ruiz, The Dracula Saga) before he chokes her out with her own scarf and then gets rid of her body with an acid bath.

Maria decides to play detective — so yes, this is a giallo — and follows him home after she sees him carrying a person-sized trunk. There, she finds torn-up photos of herself, hanging baby dolls and a hand sticking out of the acid. Charly does at this point what any of us would: lock her in a room and kill everyone she knows, like running over her doctor lover and choking the life out of Elena in a phone booth.

Charly is the kind of killer you’ll never be on the same side as, despite his issues with war trauma. He’s terrifying looking and shot to be as gross as possible.

Released in Italy as Deviazione and also known as Ghost of Terror.

You can watch this on YouTube.