Torso

When their friends are being violently murdered, a group of friends (led by Suzy Kendall) escape to a town house in the country owned by the family of one of the girls (played by Tina Aumont). There, they cause a ruckus, since most members of the village are lonely young men and desperate old ones. But soon enough, the killer follows them. But who could it be? Could it be Aumont’s obsessive ex-boyfriend Stefano? The good-looking doctor who they met on the train, or someone else?
This is Sergio Martino’s best giallo, something even he agrees with and with good reason. Along with Bay Of Blood, it’s a precursor to the slasher film, and is one of the most violent horror films from the early seventies. But what makes it work is not the gore, but the set pieces which lead to them, being suspenseful as hell and very well done. My favorite has to be the death of the hippie girl (played by Conchita Airoldi), in the forest filled with shadows and mud. How the killer is able to integrate to these surroundings is a genuine photographic miracle. The casting is filled with beautiful people, both men and women. Suzy Kendall, the dumb girlfriend in The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, appears here with a smarter and more capable character. There’s a lot of nudity, most of it delivered by an interracial lesbian couple, played by Carla Brait (who was previously in Case of the Bloody Iris) and Angela Covello (from Baba Yaga and Penetration), but sadly Tina Aumont doesn’t show skin. Oh well, have to watch Lifespan for that one.
Anyway this is a great slasher, very sleazy, very violent, and very scary.