Watch Torso For Free

Just what I expected

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

This is a film that wastes no time being strange. Or salacious. A photographer is shooting a soft focus lovemaking session between three women amongst creepy, eyeless baby dolls. By the time we register what is happening, we're now in a classroom, where swooping pans and zooms refer us to the main cast of the film as we overhear a lecture and later a discussion about Pietro Perugino's painting of Saint Sebastian. Did he believe in God? Or was he just trying to sell sentimentality? Could an atheist find himself able to translate religion to those with faith?We cut to a couple making out in a car as a figure stalks them through the eye of the camera, making us complicit in the act of the killer. Quick cuts reveal the white masked face of this maniac. The man runs after him while the girl doesn't even care that they had a voyeur watching. As she waits for him to return to the car, but grows impatient. The headlights of the car cast her shadow large across the columns of a bridge. And their light is quickly extinguished by black gloved hands. The camera-work here is really striking, keeping us watching for the killer, as we're no longer behind his eyes. His attack is swift and ruthless, juxtaposed against the images of fingers penetrating the eyes of a doll.The art professor (John Richardson, Black Sunday, The Church) and Jane (Kendall) meet by chance at a church where she challenges him to change his views on Perugino. As she returns from their somewhat romantic afternoon, she spies her friend Carol arguing in the car with a married man.Meanwhile, ladies of the evening walk the street, ending up with Stefano, a student who has been stalking Julie. He has trouble performing and the prostitute he's with tells him that all the hang ups come her way. That said — even if he's queer, he better pay the money. He flips out and attacks her, but she makes her escape.We're then taken to a hippy party that looks like it's taking place inside Edward Lionheart's Theater of Blood. There's weed, there are acoustic guitars, there are bongos, there are dudes with neckerchiefs, there are motorcycles. Truly, there's something for everyone. But after leading on two men, Carol just walks out into the mud. They try and chase her, but she makes her escape into the foggy night. We hear her footsteps through the swamp as she walks, exhausted and covered in mud. What better time for our white masked killer to return? We see glimpses of him through the fog and then he is gone. Whereas in past films Martino ignored the murder scenes instead of story, here the violence is extended, placing the killer and his actions in full view. After killing the girl, he rubs mud all over her body before stabbing her eyes — again intercut with the baby doll imagery. Her blood leaks into the mud as the score dies down.Read more at bandsaboutmovies.com/2017/09/08/torso-1973

There is just something about the magic of giallo. Sergio Martino once again manages to bring a good thriller to the Italian screen. This is an early example of giallo films and probably his best after Strange Vice. Tacky and badly edited, but full of visual excess and both sexual and gory exploitation, this is a classic example of the Italian sensual thrillers that any true slasher fan has come to know and love. In most films the jumpy, confusing plot would be a detractor, but in movies like these it only adds to the overall, somehow classy, campiness. I would say that Torso is a very definitive giallo, probably a good one to show to someone unfamiliar with the genre as a starting point for what it's all about, having just the right balance of everything without too much artiness as can sometimes be hard to stomach in Argento's pieces for the newcomer. One of my favourite scenes is the one set in the swamp. It's refreshingly original and although there are some lighting issues it's fairly visually appealing. That being said, this film can feel a bit long, it does suffer from some pacing issues and the idea is stretched to create a full length film when it really needed a little more.

Following a spate of brutal murders, a group of college students fear they're being targeted by the killer and retreat to a nearby mountain-top villa to relax only to learn the killer has followed them there and must stop his deadly blood-soaked rampage.This here is quite the enjoyable giallo and remains one of the best of the style. One of the film's best features is the fact that this one manages to play so well into the confines of the giallo despite forgoing the prototypical route of the other films, as instead of the film rallying around the girls' trying to remember a clue about the killer's identity it remains far more in touch about them being in danger at the start and using the trip as a way to relax. Despite the insistence about the necktie and how important that is to the truth, it doesn't invoke the cardinal rule about sending them off investigating around that clue and doesn't really feature much detective work as a whole and turning it into a more nominal slasher effort just afforded the sleaze trappings of the remaining entries in the genre. As instead this features the group hanging out together and generally de- stressing with nude sunbathing, skinny dipping, softcore lesbian romps and other leisure pursuits of that sort instead rather than dealing with the investigations, and while that allows for plenty of seedy times here generating it's red herrings there's still plenty of fun to be had here as this one goes about its paces here. That alone makes the central murder mystery quite fun with they're being quite a few suspects which plays nicely into this one being so determined to keep it a surprise within the genre's conventions. As well, the film manages to get quite a lot right here where the traditional stalk-and-slash aspects of a giallo are employed, letting this one really get quite a few really tense and suspenseful scenes into play. The first attack on the necking couple in the car is a great mini-attack where the killer enters the car against their knowledge then runs out forcing one to give chase before doubling back and offing the other, a memorable stalking of a stoned victim tripping over herself in a misty swamp where the killer appears and disappears at random as he's concealed behind the fog and treeline of the area and a fine chase as the killer uses his car to run down a victim in the middle of the road. Still, the film's at its best with the utterly furious and chilling finale, which is truly one of the greatest bits in the genre as the terrified and alone victim is forced into hiding after discovering the dead bodies strewn around the house and has to remain hidden in order to avoid becoming like the other dead bodies forced to watch him dismember their bodies before later having to hide throughout the house in order to avoid detection. These are all nicely augmented by the various tropes of the genre throughout here and makes for a wholly engaging and watchable effort. The only issue about this one is the fact that the film cheats over the massacre of the friends in the villa leaving it only to feature the last one to stumble across the mutilated bodies which makes for quite a disappointing effort looking at the carnage featured and not getting a chance to see it. Otherwise this one was one of the genre's top efforts.Rated Unrated/R: Full Nudity, Graphic Violence, Language, Sexual Scenes and drug use.

Hooded killer is slashing the young females at a college in Perugia, Italy. A group of friends go to a remote villa, only to be followed by the killer. One particularly brutal killing involves the scarf vendor being eliminated for possibly knowing the killer's identity. Another, involving Carol (Cristina Airoldi, the most gorgeous girl in this picture) stumbling off into a dark, wooded area, only to meet a violent end at the black-gloved hands of the killer, in my favourite scene in this movie. But, who is the killer? Plenty of atmospherics, gorgeous girls, and violent bloodshed, but it is too slowly paced for me. After a good first third, I found myself bored with the second third of it, before it recovered a bit in its final third. But the ultimate fate of the killer was anticlimactic.