A Blade in the Dark (1983)/Critical old review

 IMDb user comments from May 2007:

Film composer Bruno(Andrea Occhipinti)has the misfortune of adding his score to a horror film inspiring a sadistic killer to butcher various women who have a specific relationship with the mysterious Linda who resided in the place before he began leasing it from the owner(Michelle Soavi) for a short stay. Sandra(Anny Papa)is the female horror director and Julia(Lara Naszinsky)is his jealous girlfriend. The film will open doors for both ladies to possibly be suspects. But, if you are keen enough(..and really care enough), you might see, and hear, a few winks from the filmmakers who it actually might be. That's up for you to decide because it was awfully hard making it past the horrendous dubbing(some of the sorriest, no-account dubbing ever applied to layer Italian actors..so bad one actor's voice often interrupts or overlaps another's)and numbingly dumb dialogue.

The film does have a visual flourish and the score(both the electronic, pulsing beat and loud sound effects within such as increasing heart beats, breathing, etc)is terrific. It has some stunningly sadistic violence(the oft-mentioned bathroom sequence which is brutal and the choking of a victim with missing film strip!), but labors along far too long holding the viewer at bay tediously. Instead of packing a punch in pacing the flick, it just goes on and on and on.. It lacks the frenetic energy Lamberto Bava would later inhibit in the far superior DEMONS. BLADE IN THE DARK just has too many numerous problems to overcome.

I was revisiting Lamberto Bava's 1983 slasher on Shudder, liking it much more than I did back in 2007. I gave it 4/10 nearly fourteen years ago.