A Blade in the Dark / Lamberto Bava / Re-evaluation /Shudder

 While I do think the revelation of Soavi's character as "a man killing the female that his child friends called him when chasing after a ball in the dark of a cellar, resulting in murders on women as an adult" will be considered problematic by audiences of today, I personally enjoyed the setting of the [Blade producer's] villa with Andrew Occhipinti's music producer for a film director (Fabiola Toledo) renting it out for a month as he performs and writes the soundtrack. A former tenant and a friend of that tenant unfortunately are unwelcome by a kitchen knife/box cutter killer. There's a caretaker whose basement dwelling has walls littered with nude posters, a girlfriend of Occhipinti's (Lara Lamberti) who seems to be keeping a secret regarding her theater job (and consistently picks fights with him), and a renter of the villa (Michele Soavi who was Lamberto Bava's assistant director) who comes around from time to time. I don't consider the twist to be anything of any real note, reminding us of Psycho and Dressed to Kill, but I rather liked the villa where Occhipinti's spends his time. Bava really does keep the film a majority of the time at the villa, too, seemingly to save on cost. There isn't a lot of nudity; I'm thinking that might be because the film was meant for Italian television. But what Bava doesn't have in nudity he makes up for in savage violence. Two big gore pieces involve a grisly bathroom attack where Papa is just shampooing her hair after a nice swim when the killer stabs her hand with a knife, begins to smother her with a bag over her head, and subsequently slams her head against the sink counter and a victim trying to hide behind a fencing, unable to escape the box cutter that slices open her stomach and throat. The wrench to the head is less grisly while a knife penetration through the back and out the chest is not very convincing. All in all, I would say this is an okay Giallo from Bava, though I still, despite liking it more than a previous viewing in 2007, think it lacks that certain something the great Giallo thriller of the 70s had. I think the twist is perhaps a less than successful takeaway that dulls my overall feelings towards it, while the setting of the villa (I really would love to live there; it really is a long place with lots of space and rooms, very articulately designed) is my real favorite part of A Blade in the Dark, along with the desire by Bava to go where Argento and Martino once did with the violence. Granted, the motive behind the violence is quite unacceptable by today's audiences. The dialogue dubbed for the characters has always been weaponized by critical Giallo fans against it...it certainly is a weakness, I can't deny. Some beautiful women in it, especially Lamberti, though her character is curious. I'm not sure why the screenplay paints her background as so mysterious, unless they meant for her to be a red herring. I never once considered Lamberti a serious suspect, even when I watched it in the past. And considering I once watched the film, the "surprise" of the ending is even less impactful...not that I was walloped by the twist previously. Admittedly, I groaned at it because of how cliche and phobic it is. Psycho told a much better story using that element of man dressed in women's clothes --he was suffering from dual personality disorder, while Soavi just wants to kill the "woman inside him", the "alter ego" because kids challenged him to get a ball --without saying that doing so is linking being trans to psychosis. 2.5/5

I started this on Sunday night a bit too late and finished it Monday night. I've always had this odd fixation with watching Lamberto Bava's films on Sunday afternoons and evenings for whatever reason. I noticed this was available on Shudder and, since I was already back into a Giallo kick, thought it would be cool to revisit A Blade in the Dark and see if my re-evaluation improved on second viewing.