Shock /1977/ Mario Bava/ Fresh Thoughts

 While I do admit my biases in regards to having a hard time criticizing Mario Bava's work too stringently, I can say that my lesser favorite works were into the mid 70s. Even saying that, I thorougly enjoyed Five Dolls for an August Moon, Rabid Dogs, Hatchet for the Honeymoon, Baron Blood, A Bay of Blood, and especially Lisa and the Devil all from the 70s. He was steadily working up until the end of his life, with this film, erroneously tied to Beyond the Door, as a sequel, Shock was technically his final film, helped to complete it with his son, Lamberto.

The film for me had a lot of fun poltergeist effects with some brief possession eye contacts on the kid. The kid shows signs, too, of ill will towards his mom. 

So I wanted to watch this right after I found out about Daria's death, unexpected as it was. This is film I associate with her most since she's the true star of it. Other films for Dario were often supporting parts where she ends up death in some heinous way. Although she suffers a horrifying fate here, many viewers probably considering it justified, with that ever present box cutter, Daria still is almost in every scene and her late husband's restless spirit throws quite the paranormal tantrum. Well, more than one. While not a Gothic or Giallo triumph as you'd think might be fitting as a close for quite a career, Shock I guess still had some unique set pieces here and there. Shudder had this available, but I checked Youtube and there is a version available there as well.

I did read where son, Lamberto, helped direct scenes. There's a slinky scene down the stairs I forgot about, but the furniture, cabinets, paintings, among other household items are there for the murdered husband to torment the wife responsible for his demise. The Poe wall gimmick is a timeless horror device with body concealment a genre staple. Bava never lets Daria off the hook. The moment she arrives at that house, her fate is sealed. The pilot husband was mighty stupid for bringing her back there. He should have just went back on his own time and got that body out of there. Therein lies his own fate. ***/*****