Schock

Mario Bava's "Shock" is a strange film. It deals with a woman named Dora (Daria Nicolodi, who does an awesome job), her new husband Bruno, and their son Marco moving into a creepy new house that has a mysterious past, involving Dora and her druggie husband, who committed suicide. Soon weird things start happening and Dora suspects that sweet little Marco is possessed by her dead husbands. Soon she begins to hallucinate and weird things happen. This is kind of a mish-mash of elements from "Repulsion", "The Exorcist", and "The Amityville Horror". Daria Nicolodi is first-rate and she is a superb actress, but the film is too slow and the "shocks" are a long time coming. There are some great jump scenes, an eerie mood, good photography, and wow---I loved that Goblin music. Of course it isn't anything like the music in Dario Argento's "Suspiria", but it is still quite good. Check this film out if you get a chance, just don't expect a classic.

The final completed film for Italian horror master Mario Bava is a decent one. It lacks the atmosphere of his very best work, but Bava still proves himself an expert at establishing a mood and putting macabre imagery on film.

Although sold in North America as "Beyond the Door II", this bears little relation to the earlier Italian "Exorcist" imitation "Beyond the Door". It does have one cast member in common - young David Colin Jr. - and features a similar possession theme - but otherwise, that's it.

The beautiful Daria Nicolodi stars as Dora Baldini, a young woman who moves with her son Marco (Colin Jr.) and second husband, Bruno (John Steiner), into her former home. She'd lost her previous husband under suspicious circumstances, and spent some time in a mental hospital. Now Marco is behaving strangely, and Dora begins to be tormented by various visions, to the point that she believes she may be losing her mind.

Bavas' son Lamberto was assistant to his father on this show, co-wrote the screenplay, and also plays a minor, uncredited role. "Shock" also co-stars Ivan Rassimov as a psychiatrist who attempts to help the fragile Dora. The Goblin-esque soundtrack composed by "I Libra" is effective most of the time. Bava, to his credit, eschews going for a lot of supernatural effects in favour of a mostly psychological approach. Things only start to get a little more conventional towards the end. However, gore fans need not worry as things become pretty bloody at the conclusion. Some viewers will also appreciate the nudity supplied by Ms. Nicolodi.

And speaking of Ms. Nicolodi, she's almost the entire show here, delivering a convincingly unhinged performance. It's safe to say that she makes the most out of this top billed role.

The director brings much of his customary style to this tale. He definitely could have done much worse for what would turn out to be his swan song.

Seven out of 10.

Mario Bava's final movie 'Schock' may be far from his finest work, and will never gain the cult following of his classics 'Black Sunday' or 'Planet Of The Vampires', but it is still a very strong and effective thriller.

Dario Argento's former lover and leading lady Daria Nicolodi ('Profondo Rosso', 'Tenebre',etc.) plays Dora, a young woman getting over a breakdown and the aftermath of the suicide of her first husband. With her young son Marco (David Colin, Jr the only tenuous link to 'Beyond The Door' which this movie was sold as a sequel to in the US), and her new husband airline pilot Bruno (Euro-horror regular John Steiner) she returns to live in her old house. Despite the bad memories that surround it, she attempts to get on with her new life, and make a fresh start. Sadly, this is not to be. Odd things start to happen, the normally cheerful Marco begins to act out, and Dora becomes increasingly disturbed by her surroundings, believing an evil force is lurking around and attempting to drive her insane. She isn't exactly wrong!

Bava manages to create a disturbing atmosphere throughout, which escalates as young Marco goes from disobedient to downright scary. We may have seen many basic elements of 'Schock' before but they are approached freshly and originally, and the incestuous undercurrents in Dora and Marco's relationship is very rarely seen in Hollywood horror. I wouldn't argue that this movie is flawless, but it has more than enough interesting touches and genuine scares to make it worth watching. Bava's reputation is increasing with every year, and 'Schock' deserves another look!

The other night, an excellent documentary was on tv about Mario Bava. I had never seen a film of his before, but I had heard of him. After the doco, they played 'Shock'. The guy who introduced the film said that it wasn't Bava's best film but that it was a film that gets better every year.

Bava's films are hard to get in Australia so I watched this one without any expectation.

I wasn't more than pleasantly surprised. I felt that it was probably the best haunted house flick that I had seen. I enjoyed the twists and the turns of the plot, and the economy of the size of the cast,(3 principals). The whole film left me with a very creepy feeling and for that I feel that the film worked completely.

I could see the influence on other films such as 'The Sixth Sense', 'Stir Of Echoes', and 'What Lies Beneath', and I can safely say that I enjoyed 'Shock' more than all these others. I suppose it's because Mario Bava's direction was not flashy and concentrated more on telling his story and keeping us guessing.

Finally, my enjoyment of this film has encouraged me to seek out Bava's other films and that can only be a good thing.

When a family moves into a home with a shocking secret, their lives become a nightmare of homicidal hallucinations as their young son begins to communicate with the spirits of the dead. Remodeled in madness and painted in blood, they soon discover that domestic bliss can be murder... when home is where the horror is.

Daria Nicolodi stars in a role where she doesn't just get killed off violently, and with her are John Steiner, David Colin Jr. and Ivan Rassimov. This is director Mario Bava's final film.

I really enjoyed the boy grunting out "Pigs! Pigs! Pigs!" and his weird fetish for shredded underwear. And there is a really cool shot in bed with hair flying every which way.

Howard Maxford calls it "unwatchable", "childish" and "unfortunate", completely in contrast to Luca Palmerini, who thinks it is a "splendid artistic testament" that anticipates "A Nightmare on Elm Street", full of "high tension". I, personally, enjoyed it.

The script was written by Lamberto Bava along with Sacchetti, Lamberto's first script. Lamberto has said the film is more his than his father's, and stylistically that is quite true. Critics comparing this to Mario Bava's other work may be surprised, but I found it was in many ways in the same vein as "Macabre".