Nero veneziano

Nero veneziano is a bleak, unsettling descent into metaphysical horror, cloaked in the rotting beauty of Venice. The film's strongest asset is its heavy, almost oppressive atmosphere, which seeps into every frame like rising damp. The cinematography captures this decay with lingering shots of crumbling architecture, dim candlelit interiors, and the cold stillness of the canals, evoking a dreamlike but suffocating sense of dread. Cinematographer Vittorio Storaro's signature use of chiaroscuro and tinted color palettes (though less flamboyant here than in his later works) helps to ground the film in both realism and symbolic unease. That said, the narrative pacing often struggles under the weight of its imagery; the film indulges in visual mood at the expense of narrative momentum.

Among the cast, Rena Niehaus delivers a quietly gripping performance, her expressive face managing to convey vulnerability and unease without relying on melodrama. Ely Galleani, in a more ephemeral role, radiates a hypnotic presence that fits the film's tone even if her character feels underwritten. Luciano Virgilio, playing the lead, captures the physical and psychological decline demanded of him, but at times his delivery flattens under the script's cryptic weight. The erotic elements, including full nudity from both Niehaus and Galleani, are photographed in a subdued, non-gratuitous manner, blending seamlessly into the film's themes of mortality, vision, and corrupted innocence. However, the film's art-house ambitions often clash with its pulpy occult trappings, creating an awkward tonal imbalance that keeps it from fully succeeding in either realm.

A blind teenage boy is sent to Venice to recover from illness, only to become the focal point of a prophetic nightmare as visions of death and plague begin to merge with reality. His parents, both uneasy and secretive, struggle to understand the dark forces closing in, while the ancient city itself becomes a labyrinth of omens, shadows, and half-truths.

A blind kid starts getting horrible visions about the birth of the Antichrist when he and his sister moves in a rundown pension in Venice with their guardian relatives. I liked this Italian horror flick a lot! It's heavily influenced by Rosemary's Baby & The Omen but its got a personality of its own. Pretty slow pace but great surreal atmosphere there's a constant feeling of dread and uncertainty, good photography and an surprisingly clever script. And the Venice setting is always appreciated, that city is almost provocatively beautiful! Not much violence, but the few violent scenes were highly effective. Especially one scene really raised my eyebrow, those of you who have seen it probably know which one i'm thinking about... The bad dubbing is about the only really negative aspect I can think of right now, although I can imagine that some find it slow on action and maybe even a little boring. Not me though, I love slow, atmospheric films!

The Christine character is the most repulsive and loathsome beast I've seen in a long while in a film. She is entitled, narcissistic, rude, icy, smug, and her every word to anyone is replete with insults and demeaning little flourishes. To her blind brother she says "Now you're deaf as well as blind" when he forgets something, and when he has a vision and takes a few steps she scolds him mercilessly "Why are you always wandering off? You know you only get lost." She has not a single kind word for him. He would be better off ditching her and finding a human being to take care of him! Sadly, that's not going to happen, not in this film. I like the Venetian scenery, and the hair and clothes are what you want from a 70s giallo/horror mishmash. I like this film, and I like it all the more for how much I hate Christine.

The is is a fairly obscure and poorly distributed movie from 1977/78 that actually packs quite a punch. The fact there are only (at time of writing ) EIGHT reviews on IMDb proves how little seen it is. Now that I have watched it, I want everybody to know how good it is.

OK, it's no masterpiece but for any fan of 1970's -1980's European giallos and shockers it is bound to prove very enjoyable. That's not to say it is a giallo, although it is filmed like one, but the plot is more supernatural. Something along the lines of The Omen, the plot involves a brother and sister who live in Venice and due to a few unexpected events find themselves inheriting a boarding house. Mysterious bad omens wash over them and eventually the brother starts so suspect that evil forces are preying on them, but why? First of all I want to point out the setting of the film, which is very clearly shot on location in Venice, and it looks terrific. The boarding house has window views over the main waterway of the city and many outside scenes are shot in the city centre. It makes a difference! Secondly, the whole film has a recognisable Italian slant, particularly in the way religion is portrayed, and in a way that roots it well and truly in it's time frame of the 1970's, it is full of period and localization chic in my mind.

Next, all the performances are good. Although I watched the film in Italian with English subtitles it was still dubbed by the looks of things, but this did not matter. The performances are great, especially of the brother of the two main characters, who is blind and yet afflicted with gruesome visions of supernatural events and violence. He brings a naturalness to the role that make it very believable. The sister is pretty good too, although a less likable character, so her colder performance kind of fits the role.

There is a fair amount of violence, and some scenes do stand out, especially for a film made this in period. Most of the time, the younger brother's visions are a cue for something horrific to happen on camera, and this includes several nasty piercings of unfortunate people with nails and/or the end of a very sharp cane. There's also the discovery of a very effective rotting corpse which is quite revolting. Most people who have watched the movie, however, come away from it holding the memory of one single shocking scene involving a tiny baby which even had me gasping - you'll know it when you see it! Don't worry it doesn't look real but it would be unheard of in a British or American movie of the time, or even now I suspect.

However, one brief scene of shock would not be enough to make me recommend a movie (in the same way that the scene with the animated poker in "Patrick Viva Encore" didn't make me recommend that to anyone), but Nero Venezia would still be effective anyway. It really does have a sense of atmosphere, and although a lot of the plot is glossed over with a better script it could have really created a true atmosphere of corruption. Still worth a look if you can find it.

I have to admit, I LOVE these Italian "rip-offs" of "The Exorcist"/"The Omen"/"Rosemary's Baby" that were big in the 1970's, even the bad ones. But this one is actually pretty good. I'd rank it ahead of Ovidio Assontis' "Beyond the Door", Alberto DeMartino's "The Antichrist" and Pier Carpi's "Ring of Darkness". It's difficult to compare it to "The Eerie Midnight Horror Show" or "Malabimba" because those were more straight-out sex romps. It's about on par with DeMartino's second attempt "Holocaust 2000", but it is more scary and less over-the-top silly. It was probably influenced to some extent by Nicholas Roeg's "Don't Look Now", what with its Venice setting and its young blind protagonist who keeps having apocalyptic visions. The protagonist is pooh-poohed by his sighted older sister (Rena Niehais), but she doesn't seem to find it strange when everyone around them starts dying--first their guardian, then the couple who own the pension they come to stay at (which somehow results in them inheriting the place). Then a sinister man from the boy's visions shows up at the pension and seduces the sister, impregnating her by a not-so-immaculate conception (she only gives him oral sex!). After the baby is born, the blind brother makes several attempts to kill it (the most memorable scenes in the movie), but he may be playing right into Satan's hands. . .

These Italian "rip-offs" are almost all a lot more original than they're given credit for. The low-budget Italian industry simply lacked the money to imitate big-budget Hollywood spectacles like "The Exorcist" or "The Omen" too much(and they lacked the sensibilities to imitate the subtle paranoia of a film like "Rosemary's Baby"), so they were forced to be inventive. This one has some especially effective scenes such as when the boy goes to drink out of a holy well in an effort to cure his blindness only unbeknownst to him, it is apparently full of rats and slimy black snakes!

The cast is also impressive, especially the female cast. German Playboy Playmate Neihaus turns in a surprisingly good performance (and not-so-surprisingly gets naked several times). And speaking of getting naked, the perpetually unclothed Ely Galeani and Angela Covello also show up as part of the sister's strange but very sexy babysitting coven. And Greek actress Olga Karlatos, who would later appear in several Lucio Fulci movies and as Prince's mom (!) in "Purple Rain" also appears as an especially ambiguous and mysterious character. Of course, it greatly helps everyone's performance that the English dubbing is pretty competent for a change . Good movie. Check it out