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Sergio Martino’s Torso may not achieve the sustained delirium of Mario Bava and Dario Argento’s best work, but it’s still a top-shelf giallo. Martino directs with panache, deploying lots of slow zooms, putting the camera in odd positions, and cheekily toying with Pov shots. What’s more, Torso foregrounds a motif that recurs throughout the giallo: the interpenetration of sex, violence, and art.

In the opening scene, a professor lectures his distracted students on Pietro Perugino’s portrait of an arrow-pierced Saint Sebastian. While the professor drones on, the camera slinks around the ornate auditorium, catching the students’ exchanged glances and longing looks, hinting at the erotic appeal that can be unleashed by visual depictions of violence. Later, the evidence from a murder scene will be projected before the students in the same manner as the Perugino: art as murder, murder as art. As it turns out,...

A classic slasher film from the 1970s is making a major comeback more than 50 years later. Arrow Studios is officially releasing a 4K version of Torso, the 1973 slasher horror starring Suzy Kendall, Luc Merenda, and Tina Aumont. The film comes from legendary director Sergio Martino, who directed and also wrote the screenplay along with Ernesto Gastaldi. Torso takes place at the University of Perugia as a mysterious and terrifying serial killer strangles college girls to death with a black and red scarf. The film has a 56% score from critics (albeit with only nine reviews) and a 55% rating from general audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.

Hello, dear readers! We have another new round of horror and sci-fi home media releases on tap this week, and there’s quite the array of entertainment headed home this Tuesday. If you haven’t experienced Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta yet, IFC Films is releasing his wildly subversive exploration of religion and eroticism on both Blu and DVD tomorrow. If you’re in a Morbin’ Mood, you’ll definitely want to pick up Morbius, or if you’re in the market to catch up on some great recent indie horror, both Offseason and We Need to Do Something arrive on various formats on Tuesday as well.

Other releases for June 14th include The UFO Incident, Hotel Fear, Final Destination 5-Movie Collection, American Conjuring, Ragdoll: Season 1 and The Darkness of the Road.

Benedetta

A 17th-century nun in Italy suffers from disturbing religious and erotic visions. She is assisted by a companion,...

Hello, everyone! We’re back with a brand new batch of home media releases, and this week’s assortment is an eclectic group. Code Red is showing some love to The Dead Pit and Arrow Video is keeping busy with their latest Giallo Essentials set and the 2-disc limited edition release of Mill of the Stone Women. Other titles headed home on December 14th include Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Amityville Vampire, Alone in the Woods, The Spanish Chainsaw Massacre, and Chicken’s Blood.

The Dead Pit

Dr. Ramzi (Danny Gochnauer), a deviant who enjoys torturing his patients, is killed by a fellow doctor and buried in the basement of a mental health facility. Twenty years later, the hospital is up and running again and a “Jane Doe” (Cheryl Lawson) arrives at the institute with amnesia. Upon her arrival, a major earthquake rocks the building and unearths the now undead Dr.

Sergio Martino’s Torso will be available on Blu-ray October 30th From Arrow Video

Enter… If You Dare!

A talented and versatile journeyman, director Sergio Martino has lent his talents to multiple genres across his long and varied career, but it is undoubtedly his giallo thrillers from the early 70s for which he is best known. Among the most highly acclaimed of these, 1973’s Torso revels in the genre’s time-honored traditions while simultaneously laying the groundwork for the modern slasher movie.

A sex maniac is prowling the streets of Perugia, targeting picturesque university town’s female students. Alarmed at plummeting life expectancy of the student body, Jane and her three friends elope to a secluded country villa only to discover that, far from having left the terror behind, they’ve brought it with them!

Also known as ”Carnal Violenc”e, Torso was released in Italy towards the end of...

Norma Bengell dead at 78: Iconic (and controversial) Brazilian film, stage, television, and recording star made history as the first actress to be seen naked (full frontal) in a mainstream film (photo: Norma Bengell and John Herbert in ‘As Cariocas’) Norma Bengell, a sort of Brazilian Jeanne Moreau, Brigitte Bardot, and Jane Fonda rolled into one, died of lung cancer in her hometown of Rio de Janeiro on October 9, 2013. She was 78. Best known internationally for her leading-lady roles in several Italian-made cult classics of the mid-’60s, Norma Bengell was known in Brazil as a controversial show business veteran and for being the first “name” actress (purportedly anywhere in the world) to be seen fully naked — full frontal — in a mainstream film. Note: Hedy Lamarr, then billed as Hedy Kiesler, does swim and run around in the nude in Gustav Machaty’s 1933 Czech drama Ecstasy. However, Lamarr’s naked swimming was disguised by the water,...

Raro Video will be releasing the second volume of Fernando Di Leo’s crime films in a three piece set on Blu-Ray or DVD including the films Shoot First, Die Later, Kidnap Syndicate and Naked Violence. For those of you unfamiliar with Di Leo’s films, I have included the trailers & synopses below the official Press Release info. For fans of Reservoir Dogs or just crime & heist films in general, you will find some delight in these Di Leo films. Bravo to Raro for giving these films the TLC that was needed.

Los Angeles - (May 30, 2013) – Hailed by cinephiles for expertly restoring rare films by influential filmmakers and publishing them with compelling extras, Italian film label Raro Video announces the company will debut a second volume of the critically acclaimed and commercially successful films of the “Master of mafia mayhem” Fernando Di Leo.

Outstanding in bold, intricately plotted, ultra-violent stories about pimps and petty gangsters,...

Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: May 28, 2013

Price: DVD $19.95, Blu-ray $24.95

Studio: Raro Video/Kino Lorber

Luc Merenda stars in Shoot First, Die Later.

Italian genre master Fernando Di Leo’s 1974 crime film Shoot First, Die Later will be the debut title in the new distribution partnership between Italian film label Raro and U.S. supplier Kino Lorber.

In Shoot First, Die Later, Luc Merenda stars as a highly regarded police detective who is taking syndicate money in exchange for departmental favors. His father, a simple man, also works for the department but at a lower level; he isn’t jealous of his son, but rather proud of him, little knowing that he’s a crooked cop. A series of events leads the young detective to ask his father for a tricky favor, and it doesn’t take long for daddy to realize his son is on the take, which leads to numerous complications.

Italian filmmaker Fernando Di Leo’s lost 1974 crime thriller “Shoot First, Die Later” will screen in the U.S. for the first time ever at the New Beverly Cinema at midnight on Saturday, Dec. 22. RaroVideo plans a DVD and Blu-ray release of the film early in 2013. Never before released worldwide, “Shoot First” stars Luc Merenda as a crooked detective whose proud father, also in the police department, slowly realizes his son is on the take with the syndicate. The film has yet to emerge on DVD anywhere in the world; only low-quality bootlegs currently exist.

Eurocrime! The Italian Cop And Gangster Films That Ruled The ’70S (2012) Directed by Mike Malloy, “Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Films that Ruled the ’70s” is a documentary exploring the cop thrillers (or ‘poliziotteschi’ movies) which exploded from the Italian film industry during the 1970s. The film is usefully split into chapters charting the rise, fall and revival of the genre and providing some background into the faddist nature of the Italian business and its earlier Spaghetti Western and Giallo trends. All of this is illustrated by a pretty staggering array of clips and interviews with the likes of Italian stars Franco Nero, Luc Merenda and Maurizio Merli, as well as the Hollywood actors who also headed over to try their luck on the continent, including Richard Harrison, Christopher Mitchum and others. It’s a tribute to how effective “Eurocrime!” really is that the viewer genuinely needs no prior...

by Marcey Papandrea, MoreHorror.com

What is a ‘giallo’? – Giallo is Italian for yellow; a term which came from crime/mystery paperbacks with the yellow toned covers. In turn, highly stylized films of the same genre with elements of eroticism became known as ‘giallo’ films themselves.

Why did you pick this film? – I have been interested in the giallo genre for a long time, ever since I saw my first Dario Argento film. As part of this series I wanted to expose myself to many different gialli as possible, so I sought out a lesser-known one. The title of L’Uomo Senza Memoria really caught my attention, and with a giallo film that is all you need.

Who is behind this one? – It was directed by Duccio Tessari, his previous giallo was The Bloodstained Butterfly. It stars Luc Merenda, Anita Strindberg, Senta Berger, Umberto Orsini, Bruno Corazzari, Manfred Freyberger and Rosario Borelli.

Hitting movie theaters this weekend:

50/50 – Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick

Courageous - Alex Kendrick, Ken Bevel, Kevin Downes

Dream House – Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, Naomi Watts

What’s Your Number? - Anna Faris, Chris Evans, Ari Graynor

Movie of the Week

50/50

The Stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick

The Plot: A comedic account of a 27-year-old guy’s cancer diagnosis, and his subsequent struggle to beat the disease.

The Buzz: I don’t know, I’m not that excited about 50/50, but it’s gotta be better than Dream House, right? Naomi Watts and Rachel Weisz are both great actresses, generally known for choosing good films, but this Daniel Craig guy, really? He’s looking so haggard, like he’s strung out on heroin, and he just emanates this brooding whininess, and I sense zero acting talent within. How in the world did he become a leading man? I...

With its Wait Until Dark nods, underwater sea helmut night lights, chainsaw action, amnesia, bad guys with nonstop colds and a tiny dog named Whisky all in tow, the 1974 Duccio Tessari giallo Puzzle (L’ Uomo senza memoria) manages to weave around its budget shortcomings with plenty of offbeat fun. Luc Merenda (Violent Professionals) is the central character with amnesia that has no idea what the hell is going on. He wakes up one day and slowly learns he has a wife and life, but no clue where they are. Suddenly fate kicks in and he finds himself on the run and put back in touch with his wife, played by Senta Berger (Quiller Memorandum). The title comes into play as the layers of the story slowly start peeling back revealing more and more clues, along with numerous red herrings as to why he has amnesia and why the bad guys...