Les démons de la nuit

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.

A deceased man possesses his son in order to accomplish some dark things in this late 70's unofficial sequel to Beyond The Door.

The film starts with us meeting Dora, her new husband Bruno, and young son Marco. She has decided to move back into her former house where she lived with her ex-husband Carlo who killed himself at sea. After that traumatic event, Dora was given electro shock therapy to cope with the death of Carlo. We learn that Carlo was a drug addict who was taking LSD and heroin leading up to his death. As the film moves along, Dora reveals to everyone around her that she feels her young son Marco is being possessed by the deceased Carlo. Is this true, or is Dora simply going made from guilt she feels surrounding Carlo's death?

This unofficial sequel to Beyond the Door has absolutely no connection the original film. Shock is an original story that tells the tale of a young child who seems to possessed by his deceased father who was a serious drug addict that killed himself. The story lets the viewer know that the father may have in fact NOT committed suicide, and was perhaps murdered by our lead character Dora.

My issue with Beyond the Door II: Shock is how slow it moves. The plot is laid out very straight forward and is easy to follow, but it moves at a snail's pace. There are very little action scenes or moments of terror until the end of the film. Daria Nicolodi leads the way for me in the acting department. I thought gave a strong performance as the lead protagonist, Dora. The others were background noise for me for the most part. Noteworthy as the appearance of David Colin Jr. who was in the first Beyond The Door film. He definitely had a larger role in this one and did a fine job.

Overall, Shock (or Beyond the Door II) is a mediocre horror film done by the legend Mario Bava. I'd give it a viewing to make an opinion for yourself, but I was underwhelmed.

5/10

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".

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!

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.