ukcritic

Dated, soupy, melodramatic at times. Main story, involving the wife who harbours her ex-lover from the police, is curiously underdeveloped and cannot arouse much interest. The other plot threads seem pretty emotionally irrelevant; the film doesn't tie together very well while we're watching it. Nothing stands out as particularly awful; film plods along so-so. Nice little supporting performance by Edward Chapman as the plain and dependable husband.

Now that the movie has been around for a decade and change, we know all about the seductively suggestive atmosphere and the mystery of the James Spader character. These, then, are no longer the most interesting things about the picture. It's a film about honesty -- honesty in conversation, anyway -- about how the Spader and Giacomo characters, who always say what they mean or ask what they want to know with frankness and clarity, bounce off the repression of MacDowell and the lies of Gallagher.

What's fascinating are the ways characters express themselves as conversation moves to more intense places. The mystery over what makes Spader tick is not quite as interesting, and the conclusion, which needs to investigate him and find some kind of conclusion, cannot be as absorbing as the intensely frank and striking buildup.

The film has some hammy acting, and often the editing does a poor job of establishing fundamental narrative details, but this is a strong piece of over-the-top Dario Argento style. Convoluted gore, ugly images like the infestation of maggots, a colour palette of harsh, extreme primary colours and the pounding score of ghoulish Italian rock do a good job of keeping us arrested and impressed. Perhaps not the classic that its hardened fans make out, but surely worth a look.