La casa della paura

If you can make it through the slow first hour of Girl in Room 2A, you'll be rewarded with a somewhat insane final act that almost makes it worth the wait. It's still far off the mark in many ways and most of it feels really pedestrian and predictable.

This one drags until thankfully the stupidity of it all overwhelms the drudgery. A young girl, just paroled from prison, is sent to a boarding house by parole officer Rosalba Neri. Now we all know that something is wrong with this house, as we've just witnessed a girl being ceremoniously killed by a sadistic cult led by someone who is a big fan of the 1965 Italian film Bloody Pit of Horror. Our girl Margaret isn't too slow on the uptake either, spotting quickly a huge bloodstain on the floor of her room that keeps reappearing, sussing rapidly that the landlady is a bit of a loon, and reckoning that the landlady's son Frank is a nutter. An encounter with a man investigating the apparent suicide of his sister, a previous tenant of Room 2A, further confirms her suspicions. This leads to a long investigation/romance that goes on and on.

However, it's also about this time that the film's daftness begins to rise, what with the terrible acting of the nurse in a loony bin, choppy editing, and a flashback sequence where women are whipped in a Jess Franco fashion. The director also thinks it's a great idea to include upbeat jazz music at the most inappropriate of moments, like when the hero is thrown into the back of a car with a snake in a suitcase (a really crap way to kill someone, seeing how they just murdered everyone else without leaving anything to chance).

The gore increases around this point too, as does the introduction of two muscle men who take on the cult. You also get an explanation as to how that bloodstain keeps appearing on the floor of room 2A, and I use 'how' on purpose because you'll be asking 'why' even after you find out what's happening. There's also the mystery of who is in the red mask if you still care about that by the end of the film.

Not much Rosalba in this one either. This is a hugely stupid film but sometimes we need a bit of that in our lives too.

I thought I have seen most of giallos (Yes, I am big time giallo fan & watching them for last 5 years) but every once a while, I get a little surprise. This was one of them. Its about a secret cult & how they kidnap & torture pretty young woman. This is not of the class of Suspiria - but its pretty decent. Girls are pretty, atmosphere/setup was good & plot had some suspense. Murders are little tamed in comparison to typical giallos, but not half bad. Overall, a pretty enjoyable movie.

What do you do when you come across somebody tied up in the back of a car with a deadly snake loose inside?

Step 1/ Casually put your hand in the car. Step 2/ Once you grab it, hopefully you're not bitten, simply throw the snake away. Step 3/ Then nonchalantly ask "Hey Man. What's happening"?

This drive-in, occult themed horror (despite its Giallo tag) with an investigative mystery to the plot is just so ludicrously outlandish with its many random moments, jarring visuals, reckless scenarios and unintentional laughs. It's cheaply produced, but there's conviction, a touch of nervy, slow-burn suspense and the locations near or around Rome give it poignant character. The reveal to who's behind the red mask do all I these vicious acts is easy to detect, but a lot fun nonetheless.

Margaret Bradley (Daniela Giordano) is released from a two week stay in jail, moves into the titular apartment, and discovers a very disturbing stain on the carpet. She also experiences strange goings-on and nightmares about a group of cultists in red masks.

Margaret seeks help in getting out of her new apartment from her friend Alicia (Rosalba Neri), but winds up caught in a murder mystery with supernatural overtones.

THE GIRL IN ROOM 2A is a macabre occult thriller. The plot tends to meander in a disjointed way that somehow works. It's suspenseful, and the creepy characters and paranoiac atmosphere add a lot. Of course, the gratuitous nudity doesn't hurt.

For giallo fans looking for something different...