Cattive inclinazioni

The brutal murder of a pretty teacher with a double life brings out the worst in the other tenants of her tony apartment building...

The DVD back cover blurb for BAD INCLINATION calls the film an "attempt to recreate the films of the genre, like the ones made by Lucio Fulci and Lamberto Bava in the 1960s and '70s, that were adored by the public and hated by the critics". That couldn't be more wrong -and not just because Mario Bava's son Lamberto was an '80s horror director, not a '70s giallo one.

Director Pierfrancesco Campanella's not-so-sly satire on an amoral society's tabloid celebrities wasn't an homage to a much beloved Italian horror sub-genre so much as a skewering of a new "Me Decade" with it's hedonistic abandon and self-serving values. A lady prosecutor on the case laments, "there's too many relationships" and the goings-ons in the victim's A-list apartment complex is reminiscent of SCTV's soap parody "The Days Of The Week" with its tongue-in-cheek pregnant pauses and off- the-wall couplings.

The still-attractive genre fave Florinda Bolkan almost walks away with the movie as a ruthless artist who gets inspiration from the murder in more ways than one but she gets some stiff competition from the always interesting Eva Robins (the transsexual in Dario Argento's TENEBRAE flashbacks) as a Norma Desmond-ish has-been singer. The temperamental diva turns the murder into a "comeback vehicle" by insisting she's getting obscene phone calls from the killer -a nasty piece of work whose weapon of choice is an architect's metal set-square.

The crimes become a goldmine of publicity with everyone making the TV talk show rounds -including the public prosecutor- and guest star Franco "Django" Nero's bit as a street corner prophet acts as a sort of hip Greek chorus. There's ulterior motives and double crosses galore and the murders, the brief glimpses of hetero S&M, and the lesbianism and nudity (courtesy of Robins) are all photographed in classy style on stylish sets. The ambiguous ending isn't, really, since it's in keeping with the film's jaded universe and, like any good giallo, the title's a big hint. This one's lots of fun, I loved it!

This film begins in Rome with a young woman cooking dinner in her high-rise apartment when she is interrupted by a phone call. Upon answering it the caller hangs up and not thinking too much about it the woman goes back to the stove. When she turns around, however, she is stabbed to death by a mysterious person wielding a metal set-square. Not long afterward, the police arrive and no sooner do they begin their investigation then the press begins to sensationalize the event on television screens and the front pages of the local newspapers. To that effect, realizing an opportunity when they see it two women decide capitalize on this event while they can. The first woman, by the name of "Mirta Valanti" (Florinda Bolkan) is an artist who has been running some lucrative scams on unsuspecting antique dealers and is afraid that her maid "Gabriella" (Rosaria De Cicco) will expose her to the police. The second woman is a publicity agent named "Otilia" (Elisabetta Cavallotti) who works for a spoiled pop star by the name of "Nicole Cardente" (Eva Robins) who is past her prime and fallen out of favor with her audience. It should also be mentioned that the two of them are lovers but Nicole is insanely jealous of anyone who comes close to Otilia. Likewise, for her part, Otilia has in fact met someone new and is essentially trying to have it both ways while at the same time financially benefiting from her relationship with Nicole. So, in order to propel Nicole back into the spotlight she decides to use this murder to her advantage. In the meantime, the investigator in charge of this case named "Rita Facino" (Mircola Viola) has begun to notice some discrepancies in the subsequent murders but is being pressured by her immediate superior "Commissioner Visconte" (Antonio Petrocelli) to wrap up the case by arresting a suspect who may not be guilty. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this Italian crime-drama had some potential but it suffered greatly from either a weak script or extremely poor dubbing. Possibly both. Along with that, there were some scenes--in particularly one featuring a renegade priest (played by Franco Nero)--which were quite poorly directed as well. That being said, while this was not a terribly bad film necessarily, the faults outweighed any positive features and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly below average.

I have to say, for once I am glad I came on IMDb and read some comments before I watched a film. After seeing the incredibly low rating on here, I was not expecting much at all from "Bad Inclination." This film is a total must see for giallo fans. I was impressed by the awesome setting and mood that was established right from the get go. Starring Florinda Bolkin of "Lizard in a Woman's Skin," "Bad Inclination" weaves a nice little web of bizarre love and murder mystery, leaving the viewer enchanted and excited to see how it will turn out.

While it is not on par with some of the older giallos, this one should not be tossed aside! But I will warn you: the dubbing is HORRENDOUS in this one. It's like they used translation dot com for some of the lines, they make no sense at all. I bet in Italian with subtitles this movie would be a million times better. Ending could have been a bit better though.

For fans of Sergio Martino, old Argento and Lucio Fulci.

7 out of 10, kids.

In an aesthetically displeasing block of flats in Italy, a crazed, homicidal creep is hard at work dispatching young female victims with a series of metal set-squares (of all things). The detective on the case is a weary female (Mirca Viola), who tires of having to deal with a pompous magistrate (Antonio Petrocelli) who's got blinders on when it comes to this case. Involved in the plot are an eccentric artist (Florinda Bolkan) whose works tend towards the macabre, and a faded pop star (Eva Robins) whose bisexual lover / agent (Elisabetta Cavallotti) hits upon a scheme to have Robins "benefit" from the crimes by pretending to receive death threats from the monster.

This 21st century attempt by director Pierfrancesco Campanella and his co-writers to play in the same sandbox popularized by Italian Gialli of the 1960s and 1970s works out fairly well. It's not as stylish nor nearly as memorable as the best from this genre during those decades, but it checks some boxes (namely, gore, sex, and nudity) adequately. It also tries to inject a little substance into its screenplay by addressing the idea of artists who profit from exploiting real-life horrors, such as Bolkans' Mirta Valenti. One reasonably amusing subplot has Mirta earning the wrath of young Donatella (Elisabetta Rocchetti) by hiring the girl to "kill" her and then screwing her over.

The performers on screen aren't really bad, but they ARE hurt by lousy dubbing. At least Campanella earns some goodwill by casting some veterans of the genre, like Ms. Bolkan ("Don't Torture a Duckling") and the great Franco Nero ("The Fifth Cord"), who's hilariously cast as a long-haired doomsayer / vagrant. Aficionados of Italian genre cinema will remember Robins from Dario Argentos' "Tenebre".

At the very least, "Bad Inclination" offers some good use of locations and a wonderful score by Alberto Antinori.

Five out of 10.

Any attempt to re-create a 1970's giallo in 2003 (after the once great Italian exolitation film industry had gone pretty much belly-up) was probably somewhat doomed to failure. This isn't a total failure, however. It is certainly better than the last major attempt to revive the giallo (1996's "Fatal Frames"), and even better than some of Dario Argento's latter-day efforts (it's better than "The Card Player" if worse than "Sleepless" and "Do You Like Hitchcock?"). A sexy young teacher is killed in a high-rise apartment building using an architect's triangle. Not only aren't the other tenants too disturbed by it (as in the deliciously absurd 70's giallo "Case of the Bloody Irises", they even use it as an occasion for practical jokes), but several of them hit on the idea of committing copycat murders--to get rid of black-mailing maids, unfaithful lesbian girlfriends, etc. Naturally, this leaves the police, and the female detective who is the lead investigator, baffled. Unfortunately, it also creates a situation where the viewer knows more than the protagonist and is waiting around impatiently for her to catch up. The movie then tries to make up for this by going in the exact opposite direction with an infuriatingly ambiguous ending. Thus an initially clever plot is decidedly fumbled.

The style is OK albeit slavishly copied from earlier, better gialli. The movie does feature some of the old familiar giallo actors including Franco "The Fifth Cord" Nero, Florinda "A Woman in Lizard's Skin" Bolkan, and Eva "Tenebre" Robbins. Bolkan is pretty good as violence-obsessed painter, as is Robbins as a lesbian actress given to walking her cat(!)around on a leash. Nero is more wasted as a former detective turned ranting street preacher/prophet. The biggest problem though is the godawful English dubbing (none of the actors dubs his or her own voice even though Nero at least, is perfectly fluent in English). It's not that gialli have ever been famous for their sophisticated dialogue or naturalistic acting style, but NO movie deserves this kind of sh*tty dubbing job.

Intentionally or not, the gory special effects are up to about the 1970's level and seem pretty laughable by today's standards. They do get the nudity level right at least--this is not a tame Hollywood thriller aimed at suburban teenagers where you don't get anything more than under-dressed (and underaged) American TV idols, but neither is it an "erotic thriller" where slow-motion softcore sex scenes by silicone-enhanced "actresses" bring everything to a complete stand-still every five minutes. Not that there's no silicone or surgical enhancement on display--the most attractive actress seen in the altogether here was actually born a man! (See if you can guess which one). This is also not to say that I would necessarily recommend this, especially to non-giallo completists, but it's not THAT bad.