Francesca

If you've been exposed to 70's and 80's Italian giallo and horror movies this will feel very familiar.

I couldn't help but smile at the bad Italian dubbing, blaring soundtrack, erratic handheld camerawork with dramatic zooms, bottle of J&B and drawn-out story with a lot of filler footage etc.

I don't know if I'd recommend this to anyone else than fans of 70's and 80's Italian giallo and horror movies, but if you are at least familiar with those genres this should be a fun ride.

6,5/10.

Giallo fans can only gorge on this one. The colour contrast is worthy of Argento. There are tropes galore, the leather gloves, the scarlet blood, the mannequin doll - and a story that even evokes a canto from Dante's Inferno. It's all Italy at its best to the umpteenth power.

As with all giallo genre films, the beauty is not to be found in the plot, the dialogue or the acting, but more in the imagery. In contrast to Argento's 'Suspiria', there are numerous outdoor scenes. The eye-witness account is exploited and no venue is exempted from being a crime scene.

I spent the whole film trying to spot a non-1970s anachronism. With the possible exception of what looked like a child-proof lock on a bottle of pills, I didn't find any. My only complaint is that the acting struck me as being 'too good for a real giallo' - but that's more of an unexpected bonus really.

When this film arrived at my doorstep I was pleased while looking at the box and artwork. In recent months I'd begun to be exposed to more giallo films than ever and have begun enjoying an appreciation of them which I hadn't in the past, for the most part because of having less access to them. To think I'd now be exposed to another made me happy. I became a tad leery when I learned it was not one of the original films but a tribute of sorts to the genre. But I plunged in headfirst anyway with some hope. Unfortunately the movie didn't live up to my hopes and expectations.

The film opens with a strange sequence involving a mother taking care of an infant and a young girl who seems to be enjoying stabbing a dead bird. Within moment we see her stabbing into the same stroller the mother was rocking and hear her mother scream. Fast forward to 15 years later.

It's been that long since the disappearance of Francesca, the young daughter of poet/dramatist Vittorio Visconti. Stabbed by her abductor he is now unable to walk and confined to a wheelchair. Visconti lives with his invalid wife who remains in a seemingly state of shock ever since the kidnapping of their daughter. Other than help they live alone.

When a series of murders in the area begins the police are baffled. Notes left at the scenes of the crime leave no clues with the exception that they are lines derived from Dante's INFERNO. Visconti was a scholar on Dante and the two police detectives turn to him for assistance in deciphering just what that murderer could be trying to tell them with these notes.

All of the trademarks from the classic giallo are there. The gloved hands of the killer. The viewpoint of the murders as seen through the killers eyes. The police investigating the murders. And yet the movie feels hollow about best and a poor substitute at worst.

Part of this is the decision of writer/director Luciano Onetti to turn this from a standard giallo into a combination of homage and experimental film. Sequences that make no sense are tossed in throughout. Characters that I either forgot or didn't recall suddenly have important roles towards the end. Clue that should have led us as viewers to a rational solving of the puzzle actually lead us nowhere down blind paths that have nothing to do with a solution or that offer clues that aren't based in reality.

The cinematography for the film felt truly lacking to me. Most of it had a strange use of color giving almost everything a blue tinge. The sharpness was also so intense that everything from beard hairs to skin pores felt like they stood out enough to take away concentration from the story itself. The gore effects were some of the worst I've seen in what should have been a prestige styled film with blood looking more like thinned out jelly.

The acting, even though I understand it was done with a foreign cast, never felt believable to me and it wasn't due to something lost in translation. I've seen far too many foreign films to think that this was the best there was/is to offer from actors in other countries. The death scene of one victim by steam iron strangulation has to be one of the worst death scenes ever filmed and completely unbelievable. The faceless killer felt as unthreatening as possible.

Unearthed Films has a lot of faith in this release. The box art is stunning and great to look at bringing back fond memories of the classic giallo films. It contains not just the blu-ray version of the film but standard DVD as well. It also offers a CD of the film's soundtrack as well, sounding much like the classic Goblin scores from earlier giallo films. A flyer is included inside the box and extras on the disc include a behind the scenes featurette, deleted scenes, an interview with director Luciano Onetti and his producer/brother Nicolas and an Unearthed Trailer reel.

I've read some reviews that have praised this film. Sorry to say I am not one of those. I call it as I see it. I'm anxious to return to viewing the actual giallo films of the past and remain hopeful that the genre will see a rise in new movies that follow the same patterns they established. This one is filled far too much with its own agenda as opposed to being a tribute for my taste. Some may find this new take refreshing but unfortunately I'm not one.

A mysterious veiled woman, who's obsessed with The Divine Comedy (a poem that is widely known for its first part, "Dante's Inferno") is going around killing sinners, and people who she deems sinners, in horrific, violent ways. Her calling cards are a quote from the divine comedy and some coins she places on her victim's eyes. Coincidentally, these crimes started happening 15 years after a mischievous little girl was kidnapped. It is up to the police inspector to find the connection between these recent crimes and a crime that happened oh so long ago.

This is a creepy yet artsy giallo film. From the camera effects to the editing, and, while watching it, I had to remind myself a few times that this was made, like, 10 years from now. I love the soundtrack, the mysterious killer, and just the overall vibe it gives off.

However, this movie does have its flaws and questionable moments.

For example, the inspector of the film feels ... I don't know, flat I guess. He doesn't have a full personality. All through the film, he is trying to solve the case, and ... that's about it. We don't see him have any character development and, like I said before, he doesn't have any personality. Another example is when the inspector doesn't fully explain why he thinks this series of murders is related to a 15-year-old kidnapping case.

Another thing I've noticed that's questionable is the soundtrack.

See, during the beginning of the film's opening credits, we hear some music that came/was clipped from Edgar Froese's "Drunken Mozart In The Desert (1979)". And, whenever a character plays Francesca da Rimini, the music itself isn't being played by said character, nor was it prerecorded by the staff. Instead, the music itself was from a real-life piano concert performed by Karen Kornienko.

Nonetheless, this film is great and, if you ask me, is completely underrated.

This homage to 1970s era giallos is on-point. I disagree that you can't tell the movie is not 40-50 years old - there are some visual clues that expose Francesca as a 21st century film that may actually be editing or cinematographic flaws - BUT it pulls out all of the stops to closely resemble the best of 70s Italian gialli flicks otherwise.

Francesca has plot twists and fabulous color, even antique furniture and accessories are used on the set. The killer's gloves are red instead of black, but elements ranging from the creepy usage of mannequins and dolls to haunting dream sequences hearken back to very specific giallo directors. I found one scene particularly disturbing in its usage of psychedelic visuals combined with auditory cacophony.

I have no idea why this does not have a higher overall rating, I know some giallo fans are sexploitation hounds and actually give higher ratings to frankly stupider giallos as long as they pile on the nudity and suggestive misogyny, so beyond a single scene of masturbatory titillation for our killer those individuals are surely disappointed. Oh well. Too bad for the misogynists, fake frowny face.