Nero veneziano

The Christine character is the most repulsive and loathsome beast I've seen in a long while in a film. She is entitled, narcissistic, rude, icy, smug, and her every word to anyone is replete with insults and demeaning little flourishes. To her blind brother she says "Now you're deaf as well as blind" when he forgets something, and when he has a vision and takes a few steps she scolds him mercilessly "Why are you always wandering off? You know you only get lost." She has not a single kind word for him. He would be better off ditching her and finding a human being to take care of him! Sadly, that's not going to happen, not in this film. I like the Venetian scenery, and the hair and clothes are what you want from a 70s giallo/horror mishmash. I like this film, and I like it all the more for how much I hate Christine.

A blind kid starts getting horrible visions about the birth of the Antichrist when he and his sister moves in a rundown pension in Venice with their guardian relatives. I liked this Italian horror flick a lot! It's heavily influenced by Rosemary's Baby & The Omen but its got a personality of its own. Pretty slow pace but great surreal atmosphere there's a constant feeling of dread and uncertainty, good photography and an surprisingly clever script. And the Venice setting is always appreciated, that city is almost provocatively beautiful! Not much violence, but the few violent scenes were highly effective. Especially one scene really raised my eyebrow, those of you who have seen it probably know which one i'm thinking about... The bad dubbing is about the only really negative aspect I can think of right now, although I can imagine that some find it slow on action and maybe even a little boring. Not me though, I love slow, atmospheric films!

My third Ugo Liberamore film and it seems unlikely I'll get the chance to see any more. These three, The Sex Of Angels, May Morning and this were hard enough to get hold of but all very much worth a search. If this Venice set horror is not quite up to the other two, it isn't far off and I enjoyed it. My print was pretty degraded and the film shot in Venice in the winter but I still reckon this could be the best looking Venice on film. Creepy and unsettling with moments of true horror, this intrigues from the very start with the blind boy being led down the narrow alleyways and across the tiny bridges. The music helps keep things from becoming too ordinary and Playboy 'playmate', Rena Niehaus a welcome distraction from some of the more grisly terrors. I've seen this described as a giallo, which it is not and moreover, I have to say, it doesn't crack along like some wild thriller but with Rosemary's Baby and Don't Look Now merely as undertones this is a very different vision of satanism.

Ugo Liberatore's Italian giallo thriller NERO VENEZIANO (aka: Damned in Venice, 1977) is a very satisfying "Italian Omen" with great and young cast who can act, too. A young blind boy Mark sees some horrible visions involving some satanic goings on, characters and other menacing things that concern him very much. His sister doesn't believe him at all but soon she'll learn they are much more than just nightmares. Naturally the film takes place in Venice and also has some nice and moody photography and settings.

The visions Mark gets are shot in bright color with more effects added in the soundtrack and they work effectively and become as sudden as the terrors themselves. The nightmare images are really gross in the tradition of the dark Shaw Brothers horror films in Hong Kong in the 70's and 80's. They include worms and other nasty creatures coming from places you wouldn't dare to expect, and the less the viewer knows before seeing the gross they feel once they come.

Also a remarkable effect lies in the story about the Satan's son and him being born on Earth from a human mother. The devil baby gets born and also goes through one of the most brutal "attempted murders" committed to a child I've seen in silver screen, but unfortunately the Devil (and the son) isn't too vulnerable once they get born.

The film has some nudity and gore as it was the style in the 70's and it also produced some very extreme efforts, like Lucio Fulci's LO SQUARTATORE DI NEW YORK (1982), which tried to be all the more extreme and graphic than the previous ones, but fortunately that didn't affect the talent and ambition of the noteworthy filmmakers and directors.

The music is by Pino Donaggio who has composed many films like CARRIE (1977) and PIRANHA (1978). NERO VENEZIANO is very great (and sadly pretty obscure) Italian giallo (which means a murder mystery, Italian style!) from the years they were made at high speed. Some of them are bad, some mediocre and some masterpieces and VENEZIANO easily manages near the latter category. 7/10

The is is a fairly obscure and poorly distributed movie from 1977/78 that actually packs quite a punch. The fact there are only (at time of writing ) EIGHT reviews on IMDb proves how little seen it is. Now that I have watched it, I want everybody to know how good it is.

OK, it's no masterpiece but for any fan of 1970's -1980's European giallos and shockers it is bound to prove very enjoyable. That's not to say it is a giallo, although it is filmed like one, but the plot is more supernatural. Something along the lines of The Omen, the plot involves a brother and sister who live in Venice and due to a few unexpected events find themselves inheriting a boarding house. Mysterious bad omens wash over them and eventually the brother starts so suspect that evil forces are preying on them, but why? First of all I want to point out the setting of the film, which is very clearly shot on location in Venice, and it looks terrific. The boarding house has window views over the main waterway of the city and many outside scenes are shot in the city centre. It makes a difference! Secondly, the whole film has a recognisable Italian slant, particularly in the way religion is portrayed, and in a way that roots it well and truly in it's time frame of the 1970's, it is full of period and localization chic in my mind.

Next, all the performances are good. Although I watched the film in Italian with English subtitles it was still dubbed by the looks of things, but this did not matter. The performances are great, especially of the brother of the two main characters, who is blind and yet afflicted with gruesome visions of supernatural events and violence. He brings a naturalness to the role that make it very believable. The sister is pretty good too, although a less likable character, so her colder performance kind of fits the role.

There is a fair amount of violence, and some scenes do stand out, especially for a film made this in period. Most of the time, the younger brother's visions are a cue for something horrific to happen on camera, and this includes several nasty piercings of unfortunate people with nails and/or the end of a very sharp cane. There's also the discovery of a very effective rotting corpse which is quite revolting. Most people who have watched the movie, however, come away from it holding the memory of one single shocking scene involving a tiny baby which even had me gasping - you'll know it when you see it! Don't worry it doesn't look real but it would be unheard of in a British or American movie of the time, or even now I suspect.

However, one brief scene of shock would not be enough to make me recommend a movie (in the same way that the scene with the animated poker in "Patrick Viva Encore" didn't make me recommend that to anyone), but Nero Venezia would still be effective anyway. It really does have a sense of atmosphere, and although a lot of the plot is glossed over with a better script it could have really created a true atmosphere of corruption. Still worth a look if you can find it.