[Quando Alice ruppe lo specchio]
(Italy 1988)
Reviewed By-Kit Gavin Directed by Lucio Fulci Starring: Brett Halsey, Zora Ulla Kesler [Zora Keslerova], Sacha [Maria] Darwin, Al Cliver [Pierluigi Conti] and Ria De Simone. Released through: EC Entertainment [Netherlands] Region 0 PAL
Lester Parson [Halsey], is a psychopath and a gambler. He is also a murderer. However his gambling ways have got out of hand and as a result, he has become up to eyeballs in debt to Randy [Cliver] and others. In order to write off his gambling debts, Lester has resorted to murderous methods in order to attain money. He starts to date a series of unattractive women whom he beds, and then murders. Having murdered them, he disposes of their bodies, by eating "choice cuts" of their flesh, and disposes of the remains in various methods, including feeding them to his pigs nearby. The film opens with Lester feasting on part of his latest victim’s body, seemingly a steak, whilst below a body is kept in the cellar below, with a chunk of flesh hacked from her thigh. After eating, Lester makes his way to the cellar and slices the body into pieces with a chainsaw, and grinds the remaining parts into mincemeat.
Still desperate for cash, Parson looks for another victim and happens upon Maggie MacDonald [Darwin], a drunk and unattractive woman, complete with facial hair. After bedding her, he sets about trying to poison her are unsuccessful because Maggie spills the first glass, on second attempt gets the glasses of champagne mixed up, and then complains of feeling sick as she has had too much to drink. Parson, having lost his patience tries to force Maggie to drink the poison, but unfortunately she vomits before it can take effect. Enraged by now, Parson grabs a large wooden stick and starts to cudgel Maggie to death with it by beating her round the head violently. Maggie then tries to flee unsuccessfully and receives further beatings, ripping her face and dislodging one of her eyeballs.
Despite, all this Maggie makes one last bid to escape, and weakened by her ordeal, is confronted by her attacker who sets about thumping her repeatedly before, having been knocked unconscious, her head is pushed into an oven leaving the flesh to cook and melt off the bone. Later, even in death, Maggie proves an inconvenience, with her feet popping out of the cars trunk due to rigor mortis, resulting in Lester shopping off her feet.
Whilst disposing of the corpse, Parson is unfortunately seen by a local bum [Marco di Stefano], who proceeds to try and blackmail the homicidal gambler. However, in homicidal frenzied state, Lester decides to dispose of his blackmailer at the same time. With the bum on foot and Lester in his car, he catches up with him on a quiet country road. Putting his put down on the pedal, he proceeds to run down the bum and then crush him to death mangling his body, by repeatedly driving back and forth over him.
Later Parson tries to sell Maggie’s jewelry and discovers to his horror that it was all fake and therefore nigh near worthless. Also there is a report on television, as told by the newsreader [an uncredited Maurice Poli] that police seeking a killer who looks very like Lester Parson and fitting his description. So Lester sets about changing his appearance, which he does throughout the film, by blonding his hair, or appearing clean shaven after having worn a beard, etc.
Lester’s next victim is a soprano, Alice Shogun [De Simone], who insists on singing all the time, even in bed, which again infuriates him so much that he pretty soon kills her. Realising that trying to bed and murder widows isn’t working , Lester sits feeling miserable and morose at home when suddenly the phone rings. Speaking to the younger woman on the other end of the phone, the bored, single Virginia Field [Keslerova], Parson asks her for her address and then makes his way over.
Upon meeting Virginia, he discovers she is quite intelligent, likeminded and attractive except for an unsightly blemish above her top lip. He also discovers that Virginia has considerable wealth of her own is interested and eager to pursue a romantic liaison with him. Further news reports are broadcast, detailing and including pictures of the killer. Yet, despite Virginia’s wealth, Parson is unable to be intimate with her owing to her facial disfigurement. None the less he has papers drawn up so as to make their properties joined. However, watching the news, Virginia, realises the murderer’s identity, and with her own homicidal tendencies shoots Lester in the chest, seemingly fully aware of Lester’s wish for her wealth. Lester crawls away, fatally wounded, and converses with his shadow against the wall, his other self, and collapses, dying, with his shadow converging with him.
Touch of Death, according to Stephen Thrower’s highly recognised tome on Lucio Fulci’s cinematic career, is dismissed as being "a strong contender for Lucio Fulci’s worst horror film". To be sure, the film does not have any of the grace and style which are to be found in his lauded entries into the giallo subgenre in the early 70’s, with the splendid A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin and equally so Don’t Torture a Duckling. Nor does it possess the gothic atmosphere, stylish cinematography and execution of such films as The Beyond, or House by the Cemetery. Critics have attacked it for the way it was shot, the lack of plot pacing and the bad story and screenplay [with Fulci acting on this alone]. But, actually the script, although it is similar to the majority of Fulci’s other works with little characterization and focussing mainly on visuals, really is not all that bad, and it is actually played out pretty well by the cast members too.
What seems to have been overlooked by Thrower in the film here is that the film, with it’s hokum and perhaps over explicit (and not especially convincing) bloody gory moments, the effects have not been created by masters like Gianetto de Rossi, but by Angelo Mattei, a small time sfx technician, yet they recall some of the bloody effects found in the notorious splatterfest Giallo a Venezia, even so much as aping the effects there, such as when Marzia [Mariangela Giordano] has her legs sliced off. But if the film is approached as no doubt the jaded Fulci hoped and expected the film to be appreciated, i.e. like that of a pitch black comedy [much like Bava’s excellent Twitch of the Death Nerve], the film works much better. The film is not intended on being viewed seriously, it seems, the gore effects are there to shock but there are moments of campy, dark humor. Those who might dismiss these moments, such as when the bodies of the victims continue to misbehave, or Lester’s serious, almost po-faced precision when hacking up the bodies. Also his failed attempts at poisoning his first victim are risible, and her continued attempts to escape at any cost.
Adding to the bizarre ambience of the film is the unusual and, most likely, inappropriate score by Carlo Maria Cordio, who had penned such ditties for Absurd [Rosso sangue] by Aristide Masseccesi, and the awful theme song "Head Over Heels" for Fulci’s Aenigma, made the year previous. There is no theme music when the film starts, yet when Brett Halsey is gleefully cutting up his first victim, there is sweeping music similar to a waltz, which, well seems somewhat out of context for the movie. There are a few moments where what sounds like synthesizer library music is used to create atmosphere.
Cast in the lead role is Brett Halsey, who is actually really superb in the wonderfully sleazy un-PC role of the killer, who just seems to butcher and carve up his victims, with a wry indifference to whether he is bedding, poisoning or cutting them up. Equally the two attractive women who, under prosphetic appliance have been made to look like hags and the late Ria de Simone as a soprano [recalling a similar irritating performance by Virna Lisi in Bluebeard]. The actresses, Sacha Maria Darwin (step sister of screen icon Romy Schneider) and Zora Keslerova, who has worked with numerous cult directors, were not told when they took their roles that they would be required to appear unattractive for the movie. However both actresses show a natural flair here for the comedic as much as the horrific, and both turn in good performances. Darwin trulysuffers for her "art", being made to sprout facial hair, unsightly moles under her breasts (nice touch!) and is takes a true hammering before being disposed of by her nemesis.
Also, in the film, which may make it unsettling an experience is that there is no identifiable personality to identify with for the viewer, the "hero" is shown to be a wretched homicidal killer, and all the women who he beds tend to either irritate or, more often, repulse. Fulci was often sited as being a misogynist by some reviewers, owing to his violence against women, but having met numerous women who worked with Fulci, this seems to be far from the case. As a person and director, Fulci seems not to have suffered fools gladly, and to have had a short temper for the most part, but he seems to have admired intelligence and beauty in women, and even to have feared them a little.
The film was shot on the cheap, and most of seems to take place in the same house, a few country roads and some stables. Also the film was plagued with legal problems upon it’s completion and was never given a theatrical release in Italy. Also, given that the film isn’t that old, the releases that it has seen, this one included, together with Fulci’s other films from that time, and the movies he "presented" for the Cineduck production company [many of the gruesome parts would end up in NIGHTMARE CONCERT/A CAT IN THE BRAIN], have been released in ugly muddy grainy fullscreen presentations. Given that the film is just over 15 years old, surely better elements must exist out there somewhere. Nonetheless EC Entertainment have released the best possible version they have been able to, with materials that are available. There are three audio tracks – Italian, French and English – and also subtitles in English, Dutch and Danish. Extras are thin on the ground as well, there isn’t a trailer, and there is a short art gallery which mainly focuses on the most gory murder of the whole film. The film has been reasonably packaged using the artwork from the sales brochures to promote the film, however there are various spelling mistakes to be found on the back of the box.
Story: 3 BITCH SLAPS Audio: 3 BITCH SLAPS Video: 2.5 BITCH SLAPS Extras: 1.5 BITCH SLAPS Overall: 2.5 BITCH SLAPS
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