I haven't seen many recent Italian films, so I don't know if this is still the case, but in the 70s and 80s, no one made "Do What Now?" movies like the Italians. I don't know if it was a cultural thing or because of their editing techniques, but Italian movies, most notably their horror and action films, would show incredibly lapses in logic and gaping plot-holes. Things would simply happen and the audience would be expected to go along with it. Of course, said audience was either going to find this approach incredibly frustrating or bizarre fun. Murder Obsession is a somewhat obscure Italian horror movie from 1981 which follows in this grand tradition, throwing in awkward special effects just for good measure.

Murder Obsession introduces us to Michael Stanford (Stefano Patrizi), a famous actor. He finds some photographs of his childhood home and decides to visit his mother, Glenda (Anita Strindberg), who he hasn't seen in 15 years. Accompanied by his girlfriend, Deborah (Silvia Dionisio), Michael makes the journey, arriving at night, where is greeted by Oliver (John Richardson), his mother's butler and caretaker. Michael's reunion with his mother is a tearful one and we learn that Michael's late father was a famous composer (referred to as "The Maestro"). The next day, Michael's colleagues, Hans (Henri Garcin), Beryl (Laura Gemser), and Shirley (Martine Brochard), arrive to spend the weekend at the house. However, Michael begins to act very strangely, as he's distant to Deborah. Things take an odd turn when Beryl is attacked and Michael disappears. Soon, a series of murders begin in the house and Deborah searches for the key to the mystery.

Murder Obsession came near the end of the giallo cycle and it certainly contains all of the trademarks of that sub-genre. It features a black-gloved killer, stylish murders, casual nudity, questionable gore, and striking photography. As with many of these films, we get a definite example of style over substance here. Giallos are known for their twisty plots which serve as the backbone of the movie, even if they don't always make sense.

But, Murder Obsession offers something different. Despite the various scandalous elements found in gialli, most of them are incredibly boring. I've watched many of these movies in marked wonder thinking, "With all of the violence and sex, this should be interesting, but it isn't." Murder Obsession overcomes this by being such a strange movie that, at times, it actually feels as if it's spoofing gialli. As stated above, we get all of the usual trappings of the genre and we are used to seeing the killer wear black gloves. But, in this movie, the characters walk around the house, yes, indoors, wearing black gloves. Are you kidding me? Every character is a red herring. Characters do things like brandish chainsaws or casually reveal that they are carrying knives, as if this is something which people do everyday. They may as well be wearing signs which read, "Am I the killer? I could be." This is combined with a story which takes some odd turns. At the outset, Michael has a flashback of what appears to be his father having a flashback. Sometime later he says, "You know I murdered my father." I didn't know that. The movie has not one, but two explanations of who the killer is, and the second features a doorknob activated reel-to-reel tape recorder. The part of the film which must be seen to be believed is Deborah's dream sequence, which I immediately dubbed, "Bad things always happen at Party City". This scene contains special effects which are so questionable that I honestly didn't know if they were supposed to look realistic.

I must admit that I went into Murder Obsession with some trepidation, as I've been burned in the past by by-the-numbers gialli. But this movie is so weird that it's charming. Veteran director Riccardo Freda, here making his last film, clearly has some issues with telling a story, but unlike many of his Italian brethren, he doesn't abuse the zoom lens. (He does, however, bring us a stop-motion shot which doesn't gel with the rest of the movie.) But, he's also created a movie which has little tension as it's so determined to make everyone a suspect. Murder Obsession is a movie which plays by its own rules. On the surface, it looks like any other gialli, but it's mixture of perplexing story, odd effects, and hints of the supernatural make for a movie which is never boring and would be great for a movie party.

Murder Obsession allows me to now say that I've seen a movie with Laura Gemser on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Raro Video. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the Disc contains an AVC 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 30 Mbps. The image is very sharp and clear, showing only trace amounts of grain and very mild defects from the source material. The colors look good, most notably reds, and the image is never overly dark or bright. The level of detail is adequate, but the image is somewhat soft in some scenes. The bottom line is that this is clearly a 30-year old Italian film, but someone obviously placed some care into this transfer and it looks very good. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track which runs at 48 kHz and a consistent 1.6 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects and the English subtitles are easy to read. As one would expect, we don't get any dynamic effects with this track. However, we do get a problem in the guise of a piano score which is far too loud, often drowning out some of the dialogue.

Review Copyright 2012 by Mike Long