Another World
Entertainment
R0 DVD
Web: http://www.anotherworldent.com
When contemplating the world of Giallo
cinema, one particularly impressive title regularly comes to mind, Torso.
Torso’s full Italian title is Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence or I Corpi
presentano trace di violenza carnale. Normally heavily cut, even in its US
Anchor Bay release, this welcome release from Another World Entertainment is
fully uncensored. The only drawback is that there are no English subtitles
provided for the reinstated English scenes but this can be easily overlooked
and the plot followed from the context of the scenes.
Directed by Sergio Martino this is one of
his best known Giallo’s from the Seventies. Besides Torso Sergio Martino’s
other giallo’s include The Strange vice of Mrs. Wardh, Case of the Scorpion’s
Tail, All the Colors of the Dark, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have
the Key and The Suspicious Death of a Minor.
Art students at a Rome university are
shocked when two of their fellow students are brutally mutilated and
slaughtered by a masked killer. There are no shortage of suspects from a creepy
obsessed would be lover, an older man who has just jilted one of the girls, a
couple of druggies and the rather strange uncle of one of the girls.
When a third victim is found, the police
discover a black and red neck voola (scarf) and are hot on his trail. At a
press conference between the police and the student body, Dani remembers seeing
the scarf, but where ? She thinks it was on a local student (Stefano) who has
become obsessed with her, but she isn’t sure. A local store owner knows who
purchased the scarf but settles for blackmail and is killed for his trouble.
As the body counts mounts and suspects
abound, the girls decide to leave town.
Dani’s Uncle suggests the Villa he has in a small township so they leave
for the weekend, where they can laze around naked, drink alcohol and cavort as
suggestively as possible. At times sections of this film seem to have been made
simply to expose as much flesh as possible, show a bit of lesbian one on one
action and offer some softcore voyeurism. However, this doesn’t last long, as
the film veers back into violence as the killer has followed the girls to the
Villa. The suspense created by the interaction between the killer and the four
young semi-naked girls is impressive.
The killer, of course, is disturbed by
some strange manner of childhood complex as one would expect from Giallo
cinema. In Torso he is haunted by fleeting images of porcelain dolls and sexual
perversion.
Torso is a film which has a dark and
malicious feel. It is moody and atmospheric and the killings are brutal. Torso
is surprisingly explicit packed with nudity, sex and even some girl on girl
action.
The AWE edition includes alternative
Italian and German intros and alternate US credits. It is interesting that
while the R4 release is listed as uncut, this AWE release includes quite a bit
of extra footage.
This review will appear in Volume 2 No.3
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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