Lamberto Bava
Blue Underground
R0 NTSC
A
Blade in the Dark opens with an impressive scene. Three boys are playing dare
near a dark staircase, two of them throw a tennis ball down the stairs and
challenge the third to go and retrieve it. He does not return - the ball bounces back covered in blood,
leaving bloody marks wherever it touches. At first we think this is the film
itself and it captures a strong mood of terror, however, we soon realize this
is a scene from a horror film which Bruno has been hired to compose a score
for. He is holed up in a very nice isolated villa with only the grounds man Giovanni (Molnar) living in a
nearby cottage. Tony, the owner has gone to Kuwait to work on his father’s oil
rig and hires out the Villa on a short term basis. The Villa used to be
occupied by Linda, who left rather quickly and has some of her possessions
stored in a room downstairs.
Sandra is the director of the film and has installed
Bruno in such a location to help trigger his creative juices in the hope of a
good score. However, the line between reality and fiction soon blurs and we are
unsure whether Bruno is paranoid or whether something is really going on. This
is nicely presented as the score that Bruno is composing becomes the music to
the film.
Soon the Villa has some unusual visitors including some
attractive ladies who live down the street. They used to swim in the pool when
Linda lived there – soon both of these women vanish without a trace. We see
their brutal murders, but Bruno has no idea of what is occurring around him.
Bruno begins to get suspicious, his visitors have
vanished and he finds all sorts of strange hints that something sinister is
occurring ranging from messages on his reel to reel machine to pages torn from
a diary and a more obviously threatening knife mark in the bathroom cupboard.
When Sandra hears that the Villa used to be occupied by
“Linda”, she asks for more details and describes how her film is based on a
real childhood trauma tale of someone called Linda. Along the way we get some
false leads (such as Bruno’s girlfriend who seems to have left her play on
opening night for no good reason), but finally we realize Linda and the
previous occupant of the Villa are the same person, but not before all manner
of very gruesome deaths, shown with all sorts of slashing, knifing and blade
work.
The final revelation that Linda is actually the man who
rented out the Villa and has a gender problem caused by a childhood trauma when
he was taunted for not being brave and hence “being a female” is a bit of a
stretch. Without questioning the bizarre psychology behind the premise of the
film, there are some obvious logical problems. Are we really to believe that the the two girls regularly came and met Linda
and swam in the pool without noticing that she was a he, certainly the
appearance of Linda at the end makes it clear he/she is not a very convincing
gender-changer !
The rather tired old evil “transvestite” model which
began with Psycho was somewhat outdated even in 1983 when A Blade in the Dark
was made and hence is not an especially convincing ending. It doesn’t ruin the
experience of the film but certainly makes the conclusion somewhat
anti-climatic.
Don’t get me wrong, this is a solid Giallo with some
great killings, suspenseful moments and nicely distorts the line between
reality and fiction. The cinematography and the De Angelis score are especially
moody and the film certainly keeps up the tension, so is worth seeing.
The edition from Blue Underground is a superb restoration
and also includes key interviews.