Lucio Fulci’s The Psychic
Aka Seven Notes in Black
R1 DVD
Web: http://www.severin-films.com
Lucio Fulci’s The
Psychic Aka Seven Notes in Black is a cross over film; it was his last giallo film before moving into his better known horror
genre films such as zombie films and slashers.
However in many ways this film is not a simple giallo.
The term primarily meaning violent crime film (with an erotic bent), with the
term Giallo being Italian for yellow, the colour of the sleazy crime paperbacks of the period. It
combines many of the elements which later are displayed in his horror genre
films, it has a strong supernatural element (focused on clairvoyance in this
film) and some impressive violence. The Psychic is certainly not as violent as
his later horror, but makes up for this lack of gore with psychological tricks,
twists and turns and sustains the tension throughout.
The Psychic starts with quite a violent
start, a woman throws herself off of a cliff with her head crashing again and
again on the rocks all the way down as “watched” by her daughter in a psychic
vision. Some years later the woman’s daughter Virginia Ducci
(Jennifer O’Neill) is in therapy due to reoccurring dreams and visions. As she
is traveling to meet her husband, Francesco Ducci
(Gianni Garko), she finds herself drifting into
reverie. Each time she passes through a tunnel she experiences various forms of
emotional and mental disturbance until she has a full blown vision of a dead
woman buried behind a wall. The vision is graphic and filled with minute
details, which only seem significant in time. She passes out and is revived by
the roadside by the police and recounts her visions to her psychologist who
discusses with her the role of premonitions in parapsychology.
She reaches the mansion and with constant
reoccurring visions realizes it is the location of her dream, she takes a pick
to the wall and finds the skeleton of a young woman behind it. But this does
not quite fit with her vision, she starts to realize she had seen various
events mixed together and some may yet be to come.
The tale continues as a combination of
detective story, giallo and supernatural thriller.
There are lots of twists and turns and some nice distortions of time. We never
quite appreciate whether
There is a lot of great character
development Jennifer O’Neill is especially impressive as the clairvoyant,
Gianni Garko as her husband is solid as a man who is
just not quite as he seems. I especially like his sister, the cold and
manipulative artiste who boasts of how many lovers she has had !
The filming is beautiful; the dream and
visions sequences are ethereal and have a great sense of menace and
otherworldliness. The soundtrack certainly enhances the mood and presence of
the film. The voice dubbing is professional and the detective aspects of the
film are believable and it works well as a crime drama as well as a
supernatural psychic thriller.
The quality of the print is solid, the colours are clear and there is next to no distortion or
image problems. The score is superb and was composed by the trio of Franco Bixio, Fabio Frizzi and Vince
Tempera and while it is Dolby Digital Mono is still moody and impressive, the
dialogue is clear and has no problems, even though the volume seems low and it
needs to be turned up quite high.
Extras include a great Featurette with the co-writer, costume designer and Editor.
This is an important, high quality
release of a rare gem by Lucio Fucli
and is most highly recommended.