Carnal Violence

Aka Torso

Director: Sergio Martino

Stomp Visual

R4 DVD

At a local Italian University, two female bodies are discovered; they have been tortured and brutally murdered. Fragments of a red silk scarf are found on both victims and hence is the primary piece of evidence. At a press conference between the police and the student body, Dani (Tina Aumont) 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.

Many will know the film’s heroine Suzy Kendall from Dario Argento’s The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Martino’s résumé includes such classics as Isle of Mutations, The Violent Professionals and the Giallos Excite Me and All the Colours of the Dark

Often released under the name of Torso, Sergio Martino’s Carnal Violence caused quite a stir on its initial release, its Italian title in full was I Corpi Presentano Tracce di Violenza Carnale ("The Corpses Show Evidence of Rape"). It was released in 1973 and represents Giallo cinema at its most sleazy. There is lots of nudity, sex, a lesbian scene and brutal violence.

It was available on video for many years but always cut, here is a very nice uncut DVD edition released in R4 by Stomp. The picture is good for its age but certainly has some grain and damage, the soundtrack is also pretty reasonable with only minimal signs of damage, which seems to be isolated to near the end where the music jumps various times over the credits. The sound is stereo only which is a shame.

This disc is very thin on the extras; there is a slideshow and a couple of trailers, one for The New York Ripper and one for Demons 3: The Ogre.