Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (72)

The title is a mouthful and a bit convoluted, however in the early days of Italian slashers (Giallo's) director Sergio Martino made a film that was head and shoulders above what was in Italy at that time. Your Vice is loosely based off of Edgar Allen Poe's The Black Cat starring the saucy thesp Edwige Fenech (a staple vixen for Giallo films), the abused wife Anita Stringberg and her villainous husband Luigi Pistilli.

A burnt out, writer/cheating husband humiliates his wife in front of guests during one of  his drunken parties then begins having hallucinations of his dead mother. The downward spiral of the inebriated husband becomes more unbearable as the wife becomes more afraid for her life, dead women start piling in the house and the police start questioning.  Fenech's role is a breath of fresh air to the cruel and foreboding atmosphere that looms over the villa. She plays a mysterious lovelorn and bi-curious character who brings unanswered questions from her past. The black cat plays his role admirably (named Satan) and the he plays the same plot device as Poe's story. Yet the "Black Cat" plays a red herring in this mystery for the viewer as well ,the storie's twist comes unseen as the victimized show their true deceptive motives.

 
Beautifully executed by Martino's masterful direction in a gorgeous Italian Villa. Martino's style is different then Argento's or Bava's surrealist approach to the genre nor is his violence as over the top as Lucio Fulci, Martino's focus on his stories is character struggle mixed with sensuality (see Strange Vice of Mrs.Wardh and  All the Colors of the Dark) Watch also for the hilarious placement of J&B bottles within the house. (Green J&B bottles are as much a character in Giallo films as a black gloved killer). 9 out of 10.

Cult Italian Siren Edwige Fenech

Edwige Fenech, the gorgeous Italian, raven haired, doe-eyed, Christmas Eve born beauty, has been a great contribution to Italian horror films and thrillers and even a few Euro sex-comedies since the early 70's. Her striking features have captivated European audiences for years and finally in the wake of her films being released on DVD (in the past 10 years) American audiences are being swept away as well. Fenech came out of retirement and got face time in a short cameo in Eli Roth's Hostel 2.

Edwige's wide range of characters varies from a damsel-in-distress, sultry temptress to a voluptuous villain-ess. In most cases within her roles the character is in various states of undress with psychedelic backgrounds and trippy music that was common place in Italian horror. It is rumored that Italian director Sergio Martino had a difficult time working with Fenech, not at her fault, but at the cast and crew around her, her apparent beauty would make the cast and crew nervous.  Let's give her a 10 out of 10 also.

Select Filmography:

Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I have the Key
All the Colors of the Dark
Case of the Bloody Iris
The Seducers
Strip Nude for Your Killer
Giovanni: Long Thigh
Hostel 2

Give it to the Italians!

Giallo's are unlike anything else in the world or horror.

The rich colorization, hyper-editing, odd camera angles'& POV's, beautiful woman, psychedelic murders, non-linear story telling and red herrings and oh, the titles of the films, the titles alone are a story on there own. Combining these rich artistic elements can either make a normal horror viewers head spin and shake your fist at the screen or only cry out for more.

The Godfather of this movement came from Mario Bava. He exploded on the scene in 1960 with moody and thick atmosphere black & white supernatural masterpiece Black Sunday, then moved into rich color and lighting with Black Sabbath and Blood and Black Lace. These films had the suspense of a Hitchcock film but also incorporated a level of Art House horror by paying attention to special set and lighting details.

In 1970 Dario Argento, who was heavily influence by Bava, redefined the Giallo films with Bird with the Crystal Plumage. The financial success of that film created a frenzy of Italian film makers to shoot more colorful and gory films. Which launched the success of other Italian film-makers such as Sergio Martino and Lucio Fulci and then later Lamberto Bava (son of Mario) and Michele Soavi, who many credit his film Dellamorte Dellamore 1994 to be the last of the true Giallo films.

 Thanks to the cult following of these films, many of the reputable films have been beautifully transferred to DVD and and have come out of obscurity. Now, Giallo fans can clutch onto copies of their favorite Italian Slashers that have the clarity and color treatment those films deserve.

Recommended Giallo's and Supernatural Italian Horror.

Black Sunday
Black Sabbath
Blood & Black Lace
The Whip and the Body
Twitch of the Death Nerve
Bird with the Crystal Plumage
Cat O' Nine Tales
Four Flies on Grey Velvet
Suspiria
Inferno
Tenbre (Unsane)
Opera
Two Evil Eyes
Macabre
Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only Have the Key
The Strange Vice of Mrs.Wardh
Case of the Scorpion's Tail
Case of the Bloody Iris
All the Colors of the Dark
Black Belly of the Tarantula
Torso
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
Seven Blood Stained Orchids
Who Saw Her Die?
What Ever Happened to Solange?
The House with Laughing Windows
Short Night of the Glass Dolls
The Beyond
A Lizard in a Woman's Skin
Don't Torture a Duckling
Stagefright
The Church
Dellamorte Dellamore