Traumatic
*********************Spoilers Ahead************************* I don't even know that I would classify this as a giallo. It does have a mysterious killer (killers) attacking girls and assorted people around their school, but it doesn't strike me as particularly gialloesque. It is more of a messy, sub par murder mystery.Fabio Testi as the inspector on the case gives an over-the-top performance, flying into rages and treating suspects in a way that would get Dirty Harry kicked off the force in a heartbeat. There are a lot of potential suspects, none of whom felt sufficiently sketched out to get me interested.
If you want full frontal, you got it, and lots of it. There's not much more than that as the murder scenes are shot so that you don't really get any visceral impact from them. The attempted murders are similarly pedestrian.
The most problematic part is the reveal, which is actually two reveals, neither of which is terribly interesting, though it is somewhat surprising. The first is handled in such a flat way that I almost didn't realize what was happening. It's just talky and subdued, culminating in a ridiculous death. The twist is that there were a couple murderers/attempted murderers, but you won't care that much. The second reveal of yet another mystery assailant is more amusing but no less ridiculous. And the outcome of that is so foolish that I laughed and rolled my eyes as the angry inspector just lets the young wannabe killer go! It makes zero sense and was clearly going to be an issue later.
The film reminded me of The Young, the Evil and the Savage, but with more nudity. So it has that going for it anyway.
score 4/10
rstef1 16 June 2016
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3488914/34995
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