Rating: 3.5/5
Hooptober 2.0 | 21/31 | Slasher 1/5
Elizabeth and Enrico lay in a rowboat together, making out. Enrico tries to push her to go further, but she doesn’t want to fuck in a boat. She briefly opens her eyes to see a man chasing a woman through the woods. Enrico treats her like an asshole for ignoring his advances. Elizabeth tries to focus, but the glint of a knife hits her eyes. She opens them to see the man shoving a knife between the woman’s legs. Enrico forces her to stay quiet about what she saw. As her professor at the St. Mary’s Catholic School for Girls, he could get into hot water for hooking up with her. If she brings the murder to authorities, their questions may reveal what they were doing.
Cue the Morricone score.
Enrico drips Elizabeth off at her bike and follows her home in his car. At home, Enrico hears the murder discussed on the radio. Herta, his wife and coworker, shuts it off. He jumps in his car and races to the crime scene. Then, he makes it to the school. At the school, Inspector Barth from Scotland Yard has assembled the school’s teaching staff. Enrico is the last to arrive and an hour late.
Barth shows each professor photos from the crime scene. We meet our suspects one by one. Enrico recognizes the victim — Hilda Erikson. He brings the news to his gym class. Brenda guesses that someone murdered Hilda.
Police photos show Enrico at the crime scene, building suspicion around him. How will he clear his name? Who murdered Hilda? Who is Solange?
The film confidently lets the circumstances unfold, giving the audience enough information to keep the tension tight. That alone helps this stand out from many of its fellow Giallo flicks.
The film also hints at the repressive nature of Catholicism and how that fuels the violent sublimations in the murder more than any lurid film could motivate.
Genre fans may find the film a bit too tame or straightforward. The pacing is also a little lax. But I appreciate a film that manages a twist without contorting the plot into nonsense.
The milk-themed photo shoot is a weird detail.