Giallogy returns with one of the most rewatchable giallo films ever made.
Many gialli blend together in our minds, coalescing into a dizzying melange of impossibly beautiful women, shadowy black-gloved killers, countless bottles of J&B Scotch Whiskey, and enough convoluted plot holes to drive a Mac truck through them. This is not a criticism, mind you. I love how I’m always confusing one gialli for another, even if I’ve seen them several times over. It’s simply a function of the genre, and the simple reality is there are so many gialli out there, especially from the peak decade of the 1970s, that it’s no wonder we sometimes conflate parts of one giallo for another.
Some giallo films, however, stand tall in our memories as cohesive, if still hilariously convoluted, works of art. Director Sergio Martino’s Torso (1973) is one such giallo. Torso is a 24-karat, solid-gold gialli wrapped in dirty panties and torn nylon stockings, then tossed in the mud to add sufficient layers of grime. It’s a giallo that more than lives up to repeat viewings, thanks in part to its gorgeous Italian vistas, some brutal kill scenes, a cast full of absolute smoke shows, and enough sleazy vibes to rival any giallo of the era.
The plot is simple, Giallogy 101 stuff, kids: A mysterious killer stalks and kills nubile young hotties in and around an international college in Perugia, Italy. As the death toll rises, some of our protagonists decamp to a remote villa in order to hide from the killer—except the relentless fiend hunts them there, as well.
Sergio Martino directed several giallo films, including the equally awesome trifecta of stupendously named films: The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh (1971), Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key (1972), and All the Colours of the Dark (1972), each of which stars giallo queen Edwige Fenech. I hope to cover all of those films someday, as part of our ongoing Giallogy seminar. With Torso, Martino crafted what is frequently referred to as one of the first proto-slasher films. As the kills escalate and become more and more gruesome, Torso ratchets up an excruciatingly high level of tension throughout.
Is it the first slasher, as some pundits and fans claim? I don’t know, the waters get very murky when it comes to singling out the ur-slasher, thanks to all that blood in the water, no doubt. There are definitely echos of Torso’s stalk-and-slash violence in late seventies, early eighties slashers like Friday the 13th (1980) or The Burning (1981).
The previously mentioned cast of beautiful people includes seventies Italian genre movie legends like Suzy Kendall, Tina Aumont, Patrizia Adiutori, Conchita Airoldi, Angela Covello, and Luc Merenda. Thanks to mesmerizing hotties like Kendall and Amount, among others, Torso is in the running for most gorgeous cast of female protagonists ever assembled in a horror movie. And yes, that’s a real list that I keep in my head, and I’m telling you Torso ranks high on that list. The lovely ladies aren’t the only eye candy on display though, as the sumptuous scenic vistas of central Italy provide an absolutely beautiful backdrop to all the blood and guts.
Ultimately, all of these accolades are what make Torso highly, nay, ridiculously rewatchable. I revisit it every few years and it never disappoints. Throw this one on first in a triple feature with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) and any of the first four Friday the 13th films, and your slasher fix is sure to be sufficiently sated.
Our foxy French maid and all-around Gal Friday Yvette has a few words to say about Torso, after digging this post out of the depths of the Lounge’s vault of lost drafts.
Yvette: Monsieur, ze only zing I must say is ze women of Torso make me all, how you say, hot and ze bothered?
[Yvette then bites her lip and moans in ecstasy]
The Starfire Lounge 