Solamente negro

The Bloodstained Shadow doesn't do anything you haven't seen a million times over and the killer is so obvious from the start that you spend most of the overstuffed run time wondering why no one is calling out this person. It doesn't have the style, excess, or general unease of an Argento giallo and, instead, feels uncomfortably sandwiched somewhere in between a movie of the week and a less spirited episode of Murder, She Wrote: Jessica Goes To Italy.

There are a few attempts at the sleaze a lot of giallos are known for, but it's a mostly polite, too-classy affair with only the occasional instance of camp when a priest and child molesting piano teacher have a battle over who is more corrupt.

The characters are poorly drawn and uninteresting to follow and the film just doesn't seem to understand this and treats us to long sequences of them going about their day to day lives. Even worse, most of the murder scenes (the highlight of just about any giallo) aren't very creative or interesting.

"The Bloodstained Shadow" is a film that requires patience. Had I not seen several giallos already, I might have fallen asleep in parts of this one. That being said, for giallo fans, this one is a worthy addition to your collection.

It starts out with a professor going back to his hometown, a small Italian island, and reuniting with his brother, a priest. The two become entangled in a web of murder and deception and it is somehow linked to the murder of a young girl year earlier. The setting is remarkable, the music is great and the acting is over par.

Then, we have the 'required' giallo elements. A love story. A suspect. Two suspects. Red herrings. Vague clues. Flashbacks. It gets a little ridiculous. By the time we find out who the killer is, (the first person I guessed,) we're a little worn out. There is a cheap shot which I cannot reveal because I'd give away the movie, but lets just say it's not fair to the viewer.

All being said, a really good ambiance and awesome setting give this film some merit. I'd recommend it to a hardcore giallo fan.

PS: now we know where the Blue Underground theme song comes from.

6 out of 10, kids.

Nothing more than an honest italian giallo, this movie tells the torbid story of a string of murders in a small town in the Venice laguna. A young mathematician will find the answer to one of his early nightmares, but he will not like the taste of it. A good music and a good atmosphere don't totally hide a lacking script (a few of the acts of the murderer are without a real, logical explanation), but this is the norm in several of more routinely italian gialli.

As fans of this particular genre, "giallo", knows there are some characteristics that have to be included: POV-shots from the killer, black gloves and grisly, graphic murders and so on! The gloves are missing here but everything else is! The story is set in Venice where bizarre events are unfolding, leading to death-threats and murders. And everything is connected to an episode many years ago, concerning the strangulation of a young girl. There are echoes from many other giallos, like the classic "Deep Red", but unlike so many other imitators, director Antonio Bido (who made the inferior giallo "The cat's victims") has a true feeling for setting up the set-pieces. His actors are also quite good even if the dubbing, as always, may distract from the viewers pleasure. His knows how to place his camera to enhance the suspense and atmosphere. To complain a little, I too found, like a previous reviewer here, that the episodes between Casini and Capolicchio are a bit squirm-inducing. They are simply put, very boring together, and even a nude scene fails to give any sparks. And the boat trip they take together is a scene that should have been omitted (I do HATE those sunglasses) because it seems to belong in another movie altogether, like some travelogue movie. But otherwise a nice exercise in suspense and horror, even if it is talky in places (most gialli are) and takes some time to get the pace going.

Watch Me While I Kill wasn't the best giallo in the world, so it's nice to Antonio Bido step things up a bit in this one, even though it's nearly two hours long.

In a place that isn't quite Venice but nearby, young Stefano returns home to stay with his brother, a local priest. Stefano suffers from flashbackitis, a disease where he keeps seeing a small crying child, but it's not all doom and gloom because it looks like local lass Stefania Casini is into him.

His priest brother is also a bit of a gossip, and fills Stefano in on the local freaks, including a phoney medium who may or may not be blackmailing her customers, which includes a backstreet abortionist with a dark secret, a doctor, and some rich gay guy who could also be a nonce. Then there's Andrea, the bereaved father of a girl we saw murdered at the start of a film, and Stefania Casini's crippled stepmother, who paints pictures, one of which sets off Stefano's flashbacks! Its like Eastenders, really.

After someone rather stupidly murders the medium in front of the priest's house, the priest starts receiving death threats, Stefano embarks on an investigation (while also putting the moves on Stefania Casini), and someone pulls on those old black gloves to do some murdering...

While overlong and very Argento-like, this is still a solid giallo with loads of twists and turns, and plenty of atmosphere too, due to the almost-Venice setting (I probably should have looked up where this takes place). There was enough going on to keep me entertained, and although I did eventually figure out who the killer was, I was still pretty satisfied by the proceeding.

You could also make a game out of what scene you've previously witness in a preceeding Giallo film: the Cemetary scene from Cat O Nine Tails, the crazy son hidden by his mother in Case of The Bloody Iris, the clue in the painting from Bird With The Crystal Plumage. Some people hate this one by the way.