Torso

By the time director Sergio Martino got around to dismembering bodies with a hack saw courtesy of a faceless black-gloved killer, giallo progenitor Dario Argento had already given up on the genre after three successful entries:  the groundbreaking Bird with the Crystal Plumage, its lesser follow-up, Cat ‘O Nine Tails, and  Four Flies on Grey Velvet.  But Martino never had illusions that he was actually making art.  A journeyman director who jumped from action to comedy to smut and back again, Martino always seemed to work wonders with the few crumbs other filmmakers left behind.


And that’s exactly what he does with Torso, recasting Bird’s Suzy Kendall as one of a gaggle of barely-clothed girls vacationing at a Cliffside villa who find themselves tormented by a killer with emotional scars and a penchant for fashionable neckwear.  The Argento influence is unmistakable, with a combination of plot elements lifted directly from the previous films, including childhood trauma and a memory-challenged MacGuffin which figures prominently.  Martino even seems to be emulating Argento’s shooting-style, with oblique angles and interesting camera moves that didn’t appear often in his repertoire.  All this might have simply added up to yet another cash-n-grab giallo if it weren’t for the tremendously suspenseful final 30-minutes in which Kendall is trapped in the house while the maniac cuts apart his victims for easy assembly.  Probably closer to Hitchcock than Argento ever managed to get, Torso finds its sweet spot at just the right time.


Now upgraded to 4K UHD from their previous Blu-ray, this limited edition is a real beaut, utilizing HDR to bring out some deep colors and even deeper blacks.  Working from a 4K restoration, it still retains that signature cinematic grain inherent to the era without making things look too pretty.  Previously part of the Giallo Essentials collection (and a long out of print Blue Underground release), this limited edition adds in some top-of-the-line interviews from Martino, screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi, actor Luc Merenda and plenty of on-point dissection from Kat Ellinger in the commentary track along with a collector’s booklet.
 

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