"It's not a spider, it's a cockroach!" - Italian cinema's most befuddling line as it clearly is a fucking spider
A Blade in the Dark is not top tier giallo, but I dug the heck out of it. We get the always ridiculous Andrea "Donald Duck" Occhipinti in the lead, unacting his way through the film, pulling faces that make no sense in the moment. There's Bob from House by the Cemetery, and Fabiola Toledo, the red-eyed, green-vomming iconic demon from Lamberto Bava's one true masterpiece. Most importantly, this features director Michele Soavi's most involved participation as an actor, extending far beyond a cameo. The aesthetic is Tenebre-lite. The story is sleazy (and shockingly dated by today's standards). It's predictable yet fun. The dialogue is delightfully silly. There's a murder in a bathroom that is genuinely horrifying and stands alongside the best deaths in giallo history. A Blade in the Dark is definitely trash, and I like trash a lot.