Hooptober 7.0

63/39 - Bonus Watch

My Giallo List
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Umberto Lenzi with another bonkers mid 70s giallo.  This one may not be as insane as Spasmo or as well done as Seven Blood Stained Orchirds, but it holds its own and functions on two levels as both an effective twisty giallo mystery and a bit of a meta satire of the genre and proto slasher.

Following a bus full of Americans as they tour Barcelona and passengers begin to get killed - each losing their left eye in gruesome fashion - you’d think the tour would, you know stop?  But no, this is a Lenzi travelogue, and so we keep going.  A grizzled inspector about to retire (ala Seven) shows up, and continues to pop in and out as the murders pile up.

I’ll admit the mystery had me guessing until toward the end, but I was more interested in the elements that seemed almost a parody of giallo conventions. (Red gloves, not black for one).  Plus, this had a number of elements that presaged the slasher genre.  High body count, final girl, fake outs, finding dead bodies....much like Bay Of Blood without the Bava artistry.

A solid score and decent cast round this out.  The 88 Films disc includes a terrific Lenzi bio documentary covering his whole career with interviews with him and many others.  A terrific little career overview.