Phantom of Death by Ruggero Deodato of
Cannibal Holocaust fame.
It was made in 1988 and is a post-giallo/pseudo-slasher flick starring Michael York and Edwige Fenech.
And frankly, it's hopeless. It's an obvious attempt to cash in on mid-period Argento, and revive, or replay, a great Italian cinematic staple: the extreme erotic thriller. It's a post-
Tenebrae vehicle made years after
Tenebrae itself had provided the perfect end, or coda to, the giallo. That really is the last great giallo, and there was nowhere for the genre after it: the excessive psychological violence and physical gore, the virtuoso cinematography and postmodern self-reflexivity amounted to a big full stop. The American slasher movies were sordid trash because they simply lifted the worst elements from it, and went further (down) from there. In fact, just after
Tenebrae, Lucio Fulci's vile
New York Ripper came out, which basically set a template for the nihilistic mysogyny of the slashers, though Fulci was making some kind of point still and had also made two of the greatest gialli that exist:
Lizard in a Woman's Skin and
Don't Torture a Duckling.
Phantom of Death doesn't even have the visceral nastiness of your average slasher: it's a highly mannered, badly paced, pointless mess of meagre Argento visuals and formless set-piece murders. Venice and Edwige Fenech, in particular, are badly wasted. Michael York (who hams up the appalling script) plays a famous concert pianist who suffers from a rare ageing disease that usually develops in children but catches him in his mid-30s. He therefore (obviously!) goes on a lurid killing spree, while an inept detective (sleep-walked by Donald Pleasence) tries to catch him. It's a lame idea, but given a bit of thought it could throw up some interesting intellectual angles or visual moments. Ruggero is the kind of eurosleaze director just smart enough to touch profundity but not smart enough to convert that potential into subtle and arresting film making, like Bava and Fulci usually did. His masterpiece remains
Cannibal Holocaust, which is a startling film, and one of the great Italian horror movies, but, really, that was the absolute limit of his abilities. (Though look out for
Waves of Lust, a genuinely original and twisted erotic thriller that
Dead Calm owes a big debt to and is, in a number of ways, worse than.)
The film has been put out by the British DVD company Shameless, who are a kind of heir to Redemption and Vipco. Unlike Anchor Bay, Blue Underground, No Shame (RIP), Severin and other Continental and American DVD companies, the Brits have never really been very good at putting out quality eurosleaze, horror and crime films and, while better than Vipco and Redemption, the quality of Shameless releases is not hot: the packaging is horrific, no Italian soundtracks only the dubs, and poor picture quality. Which is a shame because they are releasing some premier eurosleaze, like Massino Dallamono's
What Have They Done to Your Daughters?, Sergio Martino's
Torso and Piero Schivazappa's The
Frightened Woman.
Those are worth buying, as there're no better versions available, even from the great American and Italian outfits. But, seriously, avoid this Deodato shit, but head for
this instead.