BAD INCLINATION

In a condominium in the heart of Rome, a young teacher is killed with a drawing squad. Taking advantage of the event, some neighbors stage similar murders to get publicity, take revenge for personal grudges, or to grab fortunes in money; this is the case of the former TV star Nicole Cardente, who, to regain notoriety, claims to have been threatened by the killer, or the rich Mirta, who commissions the murder of her own maid to silence her about some shady deals involving her. On this chaos of events, the interest of mass media is focused, which use the hunt for the serial killer to increase their audience. The year 2003 will be remembered by genre enthusiasts as the year when the Italian thriller, a noble genre especially in vogue in the 1970s, committed suicide; and the one who pushed this beloved genre to the extreme act was Pierfrancesco Campanella, a talentless director who ventured into a genre with very precise rules, demonstrating not to know them at all! "Cattive inclinazioni" fails to keep every promise that a homemade thriller should keep: there is no suspense, no gore, no convincing story, no final twist, and above all, there is no killer, since throughout the duration of the film, we will see a bunch of unpleasant women acting clumsily in search of money and success. Campanella, in the end, had high intentions, as his goal was to denounce the overwhelming power that the media have gained in recent years, a power that can push to accuse an innocent person simply for the sake of increasing audience; not surprisingly, Salvatore Ferraro, accused of the murder of Marta Russo in a case with many similarities to some events narrated in the film, appears as a collaborator in the screenplay. This evident subtext is unfortunately poorly managed and poorly inserted in a film that, let's say it clearly, is badly written, directed even worse, and performed in the worst way. The story often goes in circles and unfolds in useless and ridiculous subplots (the investigation into the alleged culprit, with a visit to the asylum and the discovery of the macabre drawings that the patient made, is the height of obviousness!); the characters are barely sketched if not completely evanescent (the drug-addicted girl played by Elisabetta Rocchetti would surely have needed at least a minimum of development); the direction is clumsy and unsure whether to take the road of the giallo, the drama of denunciation, or the grotesque; the special effects are so rough as to be inferior to any independent/underground product. Even more striking is the presence of numerous bloopers that throw the viewer into a state of compulsive giggles: microphones that invade the frame; crew members reflected in the glass and whoever else has more, put it in! A veil of pity is then to be cast on the cast, composed of utter incompetents: Eva Robin’s as the decayed starlet, Mirca Viola (TV face and infomercial voice) as the Public Prosecutor Rita Facino, the inexpressive Guido Berti in the role of the #1 suspect Premio Politano (what a name!), and the otherwise good Elisabetta Cavallotti as the manager and lover of Robin’s. To these names are added inexplicably Florinda Bolkan, famous for having acted in many gialli of the golden age like "Una lucertola con la pelle di donna" and "Non si sevizia un paperino," here in the guise of the wicked Mirta, and, in a cameo, even Franco Nero, also an excellent actor dedicated to the giallo/police genre, who ended up in this mess for some arcane reason. In short, "Cattive inclinazioni" is one of those products so embarrassing and poorly made that it earns, over the years, the reputation of a cult of trash, and believe me, in this film there is trash to sell! Hopeless.