FATAL FRAMES

Alex Ritt, an American music video director, arrives in Rome to work with a famous Italian singer. His arrival in the capital coincides with the beginning of several brutal murders whose victims are young women somehow linked to the director. The killer's modus operandi is identical to that of Video Killer, an American serial killer who was never caught and responsible for the massacre of Alex Ritt's wife. The police begin to focus their investigations on him, also asking for help from the American FBI. Another missed opportunity: what could have been an excellent thriller-horror turns out to be a mediocre film full of flaws. The director had at his disposal a flattering cast of actors (Donal Pleasence, Giorgio Albertazzi, Ugo Pagliai, Alida Valli) to whom he inexplicably decided to give only marginal roles, instead entrusting the leading roles to a couple of unknown actors: a boy who looks like a bad copy of Lorenzo Lamas and a vamp, with fake lips and breasts, probably taken from the set of a B-grade hard film. The story could have been intriguing, but the development of the facts seems convoluted and unclear, filled with unnecessary characters that only confuse the viewer, and sequences bordering on the ridiculous and absolutely out of place (see the singer's music videos). There are, however, some positive elements, such as the "shocking" opening sequence of the film or the staging of the murders (rather "bloody"). Really a shame not to have made better use of the opportunity.