MACABRE

A woman goes mad following the death of her lover. After spending a few years in a psychiatric clinic, she is discharged but is not yet fully healed. She returns to live in the apartment where the "forbidden" meetings with her lover took place, convinced, in her madness, that he is still alive. Her neighbor, a young blind man, begins to suspect the strange noises coming from the woman's apartment and one day, taking advantage of her absence, enters stealthily. He will uncover a horrible secret... One of the most successful horror films (especially abroad) by Lamberto Bava. A sort of "female" version of D'Amato's "Buio Omega," though much less gory than the latter. Considered, especially in the United States, a small cult of the genre, Bava's film certainly has the merit of having a rather original story and a surprise ending (after all, the screenplay and subject are by a certain Pupi Avati), what does not convince is the extreme slowness of the entire central part (for almost an hour of the film, practically nothing happens!). Along with "Demoni," it remains one of the few works of the director worth seeing and demonstrates that Lamberto has succeeded in capturing, albeit in a very small dose, something of the talent of his father Mario. The film's tagline said "The film that terrified Dario Argento," perhaps a bit excessive and certainly "free" but definitely impactful. It's not a masterpiece but it ranks average.