TELEPHONE MURDER

A mysterious serial killer masked as a clown targets the telephone operators of an erotic chat line, raping and killing them. The police put two agents on the trail of the killer, who pose as telephone operators to investigate among the chat line's clients. Bruno Mattei should be rewarded solely for the tenacity and obstinacy with which he continued to make genre films when they were no longer a custom of Italian cinema: erotic thrillers, cannibal movies, w.i.p., horror with zombies, mummies, and killer sharks; in short, things that no one else dared to film between the second half of the 1990s and the early years of the new millennium, became a playground for the good Mattei. It is true that one must say that the quality of the aforementioned was a real optional; frankly unwatchable movies, made in an approximate manner and often using a sort of questionable "found footage" probably illegal, characteristics that hardly can make one recognize the hand of the director of "Hell of the Living Dead" and "Virus - Hell of the Living Dead". "Omicidio al telefono" is one of the first purely "alimentary" films of Mattei in decline, commissioned by producer Ninì Grassia who also appears as co-screenwriter and composer of the music (but someone says he also cut out the role of co-director). The year of production is 1994 and Mattei had been contacted by the Neapolitan producer to direct two erotic thrillers destined for the foreign market in the hope of exploiting the residual success of "Basic Instinct" and its clones. Mattei had already practiced the genre a couple of years earlier with "Attrazione pericolosa" and "Gli occhi dentro" with already mediocre results, but the proof provided with the Grassia projects "Legittima vendetta" and "Omicidio al telefono" reaches depths of baseness really difficult to surpass (which he will unfortunately manage a few years later). Speaking ill of a film like "Omicidio al telefono" is really too easy, an insipid and poorly made operetta that provides elements for the review on a silver platter. The intention of this film, to a greater extent compared to its production brother "Legittima vendetta", is to build a thriller with discrete horror connotations that can mainly rely on the erotic atmosphere ensured by long and frequent lovemaking that mainly involves Antonio Zequila and Daniela Mango. The result that we all have before our eyes is so embarrassing as to really feel pity, a crazy and ugly film in the soul that could almost aspire to the status of "cult" for someone. The screenplay revolves around the exploits of the clown killer and the police investigation, but immediately loses itself in a sea of useless delays about the openly nymphomaniac tendencies of the protagonist, who takes advantage of the situation to go to bed with as many clients as possible. She has generous forms and the questionable acting skills of Daniela Mango and her most frequent partner is Antonio Zequila... yes, you read that right, the famous "Er Mutanda" who a few years later will have good television visibility thanks to "The Island of the Famous" and live arguments on "Domenica In", who here deploys all his inexpressiveness in "profundissimi" close-ups and very long sex scenes in which the most incredible positions of the Kama Sutra are practiced to ensure that the camera never captures his "family jewels". The rest of the cast is in tune with the protagonists, made up of unlikely policemen (the head of the police Francesco Lombardi, a similar-truzzo to Lorenzo Lamas, is indispensable for the easy laugh) and a clumsy and poor-looking serial killer who, with his scrause clown mask of those sold at a discount during the carnival period, almost makes you feel sorry. Many of the dialogues seem improvised at the time of shooting and Grassia's music is really horrible, starting with the annoying similar-tecno piece that serves as a background to all the killer's attacks. For the rest, what can I say? The appreciable Mattei of the 1980s is completely absent and the film is directed in an anonymous and sloppy manner, sunk by a direct-to-video squalid visual quality. Not even the violence of the murders can save this film, since the killings all occur off-screen... there are only many nudity (especially female) and an aura of involuntary comedy that envelops the entire work. If this can be enough for you, make yourself comfortable.