PAURA

Alessandro works in a mechanic's shop in Rome and when he finds out that one of his rich clients, the Marquis Lanzi, will be away for the entire weekend for a gathering of classic cars in Switzerland, he decides to organize a party in the Marquis's villa, primarily involving his two best friends Marco and Simone. The three manage to sneak into the villa thanks to a set of keys that Alessandro found in the Marquis's car and start having fun with alcohol and video games, waiting for the crowd of their friends to arrive for the party. Meanwhile, Simone goes down to the basement of the villa and, hearing a strange noise coming from behind a closed door, realizes that there is someone else in the house. The Manetti Bros. have become over the years a guarantee of good genre cinema, among the few authors in our country capable and willing to tackle so many different genres generally considered "B-movies" and not supported by local producers. Only a few months ago we were able to see their successful foray into science fiction with "The Arrival of Wang" and now we can already admire their latest effort, a pure horror film with the explanatory title "Paura 3D". This new film by the Manettis has the privilege of being the first Italian horror film shot in stereoscopy to reach theaters and we can say that it is also an excellent 3D, both in terms of technical realization and the real utility of the third dimension for the film itself. A 3D used mainly for depth and curiously manages to take advantage of the different perceptual levels despite being set mainly indoors, creating a notable sense of claustrophobia. Apart from the 3D, "Paura", which was originally supposed to be more appropriately called "The Shadow of the Ogre" and before that "The Room of the Ogre", is a good horror entertainment that brings the mind of the aficionado spectator back to certain Italian productions of the 80s, with their virtues and defects. On the one hand, we have a screenplay that sometimes creaks, on the other, a series of reasons to recommend this film. Let's start with the latter. "Paura 3D" revolves around the story of a segregation that in many respects reminds the famous case of the Austrian Natascha Kampusch. The Manettis, however, do not limit themselves to retelling a news story and build around this event an ad hoc horror that draws as much from torture porn (in a major way) as from the slasher movie, without neglecting a series of splatter and morbid elements that are sometimes really unusual. In this horror mishmash that proceeds between gunshots to the face, fork stabbings, torn nipples, and decapitations, what strikes the most is the unhealthy relationship that is created between the victim and the executioner and which reaches its peak in the remarkable scene of the shaving, which more than any other manages to make the spectator uncomfortable. The serial killer with evident pedophilic tendencies preserves the infantile innocence of his victims by shaving them, denying the physical development of those particulars that primarily indicate the passage to puberty and, subsequently, to maturity. The psychological mechanisms that drive this behavior are never shouted and leave an unsettling yet fascinating subtext that finds in the film's epilogue more than one interpretation. The negative side of "Paura 3D", as mentioned, is represented by some elements of the screenplay that are not convincing. First of all, we notice a playing with the clichés of horror that at times becomes really banal, the behavior of the positive characters is somewhat unrealistic with continuous expedients to separate them and make them, therefore, more vulnerable to the killer's blows. Once can be fine, twice already starts to smell bad, but three and then four almost smell like a joke and in fact at a certain point it is not clear if the Manettis' intention is to ironize on this unlikely characteristic or if it is all a macabre and unsuccessful expedient to increase the tension. The characterization of the three protagonist boys is banally linked to the stereotypes of "bad guys" from American horror, unsympathetic characters and described in such a way as to make the spectator side with the villain of the situation, with the attempt to create empathy only with the most "sensitive" of the group. Beyond these notes that tend to make the narration less fluid otherwise rich in good points, "Paura 3D" is a film that overall convinces, well directed and with a lot of good actors, from the villain Peppe Servillo ("Into Paradiso"), musician turned actor, to the good Lorenzo Pedrotti ("Imago Mortis"; "Krokodyle"). Among them, Francesca Cuttica ("The Arrival of Wang") stands out in an intense and really difficult role. The cast is completed by Domenico Diele, already protagonist of "A.C.A.B.", and Claudio Di Biagio from the web series "Freaks!".