source: A Blade in the Dark

Moviecut—A Blade in the Dark

La casa con la scala nel buio

Okay. A lot of the negative things that people have said about this movie are right on the money. The dubbing is HORRIBLE. To the point of nonsense. The "cockroach" scene is a bit odd. The plot and plot twists are at times predictable and cliche. Now the good parts about this giallo. Its f****** scary!!! Some of the slow stalk sequences and cat and mouse chases are absolutely nerve shattering. Lamberto Bava layed on the atmosphere double thick here. The violence is terrifying and brutally graphic. The score is without doubt the best I've heard in a giallo. And I've seen the Argento films and many others. Final analysis: Technically speaking its flawed, very flawed, but as a slasher/giallo/horror movie its atmospheric and scary. And my personaly favorite giallo. *** (out of ****)

This film is why I worship and adore Italian Giallo films. For one, it has beautiful women in the cast. It is shot with a love for the film art, and is filled with evil and graphic violence that caused it to be censored in many countries. The violence is never ending, with fountains and fountains of the red stuff. The knife attacks are brutal, pull no punches-style of showing the knife entering the flesh. The shock ending will have your blood pumping and adrenaline going. Don't buy the over-hyped commercial garbage out there. Grab the UNCUT Anchor Bay DVD of this awesome display of Italian-made carnage. You will NOT be disappointed! Rated: 9.5/10 because of the cool plot, the shock ending, and the bloody and graphic murder scenes.

The Italians made some great thrillers in the 1970s and 1980s, but occasionally they would stumble badly in their efforts. This includes "A Blade in the Dark", directed by Lamberto Bava. I will admit that it's not a completely bad movie. Despite being made on a low budget, Bava uses the limited locations well so the audience is not bothered by the lack of settings. There are some striking images and occasional eye-catching direction. But all this good stuff doesn't help much against the sad fact that the movie is incredibly slow. It doesn't take long to realize that not much is happening, and the thin story is stretched out from the breaking point. Had the screenplay been more quickly paced and with a lot more happening, we might have had a nifty giallo thriller despite a few additional problems with the movie (like pretty wretched dubbing.) I would only recommend the movie to die hard fans of the Italian giallo genre.

Lamberto Bava, son of the late, mostly great Mario, directed this atrociously inept "shocker" about a composer stalked by a killer. Not only is the script by Elisa Briganti and Dardano Sacchetti a clichéd, illogical mess, Bava's direction (if you can call it that) lacks tension and recycles the most overused cinematic clichés. The rotten English dubbing does not help things; nor does Gianlorenzo Battaglia's ugly, grainy photography. The acting is wooden, too, and it is particularly galling to see Italy's best living horror director, Michel Soavi, making a fool of himself in one of the film's pivotal roles. There are a couple of gory murders, the best featuring a hand skewered by a large carving knife. But blood and a sprinkling of guts aside, this is awkward, embarrassingly bad film-making and it's doubly insulting that the name Bava is associated with this stiff rubbish.

Frequently vicious with some excellent set pieces, A Blade in the Dark must be one of the better non-Argento giallos from the 80's. The story follows a young horror film composer who becomes a target for a deranged serial killer who doesn't want this film to come out. This killer also finds time to hack up anyone who comes to the house where the composer is working on the music, so there's plenty of fresh blood to be spilled. The pace ebbs and flows here and there and it's hard to judge the acting since it's been dubbed into English, but A Blade in the Dark is worth watching for it's insane murder set pieces, including one particularly grisly hairwashing sequence that involves a hand and a very sharp kitchen knife. A Blade in the Dark exists somewhere between the giallos on the 70's and the slashers of the 80's, but manages to find its sweet spot more often than not. I think Lamberto's father, Mario, would be very proud of his work in this.

A Blade in the Dark is one of Lamberto Bava's first (and finest) entries into the giallo subgenre sprinkled with some slasher elements. The English dubbing is awful (which renders the acting un-judgeable) and the story is fairly simple textbook giallo stuff, but Bava gets a chance to showcase his style in several truly thrilling murder set pieces. There's one bit with a hand and a kitchen knife that will make even the hardened gore hounds cringe. Giallo (and even slasher) fans should love it.

"A Blade in the Dark" is a mediocre horror film.People comparing it to Argento's classics are completely missing the point.Obviously Lamberto Bava does not have the talent of his brilliant father Mario Bava-"A Blade in the Dark" is nothing in comparison to "Blood and Black Lace","A Bay of Blood" or "The Girl Who Knew Too Much".Still "A Blade in the Dark" is quite enjoyable,if you're a fan of Italian horror.Bruno,a music composer is offered a job by a female director to write the music for her newest horror film.He takes on the job and rents a small villa.As soon as he starts his work a series of brutal murders is set in motion.The film is not as scary as some people claim-in fact it's pretty dull.There are some vicious and really bloody murders,particularly the bathroom killing,but there is not enough gore for my liking.The script is sometimes too idiotic and the dubbing is horrible.So if you have enough time to waste give this one a look-just don't expect a masterpiece.