Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Dollar Bin Film:Who Saw Her Die



By Eric Polk of http://anotherdescentinto.blogspot.com/

I am a huge fan of the Italian giallo genre. Basically, it is a highly-stylized kind of film featuring bloody kill sequences, glamorous camerashots, and odd musical scores. The giallo is the foundation to which all slasher films have been laid. With 1972's Who Saw Her Die, we see this genre in its robust, if not confused glory.

Featuring George Lazenby(you know, the one-time-at-bat James Bond?...maybe not) and directed by Aldo Lado, Who Saw Her Die takes place in and around the canals of Venice in 1971. The daughter of a well-known sculptor is murdered. As her father(Lazenby) and his wife investigate, the murder piles on the body count with some rather unoriginal deaths(Garrote to the neck in a porn theater, stab to the gut with a pair of scissors, snowball to the head, how medically it was possible I have no idea).

Turns out the killer struck back in 1966 in the snow-covered mountains of France where a young girl gets beaned by said snowball.(Huh?) The race is on to find the killer and along the way we see t-n-a o'plenty plus just general absurdity you come to expect from a European horror film. You need to pay close attention to whodunit as Who Saw Her Die will leave you shaking your head and rewinding the film again just so it makes some sort of sense.

If you like your horror mainstream, to the point, this is not the film for you. On the other hand, if you care to delve into this somewhat obscure genre featuring a once-promising actor doing what he can to survive then gives this a spin.

7/10

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