{"id":29487,"date":"2024-09-17T02:33:34","date_gmt":"2024-09-17T09:33:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=29487"},"modified":"2024-09-17T02:33:34","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T09:33:34","slug":"blasts-from-the-past-4k-ultra-hd-review-torso-1973","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=29487","title":{"rendered":"Blasts from the Past! 4K Ultra HD Review: TORSO (1973)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This \u201cLimited Edition\u201d 4K Ultra HD release from Arrow\nVideo will be available for purchase on September 17th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I\u2019ve seen a lot of Italian \u201cgiallo\u201d films and genre pictures\nin my day, but my oh my it can be hard keeping up with them all. Of course, you\nhave filmmaking icons Mario Bava, Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci, not to mention\nnoted contemporaries Lamberto Bava, Michele Soavi and even Umberto Lenzi. But\nthere are dozens more. One figure who has been rising to prominence in recent\nyears is Sergio Martino. He was right there in the middle of it all, making\npictures in a variety of genres, but becoming most noted in other parts of the\nworld for titles like The Case of the Scorpion\u2019s Tail, All the Colors of the\nDark, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key<\/em> and, ahem, Island\nof the Fishmen<\/em> and 2019, After the Fall of New York<\/em> (maybe not so\nmuch for the last two).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of his titles that has been gaining more attention\nrecently is Torso<\/em>. It\u2019s technically a \u201cgiallo,\u201d but is now considered a\n\u201cproto-slasher,\u201d meaning that it contains many elements that would become\nstaples of 1980s horror pictures. The feature is nicely shot and includes some\ngorgeous location photography, as well as a dark and twisted story about a\nparticularly nasty killer who mutilates women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arrow Video is now presenting the film in 4K Ultra HD. The\nrestoration was taken from the original camera negative, meaning that the image\nquality is now crisper and cleaner than ever before. It\u2019s a great-looking disc\nthat any fan of Italian genre cinema will appreciate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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As mentioned, a group of young university students (studying\nin Perugia) are being hunted by a masked murderer who strangles them before\ncutting up their bodies. He soon targets a wealthy student, Dani (Tina Aumont),\nwho is a potential witness of his previous slaying. Dani isn\u2019t really sure of\nwhat she saw though, and has invited friend Jane (Suzy Kendall) and other\nfemale students to stay with her at a fancy villa in the country. This means\nthe maniac soon decides to break in and slaughter all of them. The killer also\neliminates several creepy guys with pervy habits along the way, in the process\ntaking care of the script\u2019s several red herrings. The climax features one of\nthe women trapped in the villa with the antagonist and fighting for survival.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is definitely a nasty little movie. I should mention\nthat there are two cuts on this release, with the Italian version being four\nminutes longer (and a little bloodier). The plot is fairly by-the-numbers and\nthe story can be quite a cruel film at times. The villain is truly nasty and\nthe way he goes about murdering is particularly brutal (it would have been\nextra-nasty in its day). No doubt this was typically done in order to be\ndistinctive and compete with similar genre pictures. Among the expected gruesomeness,\nthere\u2019s also a particularly nasty bit in which one suspect is run down with a\ncar and has his head crushed between the bumper and a brick wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Additionally, almost all of the male characters are\nhorrible. The movie even features hippies who are presented as anything but\nmellow, calm and peace-loving. There are very few nice people in the picture\n(as well as a few stereotypes that wouldn\u2019t fly today) and most meet violent\nfates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the film is well put together. The young cast of\nstudents are appealing. And the 30-minute finale does include some tense\nsequences (particularly when the villain is aware of where a survivor is\nhiding, but she is unaware of his presence). The murders are meant to be\nupsetting and they certainly make that impression. One set around a foggy bog\nis also memorably staged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While there isn\u2019t a lot of camera movement or elaborate\nset-ups, the movie is still visually distinctive. Or, at the very least, the\nlocations are incredible. The Perugia university scenes are gorgeous in 4K and\nreally stand out. It\u2019s a stunning, castle-like campus with a beautiful town\nsquare and there\u2019s a real uptick in picture quality when anyone is there. Some\ndarker scenes have a natural graininess to them, but nothing distracting. The\ndaylight material (and some night scenes that are well lit) are quite\nremarkable for a low-budget effort.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, like other Arrow releases, there are some great extras.\nMost are archived from previous releases, but they\u2019re still informative. This\nincludes an interview with co-writer\/director Martino, as well as chats with\nthe co-writer, cast and crew members, who all share their memories of making\nthe movie, as well as some of its distinctive elements. There\u2019s another\ninformative Q&A with Martino included that was recorded at a film festival\nin 2017, a discussion from a \u201cgiallo\u201d film authority about the movie\u2019s importance,\nalternate opening and closing credits from the US release, trailers, and plenty\nmore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another big extra is a film historian commentary. It is\ngood, but does suffer a bit from the fact that the speaker focuses on the\noverall career of Martino, the cast and the crew. She offers some interesting\ngeneral points about the themes and ideas being addressed, but there is little\ncommentary on what is actually occurring on the screen. The historian is a big\nfan of the director and thinks his work is generally stronger than some more\nfamous names, so much of the running time includes her defending this idea.\nPersonally, while I can certainly agree that in some respects his work may be\nunderrated and that he has made a few notable titles, this picture simply isn\u2019t\nas strong as the best in, say, Argento\u2019s filmography. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is also an illustrated booklet including with writing\non the movie and a reversible sleeve containing original and newly commissioned\nartwork for the feature.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Torso<\/em> is an interesting curiosity that is ahead of\nits time in a few respects. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s the best of its genre, but it is\na reasonably compelling effort that in some respects foreshadows horror\npictures in the 1980s. The 4K Ultra HD resolution is fantastic and, for those\nwho appreciate \u201cgiallo\u201d pictures or Italian cinema, it certainly is one that\nyou want to own for a few memorably nasty slayings and its photography.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This \u201cLimited Edition\u201d 4K Ultra HD release from Arrow Video will be available for purchase on September 17th. I\u2019ve seen a lot of Italian \u201cgiallo\u201d films and genre pictures in my day, but my oh my it can be hard keeping up with them all. Of course, you have filmmaking icons Mario Bava, Dario Argento […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":29492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[104,300,1836,2923,2928,2936,8290,9319,10042,15941,16448,18047,18515,19434,22929,23127,23128,23129],"class_list":["post-29487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dvdblu-ray-reviews","tag-104","tag-4k-ultra-hd","tag-arrow-video","tag-blasts-from-the-past","tag-blasts-from-the-past-blu-ray-review","tag-blasts-from-the-past-4k-ultra-hd-review","tag-giallo","tag-horror","tag-italy","tag-perugia","tag-proto-slasher","tag-sergio-martino","tag-slasher","tag-suzy-kendall","tag-tina-aumont","tag-torso","tag-torso-4k-ultra-hd-review","tag-torso-review"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=29487"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29487\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}