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    HORRORSCREAMS VIDEOVAULT – SUPPORTING INDEPENDENT HORROR

    Film Review: SPASMO (1974)

    Peter 'Witchfinder' HopkinsBy Peter 'Witchfinder' Hopkins25th July 2019Updated:25th July 201925 Comments1 Min Read

    SPASMO **** Italy 1974 Dir: Umberto Lenzi 94 mins

    One of Lenzi’s most disciplined and classy movies, this opens in an eerie low key, as a couple’s make-out session is disturbed by a hanging dummy – establishing the film’s fixation on unnervingly life-like female mannequins, and accompanied by one of Ennio Morricone’s most achingly beautiful giallo themes. Handsome Robert Hoffman discovers Suzy Kendall on a beach, initially mistaking her for a corpse.
    She’s a little kooky and insists he shaves his beard, but the two embark on a fling that’s soured when a gun-toting stranger bursts into the house, and Hoffman has to kill him in self-defence. This is the catalyst for a compelling, labyrinthine mind-fuck, as Hoffman doubts both his sanity and the integrity of everyone around him. Restrained in terms of sex and gore, this mature thriller is intense and well-acted, building to an impressively bleak finale and a notably haunting conclusion, as hereditary madness spreads and no one enjoys a happy ending.

    Review by Steven West

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    1970s Ennio Morricone Giallo Italian Italian Horror Robert Hoffman Spasmo Suzy Kendall Umberto Lenzi

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    25 Comments

    1. Eloise on 10th February 2018 11:44 PM

      1974

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      1974

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      1974

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    4. Milly Youngman on 30th January 2018 12:18 PM

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