''Murder Obsession'' (''Follia omicida''), a.k.a. ''Fear'', is a 1981 Italian

giallo In Italian cinema, (; : ; from , ) is a genre that often contains Slasher film, slasher, thriller (genre), thriller, psychological horror, psychological thriller, Sexploitation film, sexploitation, and, less frequently, supernatural, supernat ...

- horror film directed by

Riccardo Freda Riccardo Freda (24 February 1909 – 20 December 1999) was an Italian film director. He worked in a variety of genres, including sword-and-sandal, horror film, horror, ''giallo'' and spy films. Freda began directing ''I Vampiri'' in 1956. The f ...

, and starring

Laura Gemser Laurette Marcia Gemser (born 5 October 1950) is an Indonesian-Dutch retired actress, model and costume designer. She is primarily known for her work in Cinema of Italy, Italian Sex in film, erotic cinema, most notably the ''Emmanuelle#Other film ...

and Anita Strindberg.

Plot summary

A successful actor named Michael has a dark past where, at a young age, he stabbed his father to death. Along with his girlfriend Deborah, he visits his mother for the weekend and are joined by the director and other people involved in a film. Soon, the guests begin to get picked off and Michael fears his past will come back to kill him.

Cast

* Stefano Patrizi as Michael Stanford *

Martine Brochard Martine Brochard (born 2 April 1944) is a French actress and writer. Life and career Born in Paris, Brochard debuted in 1968 in a minor role in François Truffaut's '' Baisers volés''. In 1970, she moved to Italy, where she became a minor s ...

as Shirley *

Henri Garcin Henri Garcin (born Anton Albers; 11 April 1928 – 13 June 2022) was a Belgian film actor. He appeared in more than 100 films from 1956 to 2022. Selected filmography * '' Mademoiselle and Her Gang'' (1957) * '' Mata Hari, Agent H21'' (1964) * ...

as Hans Schwartz * John Richardson as Oliver *

as Beryl * Anita Strindberg as Glenda Stanford * Silvia Dionisio as Deborah

Production

Around 1969, Fabio Piccioni wrote a short story titled ''Il grido del Capricorno'', which he later adapted into an adult comic book in the ''Oltretomba'' series. Living across from the office of Salvatore Argento, Piccioni approached Argento and sold him the rights to ''Il grido del Capricorno'' for 500,000

Italian lire The lira ( , ; : lire, , ) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually fo ...

. Some elements of ''Il grido del capricorno'' would later appear in

Dario Argento Dario Argento (; born 7 September 1940) is an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. His influential work in the horror film, horror and giallo genres during the 1970s and 1980s has led him to being referred to as the "Master of the ...

's films '' The Bird with the Crystal Plumage'' and ''

Deep Red ''Deep Red'' (), also known as ''The Hatchet Murders'', is a 1975 Italian ''giallo'' film directed by Dario Argento and co-written by Argento and Bernardino Zapponi. It stars David Hemmings as a musician who investigates a series of murders perf ...

''. Piccioni reused elements of his story again years later in a contemporary setting, with a script made with Antonio Cesare Corti and

that would become ''Murder Obsession''. Some sources credit the film's original title as ''L'ossessione che uccide'' whereas the script located at the BiFi (Bibliothèque du film) in Paris is titled ''Deliria'' and is credited to Corti and Piccioni and dated from 1976. The ''Deliria'' script is generally identical to the script used in ''Murder Obsession'' with only a few characters' names changed. According to Riccardo Freda's daughter Jacqueline Freda, her father took on the script to re-enter the film market after his latest absence from the industry, and to earn potential financing for a pet project based on the life of Italian World War I fighter ace Francesco Baracca. ''Murder Obsession'' was an Italian and French co-production, with the Italian producer Enzo Boetani and his company Dinoysio Cinematografica. Boetani had known Freda for years but never had a chance to actually complete a project with him, having worked together on one unknown project and another entitled ''Superhuman'' (which Boetani described as a superhero and professional wrestling styled film). Freda brought the script to Boetani and suggested doing it as an Italian and French co-production, with the French producer being his friend Simon Mizrahi. Filming went on for three weeks in April 1980, predominantly in Palace Borghese in Artena and at Parco della Mola in

Oriolo Romano Oriolo Romano is a (municipality) in the Province of Viterbo in the Italian region of Latium, located about northwest of Rome and about south of Viterbo on a hilly area near the ancient Via Clodia. Main sights *''Palazzo Altieri di Oriolo'' ...

. Actress

recalled her negative experience making the film, describing the filming as a "nightmare", specifically mentioning a scene where Anita Strindberg used a real knife to pretend to stab her.

also did not have fond memories of the filming, noting a scene where there is glass specifically cut to fit over her head and a camera with a chainsaw attached to it that got dangerously close to the actress. Both Brochard and Stefano Patrizi spoke negatively about working with Freda, with Brochard noting that he treated the French actors badly and Patrizi having little recollection of the film other than vaguely recalling that Freda was a "harsh man of few words, and not very affable" Riccardo Freda also edited the film in an uncredited capacity.

Release

''Murder Obsession'' was submitted to Italian film censors on October 15, 1980 and was passed on October 31 but was only released in Italy on February 24, 1981. Italian film historian Roberto Curti described it as having "mediocre business" which Boetani blamed on the distributor, who did not pay back the expected sum which lead to the production losing over 50 percent of the production costs. Freda dismissed the film, referring to it as "shit". The film has been released on home video in the United States as ''Murder Obsession'', ''Fear'' and ''The Wailing''. The film was released as ''Fear'' on

VHS VHS (Video Home System) is a discontinued standard for consumer-level analog video recording on tape cassettes, introduced in 1976 by JVC. It was the dominant home video format throughout the tape media period of the 1980s and 1990s. Ma ...

by Wizard Video. The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD by Raro Video.

Reception

From retrospective reviews, Louis Paul in his book ''Italian Horror Film Directors'' declared ''Murder Obsession'' to be "Freda's best film, although it doesn't make much sense" noting that Freda "confounds the viewer with hallucinations, red herrings galore and a decidedly downbeat ending" and concluding that the film "loves to play with the limitations of the genre and seeks to exceed the demands of its audiences at the same time."

References

Footnotes

Sources

* * *

External links

* {{Riccardo Freda 1981 films 1981 horror films Films directed by Riccardo Freda Italian horror films French horror films Films shot in Rome Giallo films 1980s Italian-language films 1980s Italian films 1980s French films Italian-language French films Italian-language horror films