''Torso'' (, also released as ''Carnal Violence'') is a 1973 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 ...
'' film directed by
Sergio Martino
Sergio Martino (born 19 July 1938) is an Italian film director and producer, notable for his contributions to the giallo genre.
Martino is the brother of the late producer Luciano Martino (who died in 2013). They collaborated frequently in their ...
, produced by
Carlo Ponti
Carlo Fortunato Pietro Ponti Sr. (11 December 1912 – 10 January 2007) was an Italian film producer with more than 140 productions to his credit. Along with Dino De Laurentiis, he is credited with reinvigorating and popularizing Italian cin ...
Tina Aumont
Maria Christina "Tina" Aumont (February 14, 1946 – October 28, 2006) was a French and American actress. She was the daughter of French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont and Dominican actress Maria Montez. She made her acting debut in the British film ...
,
Luc Merenda
Luc Charles Olivier Merenda (born 3 September 1943) is a French actor and former model, known as was one of the most prominent leading men of Italian poliziotteschi films during the 1970’s.
Early life
Merenda was born in Nogent-le-Roi, a sm ...
, and John Richardson. Martino’s fifth ''giallo'', the film centers on a string of brutal murders of young female students at an international college in
Perugia
Perugia ( , ; ; ) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and part of the valleys around the area. It has 162,467 ...
. It has been called the earliest example of a
slasher film
A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic ...
.
Plot
At Università per Stranieri di Perugia, after art professor Franz's lecture on Perugino's painting of St Sebastian, student Jane approaches Franz to discuss the painting. Student Stefano joins the conversation to get closer to Jane's friend Dani, for whom he has unrequited love. Franz parts from the group, and Dani rejects Stefano's advances and rejoins Jane and their friends, including Carol and couple Katia and Ursula. That night, a
peeping tom
Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries.
She is mainly remembere ...
strangles Carol's friend Flo with a red-and-black scarf after slashing Flo's lover's throat.
The next day, Carol sees young doctor Roberto buying a red-and-black scarf from a lecherous street vendor. Carol meets Dani and is distraught to learn of the murders. Jane and Franz agree to attend a concert together. Jane sees Dani's wealthy uncle trying to break off a secret affair with Carol. That night, Stefano pays for a prostitute, whom he assaults for implying that he is homosexual or impotent. Carol attends a party with two men: Peter and George, who are infuriated when she rejects their sexual advances and leaves. She wanders into a swamp where she is murdered by Flo's killer, who had stalked her to the party.
Police inform the students about the scarves used by the killer and implore them to report any information. The killer calls Dani at home and threatens to murder her if she reports who she saw wearing a red-and-black scarf. After escaping another encounter with Stefano, who grabs and kisses Dani without her consent, she remembers seeing Stefano in a red-and-black scarf the day after Flo's murder. Dani's uncle suggests she spend time away at her family's villa in
Tagliacozzo
Tagliacozzo (Neapolitan language, Marsicano: ') is a town and ''comune'' in the province of L'Aquila, Abruzzo, central Italy. It is one of I Borghi più belli d'Italia ("The most beautiful villages of Italy").
History
Tagliacozzo lies in an ar ...
. Dani invites Jane, Katia, and Ursula to accompany her there. Meanwhile, the killer runs over the street vendor for blackmailing him.
Dani encounters Roberto on the train to Tagliacozzo. After learning that Stefano left his apartment without explanation, Jane drives to the villa and leaves her car to be washed overnight at a service station. The killer spies on Katia and Ursula having sex at the villa. Upon discovering that a local peeping tom is also spying on them, the killer murders him.
Stefano spies on the man delivering food to the girls. When Jane sprains her ankle, doctor Roberto gives her a sedative to help her sleep. After he leaves, there's a knock on the door; when Dani opens the door, Stefano's corpse falls to the floor in front of them, revealing the killer, who then murders Dani, Katia, and Ursula.
Jane wakes to the massacre and hides while the killer dismembers and removes her friends' bodies. She attempts to attract attention from townsfolk by signalling with a mirror from the window. The killer locks up the villa and departs, trapping Jane.
That night, the killer returns and is revealed to be Franz, who became a psychopathic misogynist after the childhood trauma of witnessing his brother fall to his death while fetching a girl's doll. He tells Jane that Flo and Carol seduced him into a threesome and blackmailed him, and that he continued his killing spree to eliminate all witnesses. He tries to strangle Jane, but is attacked by Roberto, who saw the flashes from the villa window and learnt that Jane's car was still at the service station. Roberto pursues Franz to a barn and then to the cliffside where Franz falls to his death.
Tina Aumont
Maria Christina "Tina" Aumont (February 14, 1946 – October 28, 2006) was a French and American actress. She was the daughter of French actor Jean-Pierre Aumont and Dominican actress Maria Montez. She made her acting debut in the British film ...
as Dani (Daniela)
*
Luc Merenda
Luc Charles Olivier Merenda (born 3 September 1943) is a French actor and former model, known as was one of the most prominent leading men of Italian poliziotteschi films during the 1970’s.
Early life
Merenda was born in Nogent-le-Roi, a sm ...
Roberto Bisacco
Roberto Bisacco (1 March 1939 – 10 October 2022)Ernesto Colli as Gianni Tomasso, the street vendor
* as Katia
* as Ursula
* Conchita Airoldi as Carol Peterson
* Patrizia Adiutori as Flo (Florence) Heineken
* Luciano Bartoli as Peter
* Gianni Greco as George
*
Luciano De Ambrosis
Luciano De Ambrosis (born 28 March 1937) is an Italian actor and voice actor.
Biography
De Ambrosis was born in Turin, the youngest of four siblings. His father worked for the Italian automobile manufacturer Fiat. He made his film debut at only f ...
as Inspector Martino
*
Carlo Alighiero
Carlo Alighiero, stage name of Carlo Animali (2 February 1927 – 11 September 2021) was an Italian actor, director, and playwright.
Biography
Animali was born on 2 February 1927 in Ostra. After attending the Brera Academy and the Accademia N ...
as Uncle Nino
Release
The film was released with its original title in Italy on January 4, 1973. Joseph Brenner Associates later distributed a recut and rescored dubbed version as ''Torso'' in the US and the film became a success there on the
drive-in
A drive-in is a facility (such as a restaurant or Drive-in theater, movie theater) where one can driving, drive in with an automobile for service. At a drive-in restaurant, for example, customers park their vehicles and are usually served by ...
and
grindhouse
A grindhouse or action house is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows low-budget horror, splatter, and exploitation films for adults. According to historian David Church, this theater type was named after the "grind policy", a f ...
circuits, often as a
double feature
The double feature is a Film, motion picture industry phenomenon in which theaters would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which the presentation of one feature film would be followed by various short subjec ...
with ''
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
''The Texas Chain Saw Massacre'' is a 1974 American independent horror film produced, co-composed, and directed by Tobe Hooper, who co-wrote it with Kim Henkel. The film stars Marilyn Burns, Paul A. Partain, Edwin Neal, Jim Siedow, ...
'' (1974).
The film was released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...
in the US by
Anchor Bay Entertainment
The revived Anchor Bay Entertainment is an American independent film production and distribution company owned by Umbrelic Entertainment co-founders Thomas Zambeck and Brian Katz. Anchor Bay Entertainment markets and releases "new release genre ...
in 2000 and in the UK by Shameless in 2007. It has since had
Blu-ray
Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
releases by
Blue Underground
Blue Underground is an American company specializing in releasing remastered editions of cult, horror, and exploitation movies on DVD. It was founded in 2002 by filmmaker William Lustig.
It was originally formed as a shell company to oversee ...
in 2011, Shameless in 2017 and
Arrow Video
An arrow is a fin-stabilized projectile launched by a Bow and arrow, bow. A typical arrow usually consists of a long, stiff, straight shaft with a weighty (and usually sharp and pointed) arrowhead attached to the front end, multiple fin-like St ...
in 2018.
Critical response
George Anderson of the ''
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving Greater Pittsburgh, metropolitan Pittsburgh in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the fi ...
'' deemed the film "another display of softcore sex and seamy violence that might better have been kept abroad." Joe Baltake of the ''
Philadelphia Daily News
''Philadelphia Daily News'' is a tabloid newspaper that serves Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper is owned by The Philadelphia Inquirer, LLC, which also owns ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', a daily newspaper in Philadelphia.
The ''Dail ...
'' wrote: "Blood flows freely and limbs detach easily, in Sergio Martino's ''Torso'', a disagreeable Italian import withnot surprisinglylittle to recommend it." The ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
''s Linda Gross wrote that the film was a "lazy suspense movie" with a "disjointed and loose" screenplay.
The extended cat-and-mouse villa scenes between the killer and the
final girl
The final girl or survivor girl is a Trope (cinema), trope in horror films (particularly slasher films). It refers to the last girl(s) or woman alive to confront the killer, ostensibly the one left to tell the story. The final girl has been ob ...
in the film's last 30 minutes have led to ''Torso'' being retrospectively recognised as a "proto-
slasher film
A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use of bladed or sharp tools. Although the term "slasher" may occasionally be used informally as a generic ...
".
Quentin Tarantino
Quentin Jerome Tarantino (; born March 27, 1963) is an American filmmaker, actor, and author. Quentin Tarantino filmography, His films are characterized by graphic violence, extended dialogue often featuring much profanity, and references to ...
showed his print of the film at the 1999 QT-Fest and fellow filmmaker
Eli Roth
Eli Raphael Roth (born April 18, 1972) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. As a director and producer, he is most closely associated with the horror genre, namely splatter films, having directed the films ''Cabin Fev ...
has cited the film among his favourite ''gialli'' and an influence on ''
Grindhouse
A grindhouse or action house is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows low-budget horror, splatter, and exploitation films for adults. According to historian David Church, this theater type was named after the "grind policy", a f ...
PopMatters
''PopMatters'' is an international online magazine of cultural criticism that covers aspects of popular culture. ''PopMatters'' publishes reviews, interviews, and essays on cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, ...
'' gave it a 7 out of 10 rating, while
Slant Magazine
''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...
said it "pales next to director Sergio Martino's more inventive sleaze-thrillers (''
The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh
''The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh'' () is a 1971 ''giallo'' film directed by Sergio Martino, and starring George Hilton, Edwige Fenech, Cristina Airoldi, Manuel Gil, Carlo Alighiero, Ivan Rassimov and Alberto de Mendoza. Its plot follows the ...
'', '' All the Colors of the Dark'')".
In their 2017 article, Complex named Torso the 6th best slasher film of all time.
See also
*
List of films featuring home invasions
There is a body of films that feature home invasions. Paula Marantz Cohen says, "Such films reflect an increased fear of the erosion of distinctions between private and public space... These films also reflect a sense that the outside world is mo ...