I'm very grateful that this film did not resort to blood and gore to advance its story outside of the opening scene of a woman jumping off a cliff, banging her head on mountainous rocks on the way down. The best horror is subtle, and the best plot lines deal with psychological chills over physical mutilation and pain. Jennifer O'Neill play some woman who had visions of her mother suicide as a child, and years later, the visions continue. She can't go into a freeway tunnel without freaking out for some reason, and during one of those episodes she's a dead woman and something being walled up. Could it be her? Or could it be one of the stranger she encounters during her investigations? Husband Gianni Garko claims concern, and nasty sister-in-law Ida Galli is unhappy when O'Neill attempts to remove a wall in the old family home and finds remnants of a corpse.
Reminding me of the European classic horror films of the 1960's and early 70's (nowhere similar to the Hammer films or American international gothic melodramas), this is very slow moving and moody, often frustrating and requiring a lot of patience to get to the end to find out how the mystery is resolved. It took a struggle but I made it, and I wasn't really surprised. Not good or bad, and infrequently having an element I didn't expect, it also had certain twists that were meant to distract the viewer from the truth. O'Neill is good, with Garko bland. Galli (aka Evelyn Stewart) takes over in her brief time on screen, a combination of Coral Browne and Barbara Steele. As much as I despised her character, I found her fascinating. So basically this is a psychological thriller where the horror is used metaphorically, and not all audiences are going to enjoy that element.
Reminding me of the European classic horror films of the 1960's and early 70's (nowhere similar to the Hammer films or American international gothic melodramas), this is very slow moving and moody, often frustrating and requiring a lot of patience to get to the end to find out how the mystery is resolved. It took a struggle but I made it, and I wasn't really surprised. Not good or bad, and infrequently having an element I didn't expect, it also had certain twists that were meant to distract the viewer from the truth. O'Neill is good, with Garko bland. Galli (aka Evelyn Stewart) takes over in her brief time on screen, a combination of Coral Browne and Barbara Steele. As much as I despised her character, I found her fascinating. So basically this is a psychological thriller where the horror is used metaphorically, and not all audiences are going to enjoy that element.