FuzzyTagz
If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.
Bea Swanson
This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.
Quiet Muffin
This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.
Sam Panico
We went to see Blood and Black Lace in the theater a few weeks ago and there was a speaker before it. Maybe he's bad at speaking in public, but the guy gave short shift to the film, mumbling out about how it influenced Friday the 13th (I'd say Bay of Blood did more than this movie) and how it had a different title. And that was it. I was incensed. I wanted to get up out of my seat and scream that Mario Bava is the reason why lighting is the way it is and his use of color and how I can site hundreds of films that he influenced. But I sat in my seat and boiled while the movie unspooled, because I'm really passionate about Mario Bava and don't need to make a scene and miss seeing one of his films on the big screen.That said — Shock is Bava's last film. It's called Beyond the Door II here in the U.S., but I like the original title better. It's an ecomonical film — there are only three characters (well, three living characters). Dora (Daria Nicolodi, who should be canonized for giving birth to both Suspiria and Asia Argento, as well as roles in Deep Red, Inferno, Opera and so much more) and Bruno (Yor, Hunter from the Future's Overlord) are a newly married couple who have just moved back into her old home — the home where her drug addicted husband killed himself — with her son, Marco.Dora's had some real issues dealing with her husband's death. And Bruno is never home, as he's a pilot for a major airline. Either she's going crazy again or her son is evil or he's possessed or ever single one of those things at once. You have not seen a kid this creepy perhaps ever — he watched his mother and stepfather make love, declaring them pigs. He tells his mom he wants to kill her. He makes his stepfather's plane nearly crash just by putting an image of the man's face on a swing.While Mario was sick throughout the filming (and his son Lambarto would fill in), you can definitely see his style shine through the simple story. There's one scene of Dora's face and her dead hsubands's and then her face that repeats vertically that will blow your mind up.Read more at https://bandsaboutmovies.com/2017/10/17/shock-1977/
Mr_Ectoplasma
"Shock" has Dario Argento muse Daria Nicolodi playing Dora, a housewife who returns to the home she shared with her deceased husband with her second husband and young son from the former marriage. On edge as it is, things become increasingly unsettling in the home when she is plagued by visions, apparitions, and strange behavior from her child—behavior that is reminiscent of her ex-husband.Technically Bava's final film, "Shock" seems to be one of the famed director's least-praised and most criticized works. Looking at his career trajectory, the film seems to be something of a return to his earlier roots, which were heavily characterized by the supernatural as opposed to his slasher and gialli outings ("A Bay of Blood," "Blood and Black Lace"). The film is a through-and-through supernatural horror movie, and what's perhaps most brilliant about it is that Bava paints it with an ambiguity that inclines the audience to take Dora's supernatural encounters as evidence of psychological meltdown, but he flips the script enough times to leave the audience thoroughly discombobulated.On a visual level, the film has more in common with other late '70s Italian horror films than it does with the aesthetic choices Bava is typically known for, but it is no less a visually dazzling movie. The cinematography is gorgeous, and there are a handful of brilliant camera tricks throughout, most memorably toward the frenetic and terrifying finale. On top of (and in some cases, because of) that, the film is just legitimately creepy, from the premise itself to the way Bava visually represents the horror on screen. The appearances of Dora's deceased husband are bizarre, startling, and sinister, and become increasingly disturbing as the film progresses; the visual flair Bava employs in these instances has been obviously influential on a slew of contemporary films. Nicolodi plays the distressed heroine here phenomenally, toeing the line between unhinged matron and terrorized housewife, and the audience never quite knows what to make of it until the script comes barreling down in the last twenty minutes. The film's conclusion is truly among the greatest finales of any haunted house film I've ever seen. The tension and dynamism that come out as the film spins out of control is absolutely transfixing, partly because of the performances, and partly because of the maintained stamina of the film.Overall, "Shock" is a fantastic haunted house film, and is probably Bava's most profoundly underrated work. The script is terrifying in all of its initial mundanity, and becomes explosively creepy as the heroine finds herself increasingly tormented. Beautiful camera-work and the somber country house setting accentuate the creepiness factor exponentially, and Bava's visual flair acts as mere icing on the cake. I am quite frankly baffled by the less enthusiastic responses to the film. "Shock" may not be "signature" Bava, but it is profoundly moody, creepy, and utterly mesmerizing. 9/10.
udar55
Dora (Daria Nicolodi) returns to the country house where her first husband committed suicide. Coming with her are new husband Bruno (John Steiner) and her son Marco (David Colin Jr.). Since she is a female protagonist in an Italian horror movie, you know Dora has some past mental problems and they surface right away as she has crazy dreams and her son begins acting very peculiar ("I have to kill you mommy" being the greeting that really unnerves Dora). Mario Bava's last theatrical feature continues the fine tradition of Italians finding really creepy looking kids. Colin's only other feature was the earlier BEYOND THE DOOR (1974), which you can see Bava is trying to reference. The isolated location is nice and there are a few creepy sequences here. The unusually named I. Libra provides a Goblin- esque score.
preppy-3
Dora Baldini (Diana Nicolodi) has just been released from an asylum. Her drug-addicted husband drove her crazy--and disappeared. She moves back home with her new husband and 10 year old son (David Colin Jr.) from the previous marriage. Things are OK at first--but then her son threatens to kill her and strange things start to happen. Is she going crazy or is his first husband dead and returning to kill her? Very slow and very dull film from director Mario Bava--his final one. I personally never found Bava's movies too good. They are atmospheric but they make no sense and are full of unlikable characters. This one doesn't even have atmosphere to help it! It plods on at a very slow pace and wears out it's welcome long before it's over. Colin is easily one of the worst child actors I've ever seen--it's a good thing he never made another movie. Nicolodi is good and tries--but she can't save the movie. The plot is--to say the least--improbable and there's a music score that will make you want to scream. Nothing really happens until the final 20 minutes when Bava throws in some graphic gore and increasingly silly (but fun) plot twists--but it's too little too late.I saw it in a revival theatre where audiences usually applaud after the movies. This ended with dead silence and one guy saying, "Bava directed THAT?" A must miss even if you're a Bava fan.
