Director: Lucio Fulci
Writers: Lucio Fulci, Roberto Gianviti
Stars: Florinda Bolkan, Barbara Bouchet, Tomas Milian
Summary:
The opening scene shows a strange woman digging up a small skeleton next to the road.
A group of boys are hanging out under a bridge, smoking. Meanwhile a pair of fat tourist women drive up and meet some Italian men in a shack for sex. Giuseppe is the village idiot, and he’s peeping on the sexy women. He is mocked and taunted by the children, whom he chases across the countryside, vowing to kill them.
Next we cut to a scene where someone is putting voodoo pins into a wax replica of one of the children. He has many of these dolls, representing several local boys.
In another scene, a naked woman attempts to seduce one of the boys, Michael.
Another boy, Bruno, is being chased through the woods that night. The police have been searching for several days. Someone called and is asking for a ransom ($20,000 in today’s money). They place a bag of only in an old factory, and wait. It’s a trap and they catch the man. It’s Giuseppe. The police want him to confess to murdering the boy. He tells them where to find the body. Giuseppe says he didn’t kill the boy, he simply found the body and buried him.
The police mostly believe him, but Giuseppe did sign a confession. They think he found the body and called for a ransom. Still, with the confession, he’s doomed. Not long after, an old woman finds another dead boy in the fountain. Now, they’re looking for a serial killer.
We see the hands of the killer now bury two of the dolls.
The reporter goes to interview the priest. The priest knows all the boys since they all go to church regularly. The two of them run into the girl who was trying to seduce Michael earlier. The priest suggests that maybe she’s involved, as the murders began right after she came to town.
Michael is home alone studying and gets a phone call. He sneaks out to meet the person on the phone that night in the rain. Michael wanders through the woods, but he hears someone coming up behind him. Michael hides and watches the strange man pass him by. He sees someone he knows, and he’s grabbed and strangled to death.
The police want to know what Patricia was doing, and she admits she takes drugs and uses marijuana.
Now we see an older woman is the one burying the voodoo dolls. She’s the one we saw in the first scene digging up the skeleton. Later, at the boys funeral, Michael’s mother screams, “I know the killer is here with us. He’s here!” Could it be someone we know? The police have security footage of the witch leaving the funeral.
The police explains that she IS a witch, and so is her husband. Magic is in high demand in the superstitious village. The go to question Francesco, the witch’s husband. He’s busy making dolls that look very familiar. He’s also the man we saw walking through the woods behind Michael. Francesco denies everything and claims he didn’t see anything that night. On their way out, they see Patricia going to see Francesco.
The reporter, Martelli, asks about yet another strange woman, who it turns out is the mother of the local priest. She cares for Malveena, a learning-disabled child and the priest’s sister.
They track down Matchara, the witch, and find her dead child from fifteen years previous. They also find the three buried voodoo dolls. She, too, confesses to the murders. She saw them disturbing her child’s grave. She does say that she didn’t strangle them, she only put a curse on them with the dolls. She didn’t physically do anything to them. Again, the police realize she’s not a murderer. The police release her. But the fathers of the murdered boys track her down and beat her severely (minor gore). She climbs a mountain and dies at the top right next to the busy road.
The boys tell the priest, Don Alberto, that one of the boys, Mario, has gone to the “Haunted House,” where the prostitutes go. Mario meets up with Patricia, who has a flat tire. The next thing we see is Mario’s dead body; the priest found him. They can’t blame Matchara now. The reporter finds and recognizes Patricia’s cigarette lighter at the crime scene. He confronts her, and she’s shocked that there was another murder.
She explains that she sees Francesco for marijuana and for fun. She’s exceptionally bored with life in the tiny town. She teams up with the reporter and tracks down the headless doll that they saw in the newspaper. It’s Malveena, the “special” little girl. They think she saw the murderer kill someone and then did the same thing to her dolls. They ask the priest about her (who explains “she’s not a moron, she’s retarded”). The problem is, Malveena is locked inside the house every night— how could she have witnessed anything?
The reporter suggests that Malveena’s mother snuck out to kill the boys, and that Malveena saw it all. Malveena and her mother run off, and Patricia and Martelli go looking for her. They think she may kill Malveena. Don Alberti, the priest, tracks them down first. He steals Malveena away from her mother and drags her to the edge of a cliff. His mother claims he is mad. He is the murderer!
“She will be with the angels in heaven. It’s not for myself I do this, it’s for the children. I have to save them. I love the children. They will grow up to be sinners and be dead for eternity.”
There is a fight on top of the mountain, and the priest goes over the edge.
From IMDB: Because of the film’s controversial storyline, which criticized the Catholic Church, the movie was blacklisted and received a limited theatrical run throughout Europe and was never released in theaters in the United States. In 2000, Anchor Bay secured the rights and released the film for the first time in the United States on DVD.
Opinion:
I’ve seen this movie twice now, and I have to say I really liked it the first time, but on the second viewing I thought it was a little too long. There were a few too many false leads that turn out to not be the killer, but maybe that lends a little realism to the plot.
If you have the option to watch this subtitled or dubbed, I’d recommend the subtitles. The dubbing is not good, unless you want to hear Italian countrymen running around talking like Kentucky hillbillies.
For an Italian Giallo film, there’s surprisingly little gore in this. When the witch gets beat up there is a little blood, and when the priest dies at the end, that’s a bit grisly, but overall for it’s pretty non-bloody for this kind of film.
One really surprising facet of the story are the police. Usually, the police in this kind of story are inept, corrupt, or just plain stupid. These guys aren’t any of those things. They believe the confused (but true) stories of Giuseppe and Matchara. They use security camera footage to hunt down a suspect, and they are generally on top of things in their little town. It’s a nice change from the usual horror-movie police.
I thought the killer’s motivation was surprisingly good. I’m surprised we don’t hear about religious people killing children a lot more often. From that point of view, it’s actually pretty logical. Sure, you’re going to Hell for being a murderer, but isn’t that a fair sacrifice for guaranteeing dozens of children go straight to Heaven?
On my first viewing, I gave this an 8/10. On the second viewing, I’d drop it down to a 5/10. If you like mysteries, give this one a shot.