A masked serial killer with psychosexual issues strangles female coeds with scarves before dismembering them. When a wealthy student identifies one of the scarves and thinks she has a lead on a suspect, she becomes the killer's next target, retreating to her family's remote cliffside villa with three of her girlfriends.
Suzy Kendall Tina Aumont Luc Merenda John Richardson Roberto Bisacco Ernesto Colli Angela Covello Carla Brait Conchita Airoldi Patrizia Adiutori Luciano Bartoli Gianni Greco Luciano De Ambrosis Enrico DiMarco Giorgio Dolfin Carlo Alighiero Vincenzo Crocitti Luca Bonicalzi Fausto Di Bella Giuseppe Terranova Rosaria della Femmina Ermelinda De Felice Dolores Calò Renato Cestiè Vera Drudi Giuseppe Marrocco Barbara Marzano Osvaldo Natale Alberto Sorrentino
The Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence, Torso: Violencia carnal, Carnal Violence, Торсо, Die Säge des Teufels, 影なき淫獣, Трупы со следами физического насилия, Torso - Die Säge des Teufels, Torzó, 죽음의 그림자, 躯干, 軀幹, Torzo
Italy
USAR
France
Germany18
France
Germany
Italy
USA
![nathaxnne [hiatus]](https://a.ltrbxd.com/resized/avatar/upload/1/9/5/2/4/3/shard/avtr-0-80-0-80-crop.jpg?v=2d9f35eba8){kind=small}
Torso begins as we the voyeur gaze upon a couple making love overlaid with the sounds of a university art history lecture on the tensions between the dramatic and the aesthetic in the representation of suffering bodies during the Italian Renaissance, and how in the art of Perugino, tears were shown but not blood, even in martyrdom, as he portrayed local peasantry as sacred Christian figures. That this discussion takes place at the beginning of Sergio Martino's Torso, a critical film in the transition from giallo to slasher along with Bava's Bay Of Blood, establishes a conscious abandonment of the more mannered aestheticism of the giallo for a more direct and streamlined violence, one which is expressed in and through…
"What you see on the screen is not a work of abstract art. What you see are fragments of one of your classmates who was barbarically murdered."
Suzy Kendall has perfect eyes for a giallo film. So expressive and beautiful.
I saw this years ago so revisiting the film was fun. Forgot many of the details. Watched the Blue Underground Blu-ray on the 3/5 and then the Arrow Blu-ray a couple of weeks later because I wanted to see how two different distribs handled this giallo (but more of a slasher prototype) classic. Both Blu-rays are great but different. It really shows that the colorist has major influence on the feel of the film.
Great comparison article between discs:
cinapse.co/torso-blu-ray-screen-comparisons-arrow-video-vs-2011-release-3e12a29164fd
Fantastic extras on the Arrow disc but the Blue Underground disc also has some goodies.
Between 1971 and 1972, Sergio Martino cranked out The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, The Case of the Scorpions Tail, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, and All the Colors of the Dark... yeah that’s an insane run, but he wasn’t finished yet!
1973 brought us Torso aka The Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence, capping off that 3 year run of some of the most cherished and influential gialli out there while cementing Sergio Martino’s legend status in the genre. Torso may not be my first or second favorite of those five films, but it was my introduction to his filmography and probably (memories a bit hazy here) the first non Argento giallo I watched. …
The last time I watched this it on VHS in poor condition. I couldn’t tell how beautiful it was shot! The poor quality plus the abundance of nudity and gore made it seem kinda sleezy though I still enjoyed it I couldn’t appreciate it as much this time though it’s not perfect. Directed by the legendary director Sergio Martino. This time on I noticed the title of the movie is long but they translate it to Torso. I looked it up an the original Italian title translates to The Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence. I guess they felt it was too long for Americans lol. If you haven’t seen it and want to check it out you can find it on Shudder!
Not my favorite of Sergio Martino’s five-film hot streak, but still a worthy entry in his giallo pantheon, as it’s unsurprisingly accompanied by a lovely amount of gore and sex while also perched upon a gorgeously scenic cliff side locale.
A masked, black-gloved killer stalks a group of female friends as they gallivant about a university…stop me if you’ve heard this before. I may not have been satisfied with the killer’s motive or with the finale in general, but there are bodies chopped to pieces with a hacksaw and a top tier amount of tension, including the entire back half of the movie having very little dialogue (or even sound) at all. It’s exquisitely colorful, memorable for its single-location second/third…
85
Torso is something special even before the final reel, as its balance of giallo and early Slasher make it a real trailblazer in horror history, but the third act is a Mountain-Peak of suspense. Sergio Martino succinctly strips the giallo down to its essence and creates a hell of an extended one-location sequence out of it.
Spooktober IV: Morte all'italiana
...in which a kid yeetz to his death in one of the funniest death scenes in probably any giallo.
So this is only my second Sergio Martino movie, and... yeah, there’s not much to say as I barely remember Your Vice Is Locked Room.... But this was alright. It has its bloody moments. There's a scene near the end where the killer is sawing one of his victims while a survivor watches in fear. It's very effective, thanks in large part to the editing, and the performance makes the suggestive scene even more impactful. Aside from that, the film is quite boring, with all the nudity shot in a way that aims to be erotic but…
"Torso" logo de início evoca uma sensação de voyeurismo, com a câmera passeando lentamente por uma cena que aparenta ser uma orgia, intercalando cortes que simulam a abertura e o fechamento de uma lente, enquanto uma música delicada toca ao fundo. É evidente desde o começo que o filme preza por uma certa sofisticação: embora pertença ao gênero suspense, a estética italiana imprime uma delicadeza característica. No universo do giallo, é comum o tratamento de oposições, como sutileza e brutalidade, amor e ódio, entre outros. A trama, embora absurdamente simples, é paradoxalmente notável em sua funcionalidade.
Assim como muitos outros filmes, especialmente os slashers que surgiriam posteriormente, temos aqui um misterioso assassino mascarado (com luvas pretas, claro; afinal, estamos em…
It would be much more satisfying if they didn't need a man to save the day, but this more than makes up for it by being one of the prettiest gialli I've seen (though that ain't sayin' much. I'm not as well versed as I ought to be). The beautiful opening sequence rolls into lovely Italian countrysides and magnificent mansions and vast lecture halls and, of course, wonderful violence. The film makes almost every man out to be a creep of some kind, from the delivery boy who can't stop staring to the weirdly obsessive Stefano to the Igor-like scarf-seller. Like New York Ripper, in setting up its red herrings, it goes out of its way to make men clearly…
Gialli are basically my version of comfort food and seeing as how I’m currently in an alternating giallo/bad sequel loop (because crappy sequels are also my comfort food), I might be stuck here for a while and I’m just fine and dandy with that.
As I said in a recent review, Sergio Martino only makes 4 and 5 star gialli. Of the ones he’s done, my three equally 5 star favorites are All the Colors of the Dark, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, and this movie. This was the very first Martino giallo I saw and what a great place to start. The setup is pretty simple. After a fellow college student is murdered, Jane and her friends head off on…
