FF#2: The Psychic (1977)

Before I review this film, lets deal with a term that will pop up multiple times when looking at the work of the late great Mr. Fulci: Giallo.

This is an Italian term that refers to a particular genre of crime/mystery and "pulp" that first became popular in the 20's and 30's. In film, starting in the late 50's and early 60's through the 70's, Italians created many many movies in this genre--which thrived on setting up a murder and keeping audiences guessing who the mystery killer was until the inevitable twist ending. Fulci directed may of these films, and The Psychic (aka Seven Notes in Black) was actually one of his last before moving into more straight-forward horror fare.

The film opens with a great scene of a little girl seeing a vision of her mom jumping off a cliff to her death. Pleasant enough...okay Fulci, I'm with you. This is by far the goriest and really only gory scene in the film, but really sets the mood for the rest. Flash forward to modern day (70's) where the little girl is all grown up, and named after the great state of Virginia (Jennifer O'Neill). She sees visions of murders that lead her to an old house owned by her husband. Inside she discovers the bones of a formerly alive person buried inside the wall of one of the rooms, and this leads into a great yet slow paced mystery with many twists and turns ala giallo.

My problem with the film was that I was expecting it to be more gory Fulci stuff, and it was anything but. That said, I liked the film, but was a little bored because from the outset I was literally just waiting for the gore (actually a really lame way to watch movies). The acting was actually pretty good, the music good, and the atmosphere also good, it was just not what I was expecting.

If this film taught me one thing it's to go into a Fulci film with no expectations, because the man made films in every genre so you just never know what he's gonna give you. So on first viewing:

F for Fair