Reviews & Ratings for
Murder Syndrome More at IMDbPro »Murder obsession (Follia omicida) (original title)

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4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
A summation of the Italian Golden Age of Horror, 26 July 2000
Author: (bobmonell@hotmail.com) from USA

A group of filmmakers travel to the family home of the lead actor to scout locations. They are greeted by his disturbed mother and her sinister servant.

Maestro Freda's last feature is a baroque masterwork which indeed forms a kind of review of the entire Italian horror tradition from BLACK SUNDAY on. BLACK SUNDAY lead actor John Richardson appears as the servant in a possible nod to former Freda collaborator Mario Bava.

The story contains many elements from other horror films: PSYCHO, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, DEEP RED, but Freda tells the tale in an ornate style referencing classical art and music in his imagery and on the soundtrack. The acting is mediocre, but the carefully composed imagery makes up for it. Such hallucinatory visions as a clutch of bleeding skulls, a giant spider and black mass which resembles both a Dali painting and a Michaelangelo sculpture are indelible. Highly recommended for Italian horror and Freda fans. A very underrated film which shows the director still at the apex of his creative powers.

3 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Watchable Italian horror film by Riccardo Freda., 19 March 2009

Author: HumanoidOfFlesh from Chyby, Poland

Michael is a successful actor,but he has a scandal in his past:it seems that at a tender age he knifed his father to death.He and his girlfriend Deborah go to his mother's for the weekend and are joined by the director and others from a recent film project,who are given a rather unwelcome reception by the superstitious housekeeper Oliver.Soon ghastly things begin happening to some of the guests and Michael fears a repeat of his nightmare past is in progress.The vicious black gloved killer is preying on its victims."Murder Obsession" is perhaps the sleaziest offering of Riccardo Freda to date.It features plenty of nudity provided by Silvia Dionisio,Laura Gemser and Anita Strindberg.This often confusing giallo provides some gruesome killings including death by chainsaw and laughably fake spider attack.There is also a Black Mass,a live chicken beheading,a grubby rape scene and some random gore.7 out of 10.

6 out of 10 people found the following review useful:
Confusing and frustrating, 7 February 2007

Author: Tikkin from United Kingdom

I would take some of the other reviews about this film with a pinch of salt - it's not that amazing and it's not that gory, at least in the version I saw under the title "The Wailing". I also suspect a bit of cheating must have occurred to get it the 5.8 rating.

On to the film... It starts with some brilliant music, the sort you used to get in the early 80's horror films. This made me excited for what was to come, but sadly it seemed to go downhill from there. The problem with The Wailing is that it is confusing and the plot meanders too much. There's some dream sequences that go on for so long you forget they are actually dream sequences. Random scenes seem to be thrown together with no connection. There's also a serious lack of lighting, making it even harder to understand what is happening. It reminded me slightly of Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond" because of the meandering plot.

It does have some good points though. As mentioned, the music is great and gives it a real horror 'feel'. However they used it too much; it almost plays through the entire film and gets tiresome after a while. The atmosphere is quite good, and had the plot been more coherent this could have been a really atmospheric horror flick.

This really isn't worth seeking out unless you're a fan of Italian horror, even then you can still do much better. The UK VHS cover is cool though - I'll give it that.

3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
More horror fodder from Riccardo Freda, 1 January 2005
Author: lazarillo from Denver, Colorado and Santiago, Chile

Riccardo Freda is considered one of the maestros of Italian horror based on the strength of three films in the late 50's and early 60's--"I, Vampiri" (which we now know was mostly directed by Mario Bava), "The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock", and the sequel to the latter, "The Ghost". Unfortunately, everything he did after that pretty much ranges from awful to disappointing. This one falls more into the latter category.

An actor nearly strangles his female co-star during the filming of the scene. Everyone seems strange unperturbed about this including the actress herself, who later has sex with him(of course, it helps that this character is played by Laura "Emanuelle" Gemser who pretty much has sex with everybody in her movies). They all repair to the troubled actor's eerie, decrepit estate complete with a creepy butler named Oliver and a mother who is "not well". Actually, she looks pretty good for someone who is supposedly the mother of a grown man and, not surprisingly, she has a close, Oedipal relationship with her son who looks EXACTLY like his musical conductor father, "the Maestro", who was mysteriously murdered years earlier (and you can pretty much bet it was by one of two people). The actor's girlfriend is also along for the ride and she suspects something is up between the two of them when the son introduces her to his a mother as his secretary and insists that they sleep in separate rooms. Meanwhile, someone is dispatching the various guests with the usual over-elaborate giallo methods--a bathtub drowning, a chainsaw, etc.

Freda brings an interesting Gothic sensibility to the giallo genre here, even though his main focus is obviously on the gory murders. At least he is somewhat in his element, unlike with the abysmal "Iguana with a Tongue of Fire" he did earlier. The acting is awful and the special effects during the murder scene are laughable, but fans of Freda and Laura Gemser could do a lot worse I guess.

6 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
Remarkably effective, creepy Italian horror, 31 July 2002
Author: technicolorwasteland from United States

This film deserves to be re-released, uncut and digitally mastered and whatnot. I guess it would be by now if it were more popular. You don't hear much about it. It's a shame, because this is one of the most overlooked Italian horror films I've ever seen. It is hard coming across the rare Wizard video, but I was able to find it for a low price and I have been enjoying it nonstop ever since I got it. The plot is strange, twisted, and full of bizarre touches of nasty murder scenes, perverse sexuality, nudity, and some very creepy tones of Satanism and the black arts which more than likely will chill you to the bone. It's hard to explain simply, but I'll try...it's basically about an actor named Michael (the very cute Stefano Patrizi) dealing with the painful memories of his childhood when he accidentally stabbed his father to death. He returns, along with his friends, which include a film director, some curvaceous actresses, and his girlfriend Deborah, to the creepy countryside mansion of his recluse mother. Well, you can guess that from there, strange events happen building up to a thunderstorm, gore murders, and some shocking twists in the finale. It sounds simple in a bare bones description like that, but just remember it also fits in hallucinagenic, trippy dream sequences of hooded Satanists sacrificing a nude girl in their Black Mass, lots of slimy spiders and spiderwebs, bleeding skulls, red herrings including a handful of suspicious characters, black gloves, murder attempts, and not to mention many softcore sex scenes which feature both male and female nudity (the gorgeous Patrizi shows off his firm, taut bare butt - another factor which makes this film a personal favorite). The gore murders, when they occur as the film reaches its peak, aren't really very scary, more cheesy, but they are still bloody and do provide effective shocks. The music is also effective in creating the creepy, stormy atmosphere of Satanism, murder and sex in a remote mansion in the countryside. This film is definitely not for everyone, but those who appreciate fine, classy Italian horror and do not mind complicated, twisted plotlines should enjoy it. A plus is the very talented cast which are very effective in their roles. Silvia Dionosio impresses as Deborah, the girlfriend, and John Richardson is an old favorite of many Italian horror films (he's just so cute even though he's pretty spooky in this movie). This is a great, overlooked film. Have fun seeking it out.

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
The story to this one is a mess, even by giallo standards., 23 May 2009

Author: BA_Harrison from Hampshire, England

Members of the cast and crew of a horror movie take a well-earned break at the family home of actor Michael, whose mother (who has obviously been keeping to a tight exfoliation/moisturising regime, since she looks no older than 40) lives a reclusive life with her creepy manservant Oliver. Whilst relaxing at the house, the group are attacked one-by-one by a leather-gloved killer, and Michael begins to fear that a horrific event from his past—one which he has kept suppressed in his mind for years—has finally returned to haunt him.

Murder Obsession opens in fine style with a gleefully trashy scene in which exploitation babe Laura Gemser has her clothes torn from her body by a mysterious assailant who then proceeds to try and strangle her. However, fans of sleazy giallo movies shouldn't get too excited, for director Ricardo Freda soon disappoints by having the camera pull back to reveal that the woman, Beryl, and her attacker, Michael Stanford (Stefano Patrizi), are actors performing their final scene in a horror flick.

Yes, it's the tired old 'movie within a movie' trick! The rest of this wearisome film is just as clichéd and deceptive in style, with numerous silly red herrings during the dull-as-ditch-water first half (nearly every character seems to own a pair of leather gloves!), mucho nudity throughout, cheesy gore towards the end, and a convoluted, logic-free script that is harder to swallow than a broken glass sandwich. Even a genre great like Argento, whose own work is rarely that cohesive, would struggle to make this inept garbage work, so what chance does Freda have?

Supposedly atmospheric dream sequences are rendered laughable by giant rubber spiders; bats flap on clearly visible wires; Michael's girlfriend (Silvia Dionisio) runs through a foggy forest with her tits out; inept gore effects (an axe in the head and a chainsaw in the throat) look as though they were created by a five year old with modelling clay and papier-maché; dreadful dialogue turns emotional scenes into unintentional moments of comedy; and a desperate attempt at shoehorning black magic and psychic powers into the muddled plot severely backfires.

Take a look if a) you dig bad Italian cinema b) you're a rabid Gemser fan, or c) if you absolutely must see every giallo in existence—but be warned.... it ain't great.

2 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Disappointing horror/thriller starts off interesting then begins to get silly as it tries to explain itself, 20 February 2006

Author: dbborroughs from Glen Cove, New York

Michael, a successful actor with a secret in his past, returns to his family estate after a long absence.He arrives with his girlfriend in tow and he greeted by his mother who seems a bit too attentive to her son and distancing to the girlfriend. It isn't long before some more friends arrive for both business and pleasure. However ghosts of the past are reawakened and it isn't long before strange things begin happening and people begin dying.

This is Italian horror at its most silly. The film starts off interesting enough with Michael going home to a house full of eerie people and occurrences. There is a nice tension to the proceedings, however things begin to sputter a bit when the girlfriend has one of the funniest "scary" dreams ever put on film after 1965. It comes complete with fake spider web and rubber spider and is impossible to take seriously. From there things begin to move unevenly as bodies begin to pile up and the number of suspects begin to diminish. The film completely falls apart as it tries to explain and re-explain whats really going on and who these people are. Its a mess and I found myself giggling through the final 20 minutes or so.

I was disappointed. The early scenes created a nice tension that was lost when things started to become silly and illogical (I know one should not always look for reason and logic in Italian horror). It gets points for keeping me watching to the end, but that was because I kept hoping it would shift gears into reverse and go back to being the decent little thriller at the start.

4 out of 10. Disappointing thriller is probably worth watching if you stumble across it late at night and find there is nothing better on. Those who like Italian horror and giallo films can probably add a couple of points.

2 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Awesome Italian horror!, 15 April 2001
Author: ehoshaw from Trenton, MI

This is a must-see! It is absolutely great! The story deals with a troubled actor named Michael traveling with his girlfriend Deborah, a director named Hans, and two actresses named Shirley and Beryl to his mother Glenda's eerie villa in the isolated countryside. Once there, disturbing things begin to happen. A black-gloved killer begins prowling around the house, trying to drown Beryl in the bathtub. Also, Deborah dreams she is the victim of a Black Mass (an eerie sequence). The next day, gory murders occur, including: a hunting knife slitting open a belly, an axe hacking out a guy's brains, and a chainsaw decapitation. Then, there's a huge thunderstorm as Deborah is stalked by the killer. This is a truly frightening movie. The direction is creative, and it is very atmospheric and moody. The musical score is creepy! The plot is also excellent! There are many great twists near the end of the film, which keep you on the edge of your seat! I won't give them away, they are too good! Just watch this movie, especially if you like Italian horror films! It is a mixture of an Italian giallo and an American slasher film, with a few supernatural elements thrown in. This movie rocks! Oh, and the actress who plays Deborah is very, very hot! Oh, and so is Laura Gemser! There is a lot of nudity, sex, gore, and violence in this movie, but it is very atmospheric and interesting. A classic piece of Italian horror cinema, which deserves a video re-release, uncut, and in letterbox format! See this one!!!

4 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Come again?, 22 April 2008

Author: Coventry from the Draconian Swamp of Unholy Souls

Sometimes you just realize straight away when an opening sequence is too good to be true. In case of "Murder Obsession", the film takes off with THE Laura Gemser ("Black Emanuelle") opening the balcony curtain and standing face to face with a sinister bloke who promptly tears her nightgown to shreds and attempts to strangle her. Such excitement in the first minute simply can't be real and, oh yeah, it rapidly turns out to be a typical "Film-in-Film" situation. Still, even in spite of the transparent red herring, "Murder Obsession" raises some fairly high expectations, as the plot develops itself as a mixture between Giallo (Italian slasher), Gothic horror and occult movie. We've got prototypic Giallo-murders committed by an individual wearing black gloves, a Victorian mansion setting and multiple nightmare/hallucination sequences hinting at the involvement of black magic rites. And, quite frankly, "Murder Obsession" is entertaining and undemanding horror fodder, at least for as long as the events don't require any form of explanation. Riccardo Freda blends together so many crazy ideas and far-fetched twists that, by the time the denouement is due, he has no clue what to do with them all. Especially near the last 20 minutes of the movie, the script doesn't make a lick of sense, but what do you expect when dealing with childhood traumas, psychic powers, Oedipus complexes, oppressed homicidal tendencies, adultery, black masses and good old-fashioned perverted killers. "Murder Obsession" features not one, not two, but at least three climaxes and they're all equally implausible. Implausible and, moreover, unimaginably ridiculous. Professional actor Michael Stanford is lured back to his parental house, where his ill mother and the uncanny butler lived all alone since Michael's father died under mysterious circumstances. Mother Glenda, who actually more resembles to a slightly older and hot sister, later also welcomes a trio of Michael's film crew colleagues and soon after the eeriness kicks in. Michael's girlfriend has nightmares, the luscious actress nearly drowns in her bathtub and the cocky director notices that the curious butler doesn't like his picture taken. Glenda then reveals that Michael killed his father at young age, and maybe his homecoming brought back his desire to kill? The murders are quite graphical, but the make-up/special effects are incredibly tacky and the total opposite of shocking. This was the first job of Italian effects-wizard Sergio Stivaletti, but he definitely still had a lot to learn at that time. When one character has the head smashed in with an axe, the stand-in dummy clearly doesn't even remotely resemble the original character. Anita Strindberg and Laura Gemser are fabulous eye-candy and, as usual, not too prudish to take their clothes off, but their characters are empty-headed and their dialogs are pathetic. Strindberg even retired from film-making after this movie, perhaps because she felt insulted for having to depict a grandmother at the age of 36. Riccardo Freda always was one of Italy's most uneven and unreliable horror directors and, to me personally, he ranks really low on the list of that nation's filmmakers. I'm a huge fan of "I, Vampire", but apparently Mario Bava directed most of that film and the other Freda movies I watched ("The Ghost", "Tragic Ceremony") left me rather cold.

0 out of 3 people found the following review useful:
Caca Brute, 9 May 2010

Author: rwagn from Columbus, Ohio

Caca Brute in Italian translates into "really stinky poop." This movie is a mess. It doesn't know what it wants to be, love story, giallo, thriller,soft core, etc. It might be that is was a joint Italian-French production that adds to it's dichotomy. I really found nothing in this film to recommend it to anyone interested in the Italian giallo genre or Freda's work in general. I was watching a fairly good print of the film and still found it extremely dark and/or poorly lit (so much so that I had to strain to make sure of whom I was seeing). The "plot" is threadbare and you can spot the killer almost from their introduction into the movie. The effects are shoddy, the dubbing is shoddy, even the music is shoddy. Skip this one. You really haven't missed a thing.

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