A Blade in the Dark (1983)

A killer stalks a composer staying at a posh Tuscany villa while writing the score to a horror film which has an incriminating clue to the killer's identity.

Director:

Lamberto Bava

Writers:

Elisa Briganti, Dardano Sacchetti

Stars:

Andrea Occhipinti, Anny Papa, Fabiola Toledo

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Andrea Occhipinti	...	Bruno
Anny Papa	...	Sandra
Fabiola Toledo	...	Angela
Michele Soavi	...	Tony Rendina
Valéria Cavalli	...	Katia
Stanko Molnar	...	Giovanni
Lara Lamberti	...	Julia (as Lara Naszinski)

Storyline

A composer, working in isolation on a score for a horror movie meets two women who used to know his house's former tenant. When the women disappear, he's forced to look into the film he's working on to determine what happened to them, and who's responsible.

---

Plot Keywords:

composer | house | killer | cult film | breasts | 

---

Taglines:

When the lights go out, the knife goes in.

---

Genres:

Horror | Mystery

---

Certificate:

Unrated

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

English Italian

Release Date:

6 August 1983 (Italy)

Also Known As:

A Blade in the Dark

Filming Locations:

Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

National Cinematografica, Nuova Dania Cinematografica

Technical Specs

Runtime:

110 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Originally filmed as a four-part, half-hour, suspense mini-series for Italian TV with one killing at the end of each part. It was then turned into a theatrical movie when TV networks rejected it for being too violent to air on network television.

---

Goofs

Near the beginning of the movie the blade is seen cutting an adult magazine across the woman's right breast (from our point of view). Shortly afterwards when the composer examines the mysterious cuts in the magazine the slice marks appear across the left breast (from our point of view).

---

Quotes

Bruno, Sandra, Angela, Katia: Chow!

---

Connections

Referenced in Back to the Cellar: An Interview with Giovanni Frezza (2012)

User Reviews

Bava is no Argento, but quite good all the same

A music composer moves into a villa to try to get into the right mood to make a pulsating score to a horror movie. Things get awry when bodies begin piling up around him. Could these events have anything to do with the film the composer is working on?

This is the second feature by director Lamberto Bava and it's not as interesting as his debut Macabre. The film is very slow, it's horribly dubbed, badly acted and has far too many false alarms.

However, the film isn't all bad. It's got very creative and disturbing death scenes and really picks up in the final 15 minutes or so, with some nice touches of humor to go with the gore. Considering the fact that the film was shot in just about 2 weeks and was originally intended as a tv episode, it shows how creative Bava really was, having such a limited time schedule and a relatively low budget.

The mystery of the film (i.e. who's behind the killings) isn't hard to figure out. I would say that 9 out of 10 viewers (those familiar with the giallo genre anyway) would have the killer figured out half way through the film.

In my opinion, Bava is quite interesting a director, but he's no Argento. 5 out 10.