Why are children in Italian horror films always so irritating? Marco (David Colin Jr.), the kid in Mario Bava's final film Schock, rivals the legendary Peter Bark in Burial Ground (1981), Bob from The House by the Cemetery (1981), and the brother and sister in The Sweet House of Horrors (1989) as one of Spaghetti horror's most obnoxious little brats.
Marco, his mother Dora (Daria Nicolodi), and her new husband Bruno (John Steiner) move into the house that was once home to Dora and her first husband Carlo, who suffered from depression and is believed to have committed suicide. Soon after, Dora suffers from unusual, unnerving and inexplicable experiences, and Marco starts to behave very strangely. Dora comes to the conclusion that Carlo is haunting the family - is she losing her mind or is there really a supernatural reason for the bizarre occurrences?
Schock was written by Lamberto Bava, who is rumoured to have had a big hand in directing the film as well, which might go some way towards explaining why the film isn't up to Mario Bava's usual standard, lacking his sense of style, but having his son's . Instead of stunning visuals with bags of atmosphere, we get Nicolodi looking scared and bewildered for most of the time, accompanied by an annoyingly repetitive music box style score that has no connection with the plot.
After lots of random spooky happenings, with the kid being extremely grating throughout and Nicolodi becoming more and more hysterical, Bava finally reveals what really happened to Carlo, and why the house is haunted, but it's really not worth the wait. Bava does, however, save one really good visual shock for his final act: a clever on-camera trick that sees Marco running into his mother's arms, turning into her dead husband at the last moment. If only there had been more creative moments like this, Schock would have been a fitting swan-song for Mario, instead of a disappointment.
Marco, his mother Dora (Daria Nicolodi), and her new husband Bruno (John Steiner) move into the house that was once home to Dora and her first husband Carlo, who suffered from depression and is believed to have committed suicide. Soon after, Dora suffers from unusual, unnerving and inexplicable experiences, and Marco starts to behave very strangely. Dora comes to the conclusion that Carlo is haunting the family - is she losing her mind or is there really a supernatural reason for the bizarre occurrences?
Schock was written by Lamberto Bava, who is rumoured to have had a big hand in directing the film as well, which might go some way towards explaining why the film isn't up to Mario Bava's usual standard, lacking his sense of style, but having his son's . Instead of stunning visuals with bags of atmosphere, we get Nicolodi looking scared and bewildered for most of the time, accompanied by an annoyingly repetitive music box style score that has no connection with the plot.
After lots of random spooky happenings, with the kid being extremely grating throughout and Nicolodi becoming more and more hysterical, Bava finally reveals what really happened to Carlo, and why the house is haunted, but it's really not worth the wait. Bava does, however, save one really good visual shock for his final act: a clever on-camera trick that sees Marco running into his mother's arms, turning into her dead husband at the last moment. If only there had been more creative moments like this, Schock would have been a fitting swan-song for Mario, instead of a disappointment.