The Psychic (1977)

A clairvoyant woman discovers a skeleton in a wall in her husband's house, and seeks to find the truth about what happened to the victim.

Director:

Lucio Fulci

Writers:

Lucio Fulci (story & screenplay), Roberto Gianviti (story & screenplay)

Stars:

Jennifer O'Neill, Gabriele Ferzetti, Marc Porel

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jennifer O'Neill	...	Virginia Ducci
Gabriele Ferzetti	...	Emilio Rospini
Marc Porel	...	Luca Fattori
Gianni Garko	...	Francesco Ducci
Evelyn Stewart	...	Gloria Ducci
Jenny Tamburi	...	Bruna
Fabrizio Jovine	...	Commissioner D'Elia
Riccardo Parisio Perrotti	...	Melli
Loredana Savelli	...	Giovanna Rospini
Salvatore Puntillo	...	Second Cab Driver
Bruno Corazzari	...	Canevari
Vito Passeri	...	Caretaker
Franco Angrisano	...	First Cab Driver
Veronica Michielini	...	Giuliana Casati
Paolo Pacino	...	Inspector Russi

Storyline

A clairvoyant woman, inspired by a vision, smashes open a section of wall in her husband's home and finds a skeleton behind it. Along with her psychiatrist, she seeks to find the truth about who the person was and who put her there. Soon enough, she starts to realize the possibility that she may share the victim's fate...

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Plot Keywords:

giallo | psychic | premonition | female protagonist | husband wife relationship | 

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Taglines:

Suddenly she could see into the future...and saw her own murder...

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Genres:

Mystery | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Release Date:

23 March 1979 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Psychic

Filming Locations:

Arezzo Airport, Tuscany, Italy

Company Credits

Production Co:

Rizzoli Film, Cinecompany

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Telecolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the early 2000's, Quentin Tarantino announced that he would be directing a remake with Bridget Fonda starring. It failed to materialise.

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Goofs

The opening sequence set in Dover England, and Florence Italy at the exact same time show the time set as 11:45. Continental Europe is one hour ahead of the British Isles time zone in which the time in Florence should read 12:45.

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Quotes

Gloria Ducci: I've had fifty-six lovers and haven't killed even one of them.

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Connections

Remade as 100 Days (1991)

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Soundtracks

With You
Written by Ernest - Franco Bixio (as Bixio) - Fabio Frizzi (as Frizzi) - Vince Tempera (as Tempera)
Recorded on Cinevox Record by Linda Lee

User Reviews

Pretty good and with an unusual ending.

In the 1950s-70s, many American movie stars appeared in Italian-made movies. I assume that they employed these Americans in order to increase the drawing power of the movies--and in most cases, these folks were dubbed into Italian or whatever language where the film was being marketed. This explains why Jennifer O'Neill stars in this film.

The film begins with a poorly filmed suicide scene. It was a neat idea to show the face of the victim but it was clearly plastic! Oops. Other than this one scene, however, the rest of the film was well made. Anyway, the daughter of this now dead woman has psychic powers--as she SEES this as it happened even though she was no where near the scene of the death.

Years pass, the child has grown up and Virginia (O'Neill) still has psychic flashes. In this new case, she sees a dead body walled up inside her husband's home. She tells the police and indeed a body is found there. As for the police, they accept that she's psychic and use her other flashes to investigate this crime. However, late in the film the scenes she sees and tells the police would indicate that the crime involves a murder in the future! In other words, in the same space where they found a body, another will be placed--unless they can be stopped. What's next? Well, I won't say more because I don't want to ruin it for you--but the ending comes as quite a surprise--and I appreciate that.

Overall, this is a strong suspense/horror film whose only real weakness is the sloppy opening as well as too many sound effects used by the lead. In other words, when they dubbed her, they made O'Neill groan, moan and simper way too much. Apart from that, it's exciting and well worth your time.