Inconspicuous but nevertheless stylish Lamberto Bava thriller with a couple of remotely suspenseful sequences and an attractive Italian cast. The plot sounds very familiar but, although Bava doesn't really pretend to be original, he still manages to make his film look innovating and compelling at times. The beautiful Linda and her virulent lover Carlo just killed Luca, Linda's fatuous husband, and they continue running the hotel/restaurant near a popular fishing-lake. Eight years later, however, a hitch-hiker shows up and he seems to know alarmingly many details about Linda's first marriage. Linda and Carlo start to distrust each other and even her little son Alex begins to suffer from nightmares about a murdered man that comes crawling out of the muddy ground... Indeed, the plot resembles a lot like "The Postman Always Rings Twice" but - since it's Bava - the killings are nastier and the characters are more deranged. When it comes to atmosphere and horrific mood-setting, this definitely is one of Lamberto Bava's best accomplishments. The music is also good and the acting is far above Italian standards, with Gioia Scola (Lucio Fulci's "Conquest), Urbano Barberini (Dario Argento's "Opera") and especially David Brandon, the mean-looking actor from "Delirium" and "Caligola the Untold Story". Recommended!
8 Reviews
probably Lamberto Bava's best film
RonAltman2 March 2001
Interesting variation of THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE about Brandon (AQUARIUS) and Scola, who murdered Scola's husband six years ago and must now contend with her son's nightmares and the arrival of a stranger (Barberini, OPERA) who might know something about the case. Bava expectedly adds horror elements, although this is one of his more subtle works and one of his best. Slightly overlong, not consistently good, but a must for fans of obscure movies.
Bava TV movie
BandSAboutMovies11 June 2023
Warning: Spoilers
June 11: Junesploitation's topic of the day - as suggested by F This Movie- is 80s Horror! We're excited to tackle a different genre every day, so check back and see what's next.
I feel like I haven't really given Lambverto Bava a fair chance. Then again, whenever I say that, people always remark that I'm always mentioning that I like his movies. Demons is a near-perfect movie but I've always qualified that by saying that he had Argento, Franco Ferrin and Dardano Sacchetti on board along with Michele Soavi as assistant director. And then I think, well, you know, I kind of really like Macabre and it has some really grimy stuff in it. A Blade In the Dark, Blastfighter, Dinner with a Vampire, Graveyard Disturbance, The Ogre, Demons 2 and Midnight Ripper all have charms. I've even come around to liking Delirium e foto di Gioia, Maybe not Monster Shark. But the more I think about it, I really do like Lamberto Bava.
This is the movie that put me over the edge into perhaps even love.
In July of 1986, Lamberto was hired to create five TV movies under the title Brivido Giallo (Yellow Thrill). Of course, none of these were giallo and only four got made: The Ogre, Dinner with a Vampire, Graveyard Disturbance and Until Death.
There were some hurt feelings about this movie when it was made. It was based on an older script by Dardano Sacchetti, but Lucio Fulci went on record saying that he was planning on making an adaption of The Postman Always Rings Twice with the title Evil Comes Back. Fulci said that Sacchetti wrote it up and sent it to several producers and later found out that when Luciano Martino bought it, his name wasn't on it. Fulci said, "...because of our friendship I decided not to sue Sacchetti, but I did break off all relations with him." Sacchetti responded, "The producer of Evil Comes Back didn't have the budget required, and he gave up to do the film. That's it. Years later, as the screenplay was mine, I sold it to another producer who used it for a b-movie with Lamberto Bava."
Gioia Scola really could have been a remembered giallo queen if she'd come along 15 years early. As it is, she was in some of my favorite late 80s films in the genre, including Obsession: A Taste for Fear, Too Beautiful to Die, Suggestionata and Evil Senses.
In this film, she plays Linda, a woman whose husband Luca (Roberto Pedicini) left her eight years ago. All the men of the small village wondered why he'd leave behind such a stunning woman. In fact, this movie could have been called Ogni uomo vuole scopare Linda. She gave birth to Luca's son and unknown to the town, has since become the wife of the man who helped kill her husband, Carlo (David Brandon).
Together, they run a small hotel near the lake. During one rainy night, Marco (Urbano Barberini) arrives to stay. And it seems like he knows way too much about what's going on. Her son Alex (Marco Vivio) may as well, as he wakes up every night screaming, dreaming of his father clawing his way out of a muddy grave. She hires Marco as the handyman, but Carlo thinks they're sleeping together. In no way can this turn out well.
How does Marco know where all the old clothes are kept? How does he already know the family recipes? And why is he so close so quickly with Alex?
What's intriguing is how close this is in story and tone, yet goes off on its own path, to Bava's father's film Shock. The difference is where the father would use camera tricks and tone to create a mood of dread, his son will put you directly into the middle of the muck and grue with comic book lighting and great looking effects from Angelo Mattei. And keeping the family tradition going, Lamberto's son Fabrizio was the assistant director. How wild that Mario's grandson was AD on movies like Zoolander 2 and Argento's Giallo and The Card Player, using the name Roy Bava for those last two movies.
My favorite fact about this movie is that it was released on VHS as The Changeling 2: The Revenge. Trust me, it has nothing to do with The Changeling.
I feel like I haven't really given Lambverto Bava a fair chance. Then again, whenever I say that, people always remark that I'm always mentioning that I like his movies. Demons is a near-perfect movie but I've always qualified that by saying that he had Argento, Franco Ferrin and Dardano Sacchetti on board along with Michele Soavi as assistant director. And then I think, well, you know, I kind of really like Macabre and it has some really grimy stuff in it. A Blade In the Dark, Blastfighter, Dinner with a Vampire, Graveyard Disturbance, The Ogre, Demons 2 and Midnight Ripper all have charms. I've even come around to liking Delirium e foto di Gioia, Maybe not Monster Shark. But the more I think about it, I really do like Lamberto Bava.
This is the movie that put me over the edge into perhaps even love.
In July of 1986, Lamberto was hired to create five TV movies under the title Brivido Giallo (Yellow Thrill). Of course, none of these were giallo and only four got made: The Ogre, Dinner with a Vampire, Graveyard Disturbance and Until Death.
There were some hurt feelings about this movie when it was made. It was based on an older script by Dardano Sacchetti, but Lucio Fulci went on record saying that he was planning on making an adaption of The Postman Always Rings Twice with the title Evil Comes Back. Fulci said that Sacchetti wrote it up and sent it to several producers and later found out that when Luciano Martino bought it, his name wasn't on it. Fulci said, "...because of our friendship I decided not to sue Sacchetti, but I did break off all relations with him." Sacchetti responded, "The producer of Evil Comes Back didn't have the budget required, and he gave up to do the film. That's it. Years later, as the screenplay was mine, I sold it to another producer who used it for a b-movie with Lamberto Bava."
Gioia Scola really could have been a remembered giallo queen if she'd come along 15 years early. As it is, she was in some of my favorite late 80s films in the genre, including Obsession: A Taste for Fear, Too Beautiful to Die, Suggestionata and Evil Senses.
In this film, she plays Linda, a woman whose husband Luca (Roberto Pedicini) left her eight years ago. All the men of the small village wondered why he'd leave behind such a stunning woman. In fact, this movie could have been called Ogni uomo vuole scopare Linda. She gave birth to Luca's son and unknown to the town, has since become the wife of the man who helped kill her husband, Carlo (David Brandon).
Together, they run a small hotel near the lake. During one rainy night, Marco (Urbano Barberini) arrives to stay. And it seems like he knows way too much about what's going on. Her son Alex (Marco Vivio) may as well, as he wakes up every night screaming, dreaming of his father clawing his way out of a muddy grave. She hires Marco as the handyman, but Carlo thinks they're sleeping together. In no way can this turn out well.
How does Marco know where all the old clothes are kept? How does he already know the family recipes? And why is he so close so quickly with Alex?
What's intriguing is how close this is in story and tone, yet goes off on its own path, to Bava's father's film Shock. The difference is where the father would use camera tricks and tone to create a mood of dread, his son will put you directly into the middle of the muck and grue with comic book lighting and great looking effects from Angelo Mattei. And keeping the family tradition going, Lamberto's son Fabrizio was the assistant director. How wild that Mario's grandson was AD on movies like Zoolander 2 and Argento's Giallo and The Card Player, using the name Roy Bava for those last two movies.
My favorite fact about this movie is that it was released on VHS as The Changeling 2: The Revenge. Trust me, it has nothing to do with The Changeling.
Interesting idea
Tikkin11 April 2006
I have this on VHS as Changeling 2, obviously it's another of those Italian films advertised as a sequel that isn't really a sequel. It's interesting to see one of the actors from Stage Fright in this, and there are a few good moments, but it's mostly dull and boring. The music is good (some of it taken from Stage Fright) and so is the atmosphere, but there is little much else of interest. The story itself was interesting - it was just done in a boring way. The ending is rather confusing and silly. This is more of a drama than a horror, so I wouldn't recommend it to horror fans. If you love Italian films however, you may want to see it.
UNTIL DEATH (TV) (Lamberto Bava, 1987) ***
Bunuel197631 October 2011
Of Bava Jr.'s vintage movie work, I am only familiar with popular-but-despicable DEMONS (1985) and the so-so Giallo DELIRIUM (1987). Apart from these, I have watched the fine period chiller THE VENUS OF ILLE (1978; TV) – on which he actually only served as co-director with his father, the late great Mario Bava – and the more recent offering THE TORTURER (2005), about which, the less said the better. When financing of genre efforts for the cinema seemed to slacken towards the end of the 1980s, he turned his attentions to TV with a quartet of titles which, to this day, turn up from time to time on late-night Italian TV. Since I had the two more highly-regarded outings at arm's reach (the others lie amid a multitude of VHS recordings – incidentally, the film under review was itself a VHS-to-DVD conversion which resulted in brief intermittent instances of jittering image!), I decided to include them in the current "Halloween Challenge". By the way, there are differing opinions as to the order in which these were made but, given that I was watching the two pictures quite late at night, I opted to go first with the one which is the best-rated (at least on the now apparently extinct website "Cult Filmz").
Anyway, the film's theme of possession by the dead and overall somber tone owes quite a bit to Mario's own last picture for the cinema, the just-average SHOCK aka BEYOND THE DOOR II (1977) and is actually superior to it! The subplot, then, of the sultry co-owner of a diner conspiring with a handsome man (David Brandon, from Michele Soavi's recently-viewed STAGE FRIGHT {1986}) to dispose of her husband seems to derive from that Noir staple THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946)! The catch, however, is that the deceased has somehow inhabited the body of an even younger and more attractive man but, rather than have history repeat itself, Bava makes the latter's quiet presence instill tension between the two murderers, which naturally leas to more bloodshed. The film's horror actually emanates from the first husband's ghoulish apparitions (in dreams) to the son he never knew, which keep the boy from sleeping and thus getting on his surrogate dad's nerves – on the other hand, the new recruit (who literally seems to have come out of nowhere and was asked by the leading lady to stay as if it were the most natural thing in the world!) shows affection to the kid, even repairing a swing Brandon had long promising to but never bothered with. Later, however, he also torments the woman as, finally seducing the young stranger, he turns into the rotting figure of her husband (with, at one point, his face weirdly appearing as an amalgam of the two men's respective visage)!
Some of the film's more entertaining passages are devoted to the violent relationship between the woman (the stunning Gioia Scola) and Brandon, which sees both hurling insults at each other (the hard-boiled dialogue being one more nod to the Noir genre) and beating one another to a pulp, inevitably resulting in Brandon's demise, and which would leave Scola at the mercy of Husband No. 1. However, typically, the latter gradually loses his sense of reason and does not spare the child from his attacks – culminating in the house adjoining the diner being set on fire and the young man's own death, while the woman and her son manage to survive the ordeal. The English moniker is actually a subtitle to the Italian original, which translates to FOR EVER (though it was also inexplicably known in some quarters as THE CHANGELING 2!), which are the words ironically inscribed on the wedding ring of Scola and the husband she soon grew tired of! All in all, I would venture to say that this is Bava-son's most considerable work which, while pretty good taken on its merits, admittedly shows little of the stimulating artistic flair which made his father's name at the time and which has kept his oeuvre in the public eye.
Anyway, the film's theme of possession by the dead and overall somber tone owes quite a bit to Mario's own last picture for the cinema, the just-average SHOCK aka BEYOND THE DOOR II (1977) and is actually superior to it! The subplot, then, of the sultry co-owner of a diner conspiring with a handsome man (David Brandon, from Michele Soavi's recently-viewed STAGE FRIGHT {1986}) to dispose of her husband seems to derive from that Noir staple THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE (1946)! The catch, however, is that the deceased has somehow inhabited the body of an even younger and more attractive man but, rather than have history repeat itself, Bava makes the latter's quiet presence instill tension between the two murderers, which naturally leas to more bloodshed. The film's horror actually emanates from the first husband's ghoulish apparitions (in dreams) to the son he never knew, which keep the boy from sleeping and thus getting on his surrogate dad's nerves – on the other hand, the new recruit (who literally seems to have come out of nowhere and was asked by the leading lady to stay as if it were the most natural thing in the world!) shows affection to the kid, even repairing a swing Brandon had long promising to but never bothered with. Later, however, he also torments the woman as, finally seducing the young stranger, he turns into the rotting figure of her husband (with, at one point, his face weirdly appearing as an amalgam of the two men's respective visage)!
Some of the film's more entertaining passages are devoted to the violent relationship between the woman (the stunning Gioia Scola) and Brandon, which sees both hurling insults at each other (the hard-boiled dialogue being one more nod to the Noir genre) and beating one another to a pulp, inevitably resulting in Brandon's demise, and which would leave Scola at the mercy of Husband No. 1. However, typically, the latter gradually loses his sense of reason and does not spare the child from his attacks – culminating in the house adjoining the diner being set on fire and the young man's own death, while the woman and her son manage to survive the ordeal. The English moniker is actually a subtitle to the Italian original, which translates to FOR EVER (though it was also inexplicably known in some quarters as THE CHANGELING 2!), which are the words ironically inscribed on the wedding ring of Scola and the husband she soon grew tired of! All in all, I would venture to say that this is Bava-son's most considerable work which, while pretty good taken on its merits, admittedly shows little of the stimulating artistic flair which made his father's name at the time and which has kept his oeuvre in the public eye.
Above-Average Bava Exercise in Revenge and Sin
jfrentzen-942-2042111 February 2024
One of four films directed for Italian TV by Lamberto Bava, as part of the Brivido Giallo series, PER SEMPRE (re-titled UNTIL DEATH in the version I saw) concerns a man's love and hate coming back from the grave to haunt a woman, her lover, and her son.
A pregnant Linda (Gioia Scola) and Carlo (David Brandon) poison her unpleasant, booze-loving husband Luca. Before they successfully bury him in a shallow grave, though, he pops to wakefulness and tears an earring from Linda's ear. Carlo beats him to death and they cover his grave.
Six years later, Linda is still just making ends meet running a lakeside restaurant. Her relationship with Carlo grew abusive years before, and her son (Marco Vivio) has nightmares in which his father's rotted corpse torments him and enters his bedroom through the wall.
Enter Marco (Urbano Barberini), a drifter who stays one rainy night and never leaves. Marco helps Linda run the restaurant, but Carlo suspects he's a cop, and even Linda grows wary when he gives her the missing earring that Luca took to the grave. Meanwhile, her son and Marco grow closer.
Carlo and Linda finally re-open Luca's grave, only to find his decayed body and no sign of the earring. Their situation goes quickly downhill from there, as it becomes clear that Marco is some sort of reincarnation of the dead husband. The movie's underlying themes -- which cover adultery, betrayal of love, and retribution for acts of sin -- are handled with a caustic, mean-spirited tone.
The story's reason for being can be summed up in Marco's admonishment to Linda in the exciting climax, "You cannot escape your own sin! You must pay!" Around the same time, Bava treats us to an absolutely skin-crawling scene in which Marco and Luca "merge" to form one man with two faces.
A pregnant Linda (Gioia Scola) and Carlo (David Brandon) poison her unpleasant, booze-loving husband Luca. Before they successfully bury him in a shallow grave, though, he pops to wakefulness and tears an earring from Linda's ear. Carlo beats him to death and they cover his grave.
Six years later, Linda is still just making ends meet running a lakeside restaurant. Her relationship with Carlo grew abusive years before, and her son (Marco Vivio) has nightmares in which his father's rotted corpse torments him and enters his bedroom through the wall.
Enter Marco (Urbano Barberini), a drifter who stays one rainy night and never leaves. Marco helps Linda run the restaurant, but Carlo suspects he's a cop, and even Linda grows wary when he gives her the missing earring that Luca took to the grave. Meanwhile, her son and Marco grow closer.
Carlo and Linda finally re-open Luca's grave, only to find his decayed body and no sign of the earring. Their situation goes quickly downhill from there, as it becomes clear that Marco is some sort of reincarnation of the dead husband. The movie's underlying themes -- which cover adultery, betrayal of love, and retribution for acts of sin -- are handled with a caustic, mean-spirited tone.
The story's reason for being can be summed up in Marco's admonishment to Linda in the exciting climax, "You cannot escape your own sin! You must pay!" Around the same time, Bava treats us to an absolutely skin-crawling scene in which Marco and Luca "merge" to form one man with two faces.
No relation to The Changeling, but still an interesting cult film!
The_Void23 October 2006
It's a shame that this film has been lumbered with the title 'The Changeling 2' (those Italians!), as it's actually not bad at all and far better than the cash-in title suggests. The film is nothing like Peter Medak's 1980 horror, and actually owes more to the popular Italian Giallo imports, as well as the American film noir movement. The film that this one takes most of its influence from is undoubtedly the 1946 masterpiece The Postman Always Rings Twice (which coincidently (or not) was remade six years before this film), and this is shown by the central plot and characters; all of which are clearly reminiscent of the earlier film. However, this is an Italian movie - so you can count on a few over the top surprises! The plot focuses on a man and a woman who decide to murder the woman's husband. This isn't the sort of behaviour that goes unnoticed by the law, and the man becomes paranoid about what the couple have done. Eight years on, a mysterious drifter arrives at their bed and breakfast and he seems to know a lot about the crime the couple committed years earlier...
This film was made for Italian TV, and it does have a rather cheap feel to it; but it's adequately glossed over by a distinctly Italian style, and the film features some brilliantly atmospheric music along with a quality cast of actors, most of which have worked with big names such as Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento. The film is directed by Lamberto Bava; son of the great Mario Bava, and a director who has a varied career full of hits and misses. The Changeling 2 is actually one of Lamberto's better films and isn't too far off the quality of some of his somewhat acclaimed Giallo's such as Macabre and A Blade in the Dark. The Giallo influence can be seen throughout the film as Bava keeps the focus on the murder, and the mystery surrounding the drifter who enters the couple's lives. It has to be said that the ending is rather poor and I'd have preferred the film if Bava didn't go for the ill-advised schlock twist. But even so, this is an assured and fun little film that is a lot better than the TV roots and the cash-in title would suggest it is. Recommended to the cult fan!
This film was made for Italian TV, and it does have a rather cheap feel to it; but it's adequately glossed over by a distinctly Italian style, and the film features some brilliantly atmospheric music along with a quality cast of actors, most of which have worked with big names such as Lucio Fulci and Dario Argento. The film is directed by Lamberto Bava; son of the great Mario Bava, and a director who has a varied career full of hits and misses. The Changeling 2 is actually one of Lamberto's better films and isn't too far off the quality of some of his somewhat acclaimed Giallo's such as Macabre and A Blade in the Dark. The Giallo influence can be seen throughout the film as Bava keeps the focus on the murder, and the mystery surrounding the drifter who enters the couple's lives. It has to be said that the ending is rather poor and I'd have preferred the film if Bava didn't go for the ill-advised schlock twist. But even so, this is an assured and fun little film that is a lot better than the TV roots and the cash-in title would suggest it is. Recommended to the cult fan!
Until Death (Only Rings Once)
AndyJamesBarclayIMDB29 April 2019
A visually stylish, well acted, superbly paced murder movie, 'Until Death' seems to get unfairly compared to 'The Postman Always Rings Twice'.
Sure there's a similar plot angle to both pictures but they couldn't be further apart in execution (pun intended).
'Until Death' is very noir looking, and the dour, desperation that reeks from every reel of this movie makes it essential viewing whether you're a fan of Italian Horror or not. Aside from its haunting atmosphere and devastating ending that will stay with you long after the final credits are finished, the acting is uniformly strong to boot.
Put simply, this is easily one (if not THE) best movie to come from this director, and given what movies he released either side of 'Until Death' it's a miracle of sorts that he had such a gem hidden within him.
Do yourself a favour, ignore the lazy comparisons to the much more well known (and much more highly funded, and way less dark and downright spooky American film) 'The Postman Always Rings Twice', and enjoy 'Until Death' for it's considerable unique strengths of which you'll find many along the way.
8 stars out of 10
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