I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale (1973)

Director:

Sergio Martino

Writers:

Lewis E. Ciannelli (English dialogue)
Ernesto Gastaldi (screenplay)

Release Date:

November 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

One Day She Met a Man Who Loved Beautiful Women...But Not All in One Piece

Plot:

Someone is strangling coeds in Perugia. The only clue is that the killer owns a red and black scarf...

Plot Keywords:

Killer | Student | Villa | Friend | Police

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Suzy Kendall	...	Jane
Tina Aumont	...	Daniela
Luc Merenda	...	Roberto
John Richardson	...	Franz
Roberto Bisacco	...	Stefano Vanzi
Ernesto Colli	...	Gianni Tomasso, the scarf vendor
Angela Covello	...	Katia
Carla Brait	...	Ursula
Conchita Airoldi	...	Carol Peterson (as Cristina Airoldi)
Patrizia Adiutori	...	Florence Heineken
Luciano Bartoli	...	Motorcycle guy #1
Gianni Greco	...	Motorcycle guy #2
Luciano De Ambrosis	...	Inspector Martino
Enrico DiMarco	...	Village idiot
Giorgio Dolfin	...	Slim boy in the village

Also Known As:

Carnal Violence (Europe: English title)
The Bodies Presented Traces of Carnal Violence (International: English title) (literal English title)
Torso (USA) (dubbed version)
Die Säge des Teufels (West Germany) [de]
Los cuerpos presentan señales de violencia carnal (Spain) (TV title) [es]
Torso: Ölene-ölüme- Kadar seks (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]

Runtime:

Australia:85 min | USA:92 min | Italy:89 min

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 (1993) (cut) | UK:X (1975) (cut) | UK:18 (uncut DVD version) | Norway:18 (uncut DVD version) (2009) | Italy:VM14 | Italy:VM18 (DVD rating) | New Zealand:R18 | Finland:K-18 (self applied) (2001) | Australia:R | USA:R | Iceland:(Banned)

Filming Locations:

Corcolle, Rome, Lazio, Italy

Company:

Compagnia Cinematografica Champion

Trivia:

During production, none of the cast was told who the killer was. And because of the high amount of red herrings in the film, many of the actresses were convinced it was someone else doing all the murders.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the three girls are murdered in the villa, their "dead bodies" can clearly be seen breathing in almost every shot of them.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Haute tension (2003)

A great giallo film and definitely an influential work...

With a title like 'Torso' one would expect this Italian horror film to either be very bloody or very lurid. In this case, it's both.

Murders at a Rome college forces a group of lady friends to retreat to an isolated house in the hills. But little do they know the killer has followed them...

While director Sergio Martino isn't Dario Argento or Mario Bava his direction in this film is pretty well done. He makes the most of a simple storyline with some lush filming locations, solid scenes of tight suspense, and an all-around attractive cast. Particularly great is the beautifully atmospheric stalking sequence with Carol in the woods, as well as the highly intense scene where Jane must hide from the killer while he dismembers one of her friends. This effort will be most entertaining to the exploitation fans, as the film has plenty of female nudity and the occasional bit of gore.

The cast is fairly decent, Suzy Kendall is the biggest stand-out though as a young woman trapped by the killer.

Over all a good horror effort that would later influence the slasher genre. Torso isn't for all tastes, but for the game giallo or slasher fan it's a great treat.

*** out of ****