Spasmo – 1974 – Umberto Lenzi

I have a confession to make. There are so many films directed by Umberto Lenzi that I haven’t seen or even heard of before. Spasmo is one of those I’ve heard about but never realized that Lenzi Directed. Once I learned how it was it was immediately much more interesting to watch. I consider it to be a part of my autodidact education. A film that needed to be in the frame of reference if you like.

It’s been a while since I was last interested in these Italian movies. Well, I’ve had a period right now but I mean before that. It’s quite a while and from what I remember from before I really enjoyed gialli with innovative murder sequences, preferable really blood sequences! If the killer is dressed in black gloves all so much the better. It’s also preferred if the story ends with a really far-fetched revenge theme.

Atypical Giallo?

Well, Spasmo has little of that. It’s not about murder at all I’d say. The theme is more along the lines of mental illness. That’s another subject that is very interesting to watch on film by the way. I don’t think it necessarily fits in the Giallo concept but Umberto Lenzi does a fantastic job here. The Suspense is great and the final solution is just as good as in any other movie. There’s no doubt in my mind after seeing Spasmo that Umberto Lenzi is one of the great Italian directors.

He’s been standing in the shadow of Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci but I think he’s just as much their equal as anybody. Especially after watching the bonus materials on this Bluray. It’s actually very interesting hearing how much he despises his most famous film – Cannibal Ferox and the cannibal genre as a whole. But he has a lot of humor saying it.

Anyway. This is a great film which I liked and enjoyed watching very much. It’s a piece of cinematic history to be sure!