Body Puzzle

Trailer—Body Puzzle

source: Body Puzzle

An absorbing giallo , with an above -average screenplay; sometimes one thinks of the golden hour of Dario Argento (roughly 1967-1980) Gore is kept to the minimum and this story of body parts is not a remake of "les mains d'Orlac" or the poor adaptation of Boileau -Narcejac 's "body parts" . The story is labyrinthine and definitely off the beaten track ; it deals with split personality ,homosexuality and mistaken identities ; the trick of the photograph is so simple (and so effective) that one wonders why it had not been used before .Lamberto Bava never equalled his father Mario's best horror films such as " I tre volti della paura" ,but here,he delivers the goods .

I actually enjoyed this more than i thought i would, this being 90's Lamberto Bava- whom i was never a huge fan of (Delirium aside). Despite an incoherent plot it manages to stay engaging, doubtless aided by the wonderful cinematography of Luigi Kuveiller (A Woman in a Lizard's Skin, Profondo Rosso). The ending is quite charming as well. All around fun , especially for a giallo made in the 90s. Better than most of Argento's output during that decade.

At least this Lamberto Bava film has a unique premise: A detective discovers that a serial killer's murders are all connected by the late husband of a beautiful widow. After all, his organs have been transplanted into each dead body! That said - there is a great scene where the killer eviscerates a schoolteacher victim in front of her class of blind students, spraying one of them with plasma. If only the rest of the film lived up to its premise like this scene! That said, there are plenty of Italian exploitation faves in this one. Polish actress Joanna Pacula was in Virus with Jamie Lee Curtis (it's an early comic book film, based on a Dark Horse comic) and Gorky Park. She plays the lead, Tracy and in real life, once dated Roman Polanski. Tomas Arana - who is on The New Pope these days - is better known to our readers for appearing in The Church, He and Pacula were also in Tombstone together. Look out! There's Gianni Garko, who is beloved here for his work in movies like Devilfish, The Psychic, four of the five legit Sartana films (If You Meet Sartana...Pray for Your Death; I Am Sartana, Your Angel of Death; Have a Good Funeral, My Friend...Sartana Will Pay and Light the Fuse...Sartana Is Coming), Encounters In the Deep and Star Odyssey. There's Erika Blanc (Kill, Baby... Kill!, The George Hilton-starring Sartana's Here...Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin, The Night Evelyn Came Out of Her Grave, A Dragonfly for Each Corpse)! And Giovanni Lombardo Radice, always a great scumbag in movies like The House on the Edge of the Park and its sequel where he was the main focus, Stagefright, Bob the literal pervert in City of the Living Dead, Cannibal Ferox and Phantom of Death. Jasmine Maimone, who was in Demons, Demons 6: De Profundis and Paganini Horror was the original choice for the lead, but she retired before this bloody mess could be made.

A psychopath, who uses a musical score playing when he sets off to methodically kill his victims, torments a "widow" by leaving the removed body parts(from those he kills, with a large, sharp butcher knife) in her home or near her parents' house. Her past, what supposedly occurred to her husband and brother, is a piece to the puzzle as is a certain motorcycle accident caused by the quietly deranged killer(..we see this "accident" take place in the memory flashback of the killer at the very beginning of the film). Detective Michael(Tomas Arana, of Michelle Soavi's "The Church")is the one burdened with trying to find the killer and François Montagut is the killer he's pursuing. Joanna Pacula is Tracy, the female protagonist whose life is possibly endangered by the psycho leaving her the parts. Incredibly convoluted murder mystery(the identity of the killer, for example, yields a few twists)with a rather tasteless premise, stylishly executed by Lamberto Bava. I thought it was professionally made and not overly gory despite the killer's methods of destruction & removal of organs and limbs. There's a particular disturbing sequence where a schoolteacher, for the blind, is killed by the psycho while teaching class(..blood even sprays on a kid's face!). The victims chosen by the killer have something in common..there's a motive behind the killer's madness, so to speak. The theme of identity crisis plays at the heart of the film as to why the killer is committing his grisly deeds. I thought it was kind of cool seeing Joanna Pacula in a giallo type of mystery and felt she was fitting as a book editor paranoid and frightened by what is revolving around her..her husband's body was even removed from his grave to fuel her fear and horror(..although, even that sick event plays within this macabre plot as it plays out). Gianni Garko(..of Lucio Fulci's "Seven Notes in Black), looking quite suave in his tailored suits, has a nice little minor role as Michael's demanding Police Chief wanting the brooding detective to solve the complex case as bodies start to mount. Can not forget Giovanni Lombardo Radice as a flamboyantly gay aristocrat with ties to the killer and Tracy's husband. Erika Blanc portrays the coroner whose expertise come in handy as Michael pursues the killer, trying to piece this delicate puzzle together.

Body Puzzle is something of an atypical giallo in so far as that the face of the killer is seen from the outset. The rest, as they say, is business as usual, with director Lamberto Bava delivering a convoluted murder mystery with a beautiful woman in peril (Joanna Pacula), a tough cop trying to crack the case (Tomas Arana), and several elaborately staged, mean-spirited murders. Pacula plays widow Tracy, who begins to receive gruesome gifts from a serial killer: body parts from his victims. As the murderer goes about his business, police detective Michele (Arana) tries to figure out the motive for the slayings, thereby leading him to uncover the killer's identity. It all gets a little tough to follow at times, but Bava's stylish direction and the grisly death scenes ensure a good time for giallo fans. Gory highlights include the vicious murder of a pastry store owner (who loses his ear) and the chopping off of a woman's hand in a toilet cubicle, but the most ingenious killing has to be that of a teacher in a classroom full of blind children, the psycho committing his crime as the kids happily listen to a recording of 'Peter and the Wolf'. Fans of italian horror will also get a kick out of seeing genre favourite Giovanni Lombardo Radice as camp stable owner Morangi, who supplies Michele with a vital clue.

After being left disappointing,and then being left completely gripped with Bava's first and second films,I decided to watch his last ever "Giallo" with above average expectations of it leaning more on the great A Blade In The Dark side,and less on the muddling Macabre. The plot: Heading to lay flowers by her husbands grave,Tracy is stopped in her tracks by police,who tell her that she cant lay the flowers by her husband,due to a grave robber having tampered with her husbands corpse during the night.Shortly after the grave robbery,murders start increasing rapidly around the city.Investigating the case,Police Detecive Michele notices that the serial killers "signature" seems to be getting hold of peoples recently transplanted organs.Suspecting that time is not on his side,Michele does everything he can,to stop the killer in time,before he gets the final piece of his own puzzle.. View on the film: For his directing,Lamberto scales back the Giallo/Slasher mash- up,which had made A Blade In the Dark so enjoyable,and instead goes for a very near-middle of the road style of directing,with the main stylish moments being the use of a freezer (a call back to his first film,Macabre),some good tracking shots which show the characters in a jig saw puzzle way,and the stand out swimming pool and class room murder scenes,which allows Bava to at last show what he could have done for the whole film.Due to the plot of the film being a great opportunity for a fast moving Giallo-horror,the screenwriters instead decide to make the film into a Giallo drama!,and although the script does contain a nice twist,the rest of the screenplay just feels like it is on auto- pilot,with there being nothing particularly bad with the film,but there also being nothing particularly great,to turn the film into a must see Giallo. Final view on the film: A pleasant enough Giallo dram,which is just about saved from being middle of the road,by the stylish "horror" moments from Bava.

Well, the Giallo had it's heyday in the early seventies, and ever since the stream of these great films got thinner and thinner until we reached the nineties and the genre sadly all but petered out. With that in mind, this isn't a particularly bad film; but it pales in comparison to its seventies counterparts, and it has to be said that by the conclusion, you kind of wonder what the point is. Giallo's are renowned for featuring over the top and frankly stupid plot lines; and this one is certainly no different, as Body Puzzle has one of the most ridiculous story lines of all! The film kicks off with two murders; the second of which sees us introduced to the cold and calculating murderer. The murders continue, and the copper on the case sees a connection to Tracy; a window who lost her husband Abe in a motorcycle accident. The cop wastes no time in falling for Tracy, meanwhile; the murder spree continues and all the signs seem to point to the dead husband and his donor card, as all the victims have the fact that they received something from Abe in common... The film was directed by Lamberto Bava who, despite never topping the achievements of his father, has proved himself to be a capable director on a number of occasions. This film is actually the worst Lamberto Bava Giallo that I've seen, as both Macabre and A Blade in the Dark were better. The film does have its plus points, however, as Bava doesn't let the film fall short where death scenes are concerned. The murder sequences aren't overly gory, but they are pretty nasty as we witness things such as a connectionist being stabbed to death, a woman having her hand cut off and a teacher having her eyes cut out in front of a class of blind kids! The plot has its problems, however – as the fact that we know who the murderer is makes the rest of the mystery fit together all too easily. The cast is decent enough, with cult stars Erika Blanc and Giovanni Lombardo Radice standing out amongst a cast of lesser known actors. The music is completely over the top like the rest of the film; although the central classical tune is used far too often for my liking and gives the film something of a farcical feel. Overall, this film is unlikely to top anyone's list of favourite Giallo's - but considering the over the top ridiculousness of the production...it could have been worse.

"Body Puzzle" is a typical Italian thriller,not exactly a masterpiece,but it delivers some surprising twists.The death scenes are pretty vicious and graphic,especially when the woman has her hand chopped off.Director Lamberto Bava creates a reasonable amount of suspense and Luigi Kuvellier("Deep Red","Blood for Dracula")does the slick photography.Polish horror queen Joanna Pacula("Warlock 2","The Kiss" and awful "Haunted Sea")is pretty good as a widow in peril.It's also very nice to see Giovanni Lombardo Radice("House on the Edge of the Park","Gates of Hell","Cannibal Ferox")as the epicene Morangi.Overall this one is worth a look,if you like Italian giallos.