Sex and violence proved a winning combination, and giallo directors took notice as the 1970s progressed. Before the genre would splinter into either the 80s tropes of slasher adjacent thrillers or heavy sex with a dose of mystery & violence, filmmakers in the 70s tried to evenly balance these two equally marketable subjects by creating films that were capable of selling titillation without skimping on the bloodshed.
RINGS OF FEAR
Hard-boiled Inspector Gianni Di Salvo has been brought in to solve the murder of a schoolgirl, found nude and savagely tortured. As he looks into the girl's life, hoping to find a clue as to why someone sought to snuff her out, his investigation takes him to an exclusive, all-girl prep school which the teenage victim attended. After becoming aware of her involvement with a trio of pupils who call themselves "The Inseparables," Di Salvo is convinced that the group is aware of some secret that led to their friend's killing. But when more victims are found slaughtered, the detective is in a race against time to unmask the murderer before it's too late.
Expertly blending an in-your-face trashiness with a stylish and well-developed murder mystery, prolific TV director Alberto Negrin's RINGS OF FEAR (Enigma Rosso) is often considered a spiritual sequel to the earlier giallo classic, What Have You Done to Solange? by again casting Italian heavy Fabio Testi (The Heroin Busters) at the center of a series of schoolgirl killings. Co-starring Christine Kaufmann (Murders in the Rue Morgue), Ivan Desny (The Marriage of Maria Braun), along with Jack Taylor (Pieces), and Helga Liné (Horror Express), Vinegar Syndrome presents this deliriously perverse fan favorite on Blu-ray, exclusively scanned and restored in 2K from the best-surviving film elements and featuring an exclusive array of new interviews with cast and crew.
REFLECTIONS IN BLACK
Countess Orselmo hides her lust for women from most of those closest to her, but that does not stop her from taking a bevy of beautiful female companions to her bed. But when some of her favorite conquests are discovered dead, slashed to ribbons with a razor, the Countess finds herself embroiled in a sinister mystery of which her illicit affairs are at the very center. Will she be next on the killer's target list, or does the assailant have another and even more shocking motive for the violence?
Amongst the more obscure efforts to emerge from the genre's mid-70s sex and prostitute-themed narrative trend, character-actor turned-director Tano Cimarosa's sole giallo, REFLECTIONS IN BLACK (Il vizio ha le calze nere) offers twist-heavy plotting and a cast of major names in Italian genre cinema, including John Richardson (Black Sunday), Dagmar Lassander (Hatchet for the Honeymoon), and Giacomo Rossi Stuart (The Bloodsucker Leads the Dance). Virtually unseen since the video era, Vinegar Syndrome is proud to bring the original Italian theatrical cut of this genre rarity to Blu-ray, newly restored in 2K from the only known film elements and presented in its original scope framing, alongside brand new bonus features.
A.A.A. MASSEUSE, GOOD-LOOKING, OFFERS HER SERVICES
Christina cannot stand her overbearing and oppressive home life. After deciding she needs to make it on her own, she rents an apartment but quickly discovers that to enjoy her freedom and independence, she'll need to earn a steady income. Taking advantage of her voluptuous body, she begins working as a call girl under the "protection" of a rough pimp named Oskar. But when some of her clients start turning up dead with their throats slashed, Christina realizes that a madman is on the loose and is following her carnal activities in order to find a victim pool.
An early example of a giallo that leaned as heavily on sex and nudity as it did on more traditional "whodunit" plotting, prolific Western director Demofilo Fidani's (Django and Sartana Are Coming... It's the End) A.A.A. MASSEUSE, GOOD-LOOKING, OFFERS HER SERVICES (A.A.A. Massaggiatrice bella presenza offresi...) personifies the direction the genre would soon head, emphasizing the casting of beautiful female leads willing to do plentiful nude scenes, here including Paola Senatore (Images in a Convent) and Simonetta Vitelli (Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks). Never released in any territory outside of Italy and never dubbed into English, Vinegar Syndrome is pleased to present this underseen shocker on Blu-ray, newly restored in 2K from its camera negative and offering an extensive array of new interviews with cast and crew.
