Director: Jean Josipovici, Ambrogio Molteni
Year: 1964
Country: Italy/France
Alternate Titles: Delitto allo specchio; Sexy Party; Crime in the Mirror
Genre: Giallo
Plot:
Heading out to a nearby castle, a group of friends attempting to initiate a weekend full of paranormal investigation inside the castle finds the warnings of a psychic friend coming true as they're murdered one by one by a strange killer hiding inside and must try to get away alive.
Review:
For the most part, this one here was a decent if not entirely impressive early giallo. Although a great deal of this is due to the adherence to the newfound genre, the vast majority of the fun in this one comes in the celebrated Gothic stereotypes here which shows the early elements still at play. The fact that the castle setting here, typified by the elaborately-designed ornate rooms, lush columnar hallways, and creepy rooms, allows for the final half hour to be filled with the typically chilling scenes where the characters go skulking around the dimly-lit hallways and corridors, doors opening and creaking off in the distance and the knowledge that there's a killer loose amongst them gives this one some nice suspense scenes, all according to the Gothic tropes enforced upon it by the story.
Even their attempts to clear themselves are quite fun, as the efforts to put suspicion on all of them let this one indulge in some fine giallo trappings as each one tries to investigate the others with the parlor room explanations and the dinner table revelations. These do a fine job of crafting the mystery of the killer's identity and motives that there's quite an enjoyable central mystery at the heart of this one and the final revelation in the attic is somewhat more lively than expected. While these here do make this one somewhat enjoyable, there are still a few problems here.
One of the biggest issues here is the fact that there's just not a whole lot of interesting things going on throughout the first half as the scenes of the group going through their games inside just aren't that exciting. The exploits of them dancing to a song that is completely out-of-sync to their gyrations and far too old-fashioned for a group this hip and chic to find appealing, a card game that promises more sleaze than what it eventually showcases and the group basically loitering around the castle are just so dull and bland they drag the film out considerably so that the first murder doesn't occur until nearly the fifty-minute mark. Even less interesting is the fact that this holds off the horror aspects until it comes to the first murder, leaving this one also struggling to really build up the typical body count associated with these films. Still, that isn't enough to really hold this one down too much.
Overview: **.5/5
An enjoyable if slightly flawed early giallo, this one carries a lot to like with it and carries enough to like that it's enough to enjoy over a few minor drawbacks. Those who appreciate this style of early genre efforts or are curious about it will want to give it a shot while most others out there might want to check out other genre fare first.
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