Director: Carlo Vanzina
Year: 1985
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: Sotto il vestito niente
Genre: Giallo
Plot:
After sensing her in trouble, a man leaves America to visit Italy to find his missing twin sister, who’s been abducted from her profession in the modeling industry, and when a series of murders strikes others in her group, it forces the local inspectors to believe his story and stop the killer.
Review:
This was a rather strong and impressive late-era giallo. Among the better elements for this one is the immensely effective starting point that manages to tie together several strong and generally intriguing elements into a fun setup. The main idea of bringing the family together in this manner by sharing their twin bond so that he can feel the pressure put on her by her associates in Europe, while he’s in America, finds this with an intriguing premise to help in the investigation later on, as well as launching the impetus to visit Italy to find her. Since he’s aware of something going on but not what, the questioning of this power allows him to operate in Italy without being too suspicious of his real motivations, as he gets further into the underground fashion scene that his sister was a part of.
That allows the film to undergo the strong second half of its storyline, where it takes a pointed look at the superficiality of the industry as a whole. Using the concept of the titular phrase as a means of noting how the women appear whenever they come together for the camera, where they’re required to be superficially beautiful but have no other requirements for the job, leads to the typical revolving-door nature of the profession, as women are seen as having surface-level beauty with nothing else to them. Forcing women to starve themselves, train and work out regularly, and avoid other distractions for the sake of making sure they look good for the camera isn’t just useful for the job but also manages to bring about the means of investigating what’s going on with the group, since that knowledge helps them track down the ruthless killer stalking them.
These stalking scenes, on the whole, are also quite enjoyable and score rather nicely for this one overall. The traditional outfit utilized here, with the black hat, leather overcoat, and stylish black gloves holding a unique murder weapon, fits in quite well within the fashion scene and lets the killer hide in the chaotic nature of the fashion shoots to take out the targets. This lets the stalking scenes come together rather well, from the opening attack on the sister that he psychically is connected to that alerts him to everything, one victim chased through the night back to her apartment where they’re murdered in the bathroom, and a fantastic encounter at a live fashion shoot in the middle of the city that are pretty gruesome as well as providing this with the kind of generally fun setpieces that work rather well here, and with the fine nudity featured give this a lot to like here.
There are a few minor drawbacks that are present here. Most of these flaws are centered around the finale, which has a few problems. The main reason is that there’s the reveal of one of the most obvious suspects in the genre’s history being revealed as the culprit, where it’s very clear who’s responsible quite early on, with the stares and comments that make everything feel far more intense than anything yet has the intent of being a big reveal when it comes across. Likewise, there are also the rather dry and generally bloodless kills that might have great concepts behind them, but are kept to such a dry final outcome that it might be somewhat disappointing for those expecting this one to be a vicious and sleazy genre outing. These are what manage to bring this one down overall.
Overview: ****/5
A really fun and generally enjoyable late-era giallo, this one has plenty to like overall and only some minor nitpicks that keep it down from being in the upper echelon of the genre. Those with an appreciation for this kind of genre fare, who are hardcore Eurohorror fanatics, or are curious about it, will have the most to enjoy here, while most others might want to heed caution.
This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site:
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