Acensbart Excellent but underrated film

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Bob This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Sam Panico We went to see Blood and Black Lace in the theater a few weeks ago and there was a speaker before it. Maybe he's bad at speaking in public, but the guy gave short shift to the film, mumbling out about how it influenced Friday the 13th (I'd say Bay of Blood did more than this movie) and how it had a different title. And that was it. I was incensed. I wanted to get up out of my seat and scream that Mario Bava is the reason why lighting is the way it is and his use of color and how I can site hundreds of films that he influenced. But I sat in my seat and boiled while the movie unspooled, because I'm really passionate about Mario Bava and don't need to make a scene and miss seeing one of his films on the big screen.That said — Shock is Bava's last film. It's called Beyond the Door II here in the U.S., but I like the original title better. It's an ecomonical film — there are only three characters (well, three living characters). Dora (Daria Nicolodi, who should be canonized for giving birth to both Suspiria and Asia Argento, as well as roles in Deep Red, Inferno, Opera and so much more) and Bruno (Yor, Hunter from the Future's Overlord) are a newly married couple who have just moved back into her old home — the home where her drug addicted husband killed himself — with her son, Marco.Dora's had some real issues dealing with her husband's death. And Bruno is never home, as he's a pilot for a major airline. Either she's going crazy again or her son is evil or he's possessed or ever single one of those things at once. You have not seen a kid this creepy perhaps ever — he watched his mother and stepfather make love, declaring them pigs. He tells his mom he wants to kill her. He makes his stepfather's plane nearly crash just by putting an image of the man's face on a swing.While Mario was sick throughout the filming (and his son Lambarto would fill in), you can definitely see his style shine through the simple story. There's one scene of Dora's face and her dead hsubands's and then her face that repeats vertically that will blow your mind up.Read more at https://bandsaboutmovies.com/2017/10/17/shock-1977/

GroovyDoom Having recently discovered "Twitch of the Death Nerve", I decided to finally give "Schock" a whirl. Imagine my joy when the film opened very similar to "Twitch of the Death Nerve", with the camera exploring the deserted location where our film will take place, a similar seaside locale featuring an unusual house. Dora has returned to this house with her small son Marco and her second husband, Bruno. We learn that Dora's first husband, Carlo, died under mysterious circumstances; it appears that the man's unbalanced psyche and drug abuse led him to commit suicide by drowning himself in the ocean. Dora has returned to their former home, convinced by Bruno that they would be better off making use of the house rather than selling it. Dora, however, suffered a mental breakdown at the time of her first husband's death, and strange feelings of dread begin to overtake her. Marco begins to communicate with an unseen presence, transforming from a happy child to a devious, lurking presence in the home. Dora seems to be headed for another breakdown.Unlike some of Bava's other work, the plot here is negligible. It doesn't hold up under consideration, and it's not very involving in the first place. Some viewers may be frustrated by preconceived notions that the film will be about the demonic possession of a child, which it is not. It's really about Dora and her fragile mental condition being unhinged by supernatural elements. If it were not for Bava's strong visual style, this movie wouldn't have a reason for being. It's not as good as his earlier work, mostly because of the weak script. It also doesn't help that the movie occasionally lapses into camp, such as a scene that depicts a near-disaster on an airplane where the passengers simply freak the hell out while the camera tilts wildly about.Dubbing is often problematic in Italian films, especially ones involving children as main characters. In this case, Marco's voice seemed to have been actually performed by a child instead of an adult speaking in falsetto, which is the best any of us can hope for. There are a few disturbing moments involving him, including one where he asks to sleep with Dora and then fondles her throat in an erotic manner while she is sleeping, his hand appearing as the hand of a rotting corpse. Sadly, another crucial shock involving Marco is given away in the film's trailer, which I would advise that you avoid before watching the movie.I can't forget to mention the score by Goblin, working under the name Libra here. It's memorable, while not as effective as their score for "Suspiria" done around the same time. One ingenious shot combines a very weird musical riff and a ghostly white figure circling a room. Ultimately this overlap between the style of Bava and Argento hurts "Schock"; even though Bava was doing things like that decades before Argento, in 1977 it was Argento who was at the top of the game. Even though "Schock" isn't Bava's best moment, it still delivers an effective haunted house thriller, with the disjointed atmosphere of classic Italian horror.

Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) I don't know, maybe it's just me. But it seems as though a lot of viewers may have confused their sentiment for Mario Bava with effect. I adore Bava, he was the visual master of classic Italian horror who's movies all seem to have a surreal quality to them suggesting he was somewhat more than just another man with a gift for vision. Nobody can touch his efforts in Italian genre cinema 1960 - 1980. (Though I personally prefer the workmanlike films of Antonio Margheriti and Riccardo Freda.) There is no denying that Mario Bava knew how to construct a shot, from the camera angle to the lighting to the color schemes to having the characters do bizarre, unexpected things that are riveting to witness, and then turn 90 minutes of such shots into what usually end up being amazing little movies. Just watch the guy pry the spiked mask off his face in MASK OF THE DEMON and tell me that isn't the coolest thing ever. Even if you don't care for the film it's an arresting, diverting image that sticks with you.SCHOCK is a comparative mess. It's a great looking mess, but I am just going to refuse to go along with the party here. I hated every simpering, mealy-moused, over-rated minute of it. Expecting a twisted, nauseating, Freudian EXORCIST/OMEN ripoff about a creepy kid possessed by the spirit of his murdered father in a haunted house, instead I found myself waiting with growing impatience through a nonstop parade of every low-budget Italian horror shortcut ever conjured up, including a fake near disaster on an airplane staged just like they did it on "Star Trek": shaking the camera and having people gyrate in their chairs like Sulu recoiling to a photon torpedo blast.Another reviewer here gets it right when he says not to bother with the plot and just concentrate on the images. Usually with a Mario Bava film that's not a problem. The issue here is that there actually was a story being told, it catches up with the imagery in the final few minutes and the payoff didn't equal the investment of attention that led up to the film's gloriously gruesome concluding moments. There were two great gore sequences, a fantastic little sleight of hand freak-out moment where the annoying little kid transforms into something else without the use of off-camera editing, but the other 93 minutes of the film were dead in the water, and the kid was incredibly annoying (or maybe just poorly cast: I never believed for one minute he was really the child of the protagonist). The film does boast another great John Steiner faux method performance, but then again he's great in everything. Even CALIGULA.I think there are two things going on with the film. First and most important, the enthusiasm for it having finally been restored to it's uncensored widescreen glory: After years of muddled, cut, overly dark fullscreen transfers, we can finally see what the maestro was getting at. The second point is more problematic and this might annoy others, but I think a lot fans are overcome by the very human sentiment of SCHOCK literally being Mario Bava's final movie (though much of it us alleged to have been directed by his son, Lamberto Bava, credited here as assistant director), and their sincere wish that it was a better movie than it finally turned out to be. All of his films are special and I'm pretty sure that after another viewing or two I'll warm up to it. But it lacks the unrelenting power of BLOOD & BLACK LACE, the cheeky perversity of TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, CALTIKI's playfully morbid reckless invention, the poetic resonance of KILL BABY KILL, the guile of BLACK SABBATH, and the overwhelming pioneering artiness of MASK OF THE DEMON, which are ultimately the films that Bava will be remembered for.4/10, and all apologies to anybody who is annoyed by my comments. Art is signified by its ability to generate different reactions in people, and believe it or not I find it refreshing to say that I've finally met a Mario Bava movie that I disliked intensely. He was a human being after all.

Zombified_660 Mario Bava's Shock is an excellent addition to his canon of films. It almost feels like a more coherent and gritty modern day take on his earlier Kill Baby Kill, using similar lighting and direction tricks to make Daria Nicoldi's creaky house all the more terrifying.Even with the slightly shoddy transfer of the film I was watching, Shock oozes visual splendour. All shots are carefully composited for maximum impact and every set is fantastically beautifully lit as you would expect from the director. The movie is in effect a Gothic horror moved to a modern day setting, with Daria Nicoldi playing a woman plagued by memories of her dead husband and more than a little amnesia issues.The way the movie slowly builds an accumulation of signs that either something extremely wrong is going on or Daria's character is losing her mind completely is excellent. A lot of flak has been launched at the film for it's slow pace, but in truth it is no slower than his earlier movies, and the slow pace gives the truly horrific and bloody finale an undeniable punch missing from many 'fast-paced' horrors.Still. It is dubbed. Atrociously in parts. As with most movies of it's kind the weakest link is the voice-over for the child Marco. He's so unfortunately over the top. Most Italian movies have at least one character that the dubbing didn't quite work out for, and Marco is Shock's. You'll either be OK with it as all these movies have similar issues, or it'll force your hand to the DVD remote halfway through the first act. Ye have been warned.If you can stomach that issue, it's an excellent movie. It's atmosphere is slightly compromised at times by the dodgy dub but other than that, this is a chiller that won't leave you for a while, especially some of the tragic and truly disturbing images in the final reels. Check it out for a real shiver-down-the-spine horror flick!