Shock

• AMG Rating:
• Genre: Thriller
• Movie Type: Supernatural Horror
• Themes: Haunted By the Past, Demonic Possession
• Director: Mario Bava
• Release Year: 1977
• Country: IT
• Run Time: 90 minutes

Plot

This effective occult horror film was the final feature directed by the legendary Mario Bava. Daria Nicolodi gives her most convincing performance as Dora, who moves back into her old house with a new husband, Bruno (John Steiner), after spending time in a mental hospital. Strange things start happening, mostly involving her young son Marco (David Colin, Jr.), who seems to be possessed by the ghost of Dora's first husband Carlo, a heroin addict who committed suicide. Dora suffers from vivid hallucinations, and it soon becomes obvious that she is going completely mad, and that Bruno knows more about Carlo's death than he lets on. Bava stages the hallucination scenes with his trademark visual flair, and his son Lamberto Bava's script, co-written with Francesco Barbieri, Paola Brigenti and Dardano Sacchetti, handles Dora's shifting sense of reality with great skill and a subtlety rare for Italian horror films of the period. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Review

Originally released in the U.S. as a sequel to Behind the Door, Shock is perhaps one of the more conventional offerings from a man whom many consider the founding father of Italian horror, though it still bears the trademark style and technical trickery of Mario Bava's previous efforts on slightly muted terms (possibly due to the fact that father Mario feigned illness during production to give son Lamberto a shot at directing). And though some fans of Bava's work may dismiss the film in terms of its lack of the colorful visual elements that have come to be a defining factor in his work, Shock certainly delivers the goods in its effectively disturbing portrayal of a boy possessed by the spirit of his deceased, drug-addict father, and the horrifying effect this has on his mother and stepfather. The slight-of-hand camera trickery that Bava had mastered with nearly 20 years in the director's chair is equally effective, creating unexpected shocks that easily surpass those in shockers that have come to rely on computer-generated effects to raise the hair on viewers' necks. It's easy to criticize a number of Bava's works for their inconsistencies and character flaws but to do so would be missing the point; imagery and visualization are the keys here, and as a final work by a director who specialized in such endeavors, Shock will certainly entertain haunted-house movie aficionados and those looking for a spooky possession flick. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

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