Unclean & Unseen! – SHOCK (1977)

An auteur of Italian cinema waves his bloody hand goodbye.

Regardless of whether stuffier critics want to admit it or not, Italian director Mario Bava was a pioneer in the film community. He consistently released garish, attention-grabbing shockers such as BLACK SUNDAY (1960) and A BAY OF BLOOD (1971) that laid the template for gothic, slasher, and splatterpunk works for the remainder of the 20th century.

Already in poor health by the time of filming, SHOCK was to be Bava’s last film before his death in April, 1980. For his swan song, Bava isn’t interested in high-concept shocks, or even retreading his earlier blood-n-Technicolor proto-slasher, BLOOD AND BLACK LACE. Instead, he settled on a rather subdued study in losing your marbles.

Recovering from her former hubby’s suicide, a woman opts to spent time in a funny farm getting electro-zapped in an effort to escape her past. This probably isn’t a stellar idea by anyone’s estimation when you have a son still young enough to be in primary school. Yes, like most great 1970s scare films, our plot revolves around a child. When the boy starts skulking around his new home and saying things like “Mama, I have to kill you”, you know the parental figures in his life haven’t hit a home run when it comes to explaining the death of his father. It’s this creepy approach–where the fingers of sculptures reach out from furniture, underwear is mysteriously shredded, and razor blades are found wedged in between the keys of laughing pianos–that stands as the quiet strength of Bava’s approach. Well, until the histrionic, SUSPIRIA-like ending kicks in, including one of the gnarliest jump scares of the year!

And while we’re on the topic, you may notice that the soundtrack sounds a lot like Goblin, the Italian prog-rock group who basically served as Dario Argento’s house band from the mid-70s to the mid-80s. That’s because Libra, the outfit responsible for much of SHOCK’s impact, is made up of former members of Goblin and wisely assumed the better-known group’s playbook after their notable successes in the horror genre. This time around, Libra almost sounds as if they’re test-driving some ideas for Goblin, with passages that hint at motifs later used for DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) and BEYOND THE DARKNESS (1979).

Like every other Italian horror flick of the era, SHOCK sported a strange alias once it debuted in America. Despite its original title being IT’S ALWAYS COLD AT 33 CLOCK STREET, distributors Film Ventures International stapled the curious title BEYOND THE DOOR II to the film ahead of its US debut in the spring of 1979. Sure, it was a lucrative yet slightly immoral move, but other than sharing the same child actor, the film holds absolutely no connection whatsoever to the infamous EXORCIST rip.

Ultimately, Bava bids us arrivederci with a peculiar meditation on drug abuse, regret, and parenthood, blending modern horror cinema anguish with the stylish, old-fashioned creeps from his earliest days of filmmaking. Bava’s son, Lamberto, would soon after assume the mantle of his father, continuing the family tradition with such genre classics as A BLADE IN THE DARK (1983) and DEMONS (1985). 

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