So this is apparently Lucio Fulci’s consensus masterpiece, and I was pretty excited about that. The Fulci movies I’ve seen — The New York Ripper, The Beyond, Zombi 2 — have been wild and over-the-top in at least several ways. Given that background (and this great title), I figured this one would be completely unhinged.

And… it’s instead maybe his most grounded movie. It turns out a lot of the praise is for its social criticism, how it takes on the Church and the provincial superstitions of small towns. Okay, cool, but that’s not what I’m here for. I can’t help but think that the praise for this film is from people who don’t really like giallo, and who are able to say of this one that it’s doing more “serious” things. Me, I’d rather have a giallo that excels in being a giallo; if I want neorealism, I’ll go watch some neorealism.

That said, I want to be clear that when I say this is “grounded,” I mean it in relative terms. This is still a giallo. There are brutal murders. There is a seductive woman who is often unclothed. There are maybe-supernatural elements. And because it’s Fulci, there’s even Donald Duck.

If I had come into this with no expectations at all, I would have been impressed and walked away talking about how good it was. And so that’s what I’d recommend: If you’re a giallo fan, it’s worth seeing, but don’t get hung up on expecting it to be Fulci’s best or anything.