The Girl in Room 2A (1974)

Simply Perfect

Boring

An Exercise In Nonsense

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

I thought I have seen most of giallos (Yes, I am big time giallo fan & watching them for last 5 years) but every once a while, I get a little surprise. This was one of them. Its about a secret cult & how they kidnap & torture pretty young woman. This is not of the class of Suspiria - but its pretty decent. Girls are pretty, atmosphere/setup was good & plot had some suspense. Murders are little tamed in comparison to typical giallos, but not half bad. Overall, a pretty enjoyable movie.

There basically only exist 3 groups of people in this world. The first group considers "The Girl in Room 2A" to be a giallo and the second group doesn't. The third group has never even heard about "The Girl in Room 2A" and thus couldn't care less whether it's a giallo or not. This last group covers about 99,5% of the world's population, but of course we'll completely disregard them in this review. Yours truly homes in the second group. Somehow, the American born smut director William Rose (previously responsible for duds like "Rent-A-Girl" and "50,000 B.C.") found some financers and collaborators in Italy. Good for him, but just because a film is released in 1974 and the title contains keywords like "casa" and "paura", it doesn't necessarily make it a giallo. Admittedly, certain trademarks are present, like beautiful and innocent young women being slaughtered by a masked assailant, the boarding house type of setting and the brother of a former victim independently investigating the case. But it's made clear rather early in the film that the girls are being targeted by a perverse satanic cult rather than by a perverse lone killer and, moreover, "The Girl in Room 2A" doesn't feature any stylistic giallo trademark like imaginative camerawork or a dazzling soundtrack. Margaret Bradley is a young woman just released from prison and, just like many girls before her, the friendly and caring parole officer Alice Songbird sends her to the boarding house of the elderly Mrs. Grant where she can quietly build up her life again. During the pre-opening credits scene (basically the only good part of the entire film) we already witnessed how the tenants of this house are kidnapped, tortured, killed and thrown off a cliff. After some strange occurrences, Margaret hooks up with a handsome young stranger who's looking for his sister that went missing. The biggest default of "The Girl in Room 2A" is the miserable script. Everything that happens seems so random and meaningless. Who are these cult members? Why and to whom are they sacrificing the girls? The answers are quite simple, in fact: William Rose is a completely untalented writer/director and his entire repertoire proves that he isn't interested in atmosphere, tension-building or consistent storytelling. He likes to film young girls in various states of nakedness and suffering. And then still he's not very good at it, since ravishing cult sirens like Rosalba Neri and Karin Schubert are dramatically wasted. There are a few notably grisly death sequences, but (again) popping up randomly. Perhaps in the hands of a REAL contemporary Italian giallo-director, this could potentially have been a modest classic. In the hands of this guy, it's nothing but a daft and forgettable non-giallo.

Girls who stay in room 2A at a mysterious boarding house are being abducted, tortured and killed by masked assailants. The latest female tenant and the brother of the last victim begin investigating the mystery.Perhaps the most defining thing about this giallo is the fact that it was directed by an American. When I saw the name William Rose in the opening credits, I automatically assumed that this must be an Americanised Italian name for a director wishing to sell his product in the States. But no, it was in fact an American B-movie director working in Italy. I'm not sure if this has anything to do with the fact that The Girl in Room 2A is not exactly the most stylish giallo out there. Visually it is pretty pedestrian when set alongside other similar Italian productions, although, in fairness, this may be due to the quite limited settings. Quite a lot of the movie takes place within the confines of the boarding house and this may also account for the lack of good lighting. It's certainly a relatively restrained effort in terms of violence, except for the pre-credit sequence of course, which is very salacious. In fairness, the beginning promises more than the movie ultimately delivers. I wouldn't say it ever gets dull but it just doesn't necessarily live up to its potential.There are a few strange details such as the mysterious villain who looks very similar to the Crimson Executioner from Bloody Pit of Horror (1965). This one doesn't possess the sheer delirium of that crazy film though, this one is much more down-beat, while still being far from realistic. The casting is notable for a couple of the actresses. The lead girl is Daniela Giordano who made a very memorable and sexy turn in Mario Bava's comedy Four Times That Night. She isn't quite as well utilised in this feature, as Bava's playful movie was better suited to her. The other actress of note is Rosalba Neri who starred in many Italian genre pictures in the 70's, such as the excellent Amuck! Sadly she is very under-utilised in this film which is somewhat careless of the film-makers.This isn't a prime example of the genre. It isn't quite stylish enough, nor is the mystery interesting enough. Nevertheless, it does have enough strangeness to be worth a watch if you are a fan of Italian thrillers.

Casa della paura, La aka The Girl in Room 2a, (1973) William L. Rose A sadistic cult that preys on vulnerable women, uses a local women's prison as a place to get these unfortunates into their lodging house, where they commence mind games while using hallucinogens to prepare their victims for their fate. Margaret Bradley is one such girl just released penniless from her imprisonment,so she takes up an offer to stay at the Grant's lodging house where she can stay for free until she finds some finance, almost immediately though she becomes suspicious of her hosts strange behaviour and the nocturnal events that keep her awake. She finds a friend in a stranger who is looking into the disappearance of his sister who also stayed at the Grants house, together they commit to finding out the truth.The film starts promisingly with a kidnap and torture of a young girl who is then impaled on a spike by a crimson hooded killer, who does show up on occasion throughout the film, but there is very little in the way of spectacular giallo killings after that, the story kept me interested, but overall its not a Giallo I'd recommend, the visuals are uninspired, the score is at times laughably unsuitable but the biggest crime of all is the under use of Rosalba Neri who is restricted to about 3 minutes screen time, the identity of the Hooded killer is also rather obvious. 5/10