The Bloodstained Shadow (1978)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

One of my all time favorites.

Great Film overall

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

The Bloodstained Shadow is a later entry into the giallo genre. The film revolves around an unsolved murder from many years before the picture begins, leading to subsequent murders in a section of Venice. A college professor returns to the village to visit his brother, the local priest. Soon after arriving, the priest witnesses a murder but cannot identify the killer. This leads to séances, blackmail, and a film that is about 20 minutes too long.Unlike many giallo films, this one never becomes sleazy, though there is an extended nude scene at one point. The killer is not a "sex maniac" as is so often the case in these sorts of films. Rather, blackmail is a main plot point. There isn't much bloodshed, and even less stalking, though the director does manage to throw in some voyeurism, back alleys, gloved hands, and POV shots. Nothing to really recommend about the feature; it's a very average entry.Of passing interest is that Blue Underground DVD seems to have swiped a musical sample from this film's score and used it as their bumper music at the intro of any DVD they release. This is interesting since The Bloodstained Shadow was released on DVD by Anchor Bay.

I promise ABSOLUTELY NO SPOILERS ... which is important for a film like this.I'm surprised this film isn't rated more highly among fans of Giallo or Italian Horror.Like the best of its kind, it keeps you guessing ... and then second-guessing. You will suspect everyone! Often I told myself, "it would be too obvious if he or she is the killer but then again, maybe." (You can feel the writing toying with you!) Add to that the artistic sense, music and photography that make the best Italian films so compelling and you have dark, mysterious, creepy fun!

Set in and around Venice and heavily mired in the world of Catholicism, The Bloodstained Shadow is a dreary and unfulfilling giallo that brings nothing new to the genre. Director Antonio Bido allows the plot to unravel extremely slowly and often seems more intent on showing us the sights of Venice rather than telling a taut murder mystery tale.The story revolves around a group of unsavoury characters who are being bumped off one-by-one (in a relatively bloodless fashion) by a lunatic who may be connected to a murder that took place many years before. In between the lacklustre death scenes and the travelogue-style footage of Venice, we get an uninteresting love story (with a gratuitous sex scene) and loads of talking. Even the score, performed by Italian rock group Goblin, failed to impress me.By the time the identity of the murderer was revealed (and eagle eyed viewers will probably have guessed already), I was struggling to stay awake. The Bloodstained Shadow is one for giallo completists only.

The Bloodstained Shadow, or, Solamente Nero is at best a fair giallo.It's got a lot of the giallo trademarks and some scenes that basically rip off other famous giallo's (most notably Deep Red and Don't Torture a Duckling) but it's terribly slow moving. What proves to be it's saving grace is a number of well executed set pieces, most of them involving horrific murders. Bido hasn't got the visual flair of Argento or Bava so what we basically have here is the story, which is longwinded, a bit obvious and with some annoying plot holes.The film builds suspense pretty well and the set pieces are great, but they're few and far between, leaving us with an uninteresting love story that's lacking any chemistry between the actors.By no means bad, simply average.