Torso

A mere three months ago, Arrow Video released a long-lost Blu-ray title from neglected Italian director Sergio Martino. And now get ready, fans of "giallo" Italian horror films: Another classic from Martino has been dusted off for a proper Blu-ray release. The morbidly titled "Torso" shows writer/director Sergio Martino delving further into the horror genre, and proves his skill at creating a graphic tale wasn't just a fluke. The film gets a loving restoration in a brand new 2K scan.

"Torso" mostly takes place in Perugia and other breathtaking surrounding areas. Shot on location, the Italian film mimics others in its genre with its use of a gruesome story and copious amounts of blood. At one point, I also thought I was witnessing an old "Emmanuelle" soft-core porn movie, as "Torso" has probably the most female full-frontal nudity in an Italian horror film that this reviewer has seen. Sorry gay gents and women... the men get shafted in the undressing department.

The screenplay to this giallo film involves a ghastly story about a series of female coeds at a local college who show up dead and dismembered at various locations. Most of these scenes are rapidly shot and are mere murder set pieces. That all changes in the last half-hour, and the film slows to a crawl while a group of young females escape the carnage and hole up in a secluded country villa.

Like the American slasher films that became popular in the late 1970s and '80s, "Torso" has a cat-and-mouse finish with a Final Girl lasting until the end. It's quite apparent that this film, originally titled "Carnal Violence," influenced the bloody horror films that came after it.

This special edition of "Torso" also features plenty of supplemental contents on the Blu-ray. Among them are examinations of Sergio Martino's films and an interview with the director himself. There are also multiple audio commentaries and interviews with a handful of actors and most of these, like "Torso" the film, use the Italian language format.

"Torso"
Blu-ray
$39.95
www.arrowvideo.co.uk