Spasmo (1974)

Who is that man with a gun in Suzy Kendall's bathroom?  Why does he want to kill Robert Hoffman?  Why does that well upset Hoffman so much?  Why is everybody acting so weirdly?  Who is doing horrible things to those blow up dolls and just what does it have to do with the rest of the film?  All these questions might, or might not, be answered by watching Umberto Lenzi's 1974 giallo Spasmo.  Despite, for those of who were kids in the seventies, when 'Spaz' and the like were non-PC terms of playground abuse, Spasmo is an entertaining enough by-the-numbers minor league entry in the genre.  Whereas the giallo genre traditionally focused upon the activities of mysterious killers, working their way through a list of victims, with the roots of the crimes lying in some past trauma, there also exists a significant sub-genre whose plots revolve around the sanity of the protagonist, (Footprints on the Moon is an excellent example), often involving plots to unhinge them.  Which is the category that Spasmo falls into.

As with most psychological thrillers of this type, the plot of Spasmo doesn't stand up to close scrutiny, going through countless convolutions in order to try and keep audience and protagonist disorientated enough to try and obscure who is behind it all.  It boasts a strong cast, headed by Robert Hoffman and Suzy Kendall and includes a appearance late on from Ivan Rassimov, (whenever his name appears in the credits, you know that you are in for a certain quality of movie), not to mention typically efficient and professional direction from Umberto Lenzi.  Overall, it is a very slick-looking package, complete with a score from Ennio Morricone.  While not top drawer, it is very watchable.  Oh, unlike the trailer, people don't keep saying 'Spasmo' every few seconds in the film itself - neither does the mid-seventies Dr Who title sequence appear, is it does in the trailer, as far as I can recall.