PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *metaphysical*
There are just two incidents that shift this movie's phenomenality from uncanny to marvelous, and both are needed to set the movie's female protagonist Margarent (Daniela Giordano) on the trail of a murderous satanic cult.
Margaret has been released from some low-security women's jail because she was implicated in selling drugs. When released, she's sent to a halfway house run by an older woman, Mrs. Grant, who has a slightly weird grown son, Frank. When Margaret stays in the room assigned her, she beholds a bizarre bloodstain on the floor that won't permanently vanish no matter how she scrubs it. A prologue has informed the audience that an innocent girl named Evie was killed in the room by a Satanic torturer, but though Margaret doesn't see this, she does dream of the image of the red-masked torturer.
The heroine also crosses paths with Jack (John Scanlon), brother of the missing Evie, and Charlie (Brad Harris). The audience is also given some extra information by seeing conflicts between some of the Satanist cultists (including Raf Vallone) and some of their enemies, though the good guys really have no part to play in the main plot. There are some rambling metaphysical observations about the conflict of good and evil but nothing substantive.
Soon Margaret and Jack learn that the halfway house under Mrs. Grant is in league with the Satanists, making it possible for the cult to lay hands on young women to torture and murder, presumably for the glory of Satan. But at least all the Satanists aren't just a bunch of men slaughtering women for pleasure, for in addition to Mrs. Grant there's still the identity of the red-masked killer to reveal.
Though IMDB claims that the directorial duties were shared by two Americans with lots of grindhouse credits, one online review asserts that Dick Randall did all the work and the co-credited William Rose did little, and that the script, co-credited to Rose, was mostly the creation of Gianfranco Baldanello, also known for directing (under a psuedonym) the Eurospy flick DANGER DEATH RAY. A number of reviews found GIRL a substandard giallo, but its combination of torture and softcore sex held my interest, which is more than I can say for a lot of giallos.
Looking at the photo, all I can say is that I'd very much appreciate a nekkid woman like that in my room - and not necessarily in chains. Haven't seen the movie.
ReplyDeleteThe one in the photo isn't in the movie very long, but I quite liked the star Daniela Giordano, who was in a few other giallos though I didn't remember her from the ones I'd seen.
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