PHENOMENALITY: (1) *uncanny,* (2) *naturalistic*
MYTHICITY: *poor*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *drama*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *sociological*
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS
Though I've not hesitated to give away the conclusions of films if I thought it important to my analysis, I feel particularly free to do so with director Andrea Bianchi's STRIP NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER. Some critics have called NUDE an almost stereotypical giallo thriller. However, most such films make at least a token effort to generating clues and red herrings as the viewpoint characters try to unmask a killer. Neither writer Massimo Felisatti nor director Bianchi (who, according to a DVD extra, did not actually contribute to the script but who was so credited in order to "share the blame") make any effort to provide such ratiocinative details. Thus, I don't feel bad in stating that the main distinction of NUDE is that it's one of the few giallos in which the masked killer is female. To be sure, the shots of the leather-clad, motorcycle-helmeted serial murderer is just lean enough to suggest femininity.
Much like the prototypical BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, the murders revolve around an Italian fashion house (but in Milan rather than Rome). However, this time the murder-victims are pretty evenly divided in terms of gender representation, even if the female victims are more dramatically sexualized. The viewer knows that the violence is somehow initiated by the death of a woman resulting from an abortion gone bad, but neither the police nor the viewpoint characters-- a male-and-female couple employed at the agency (Nino Castelnuovo, Edwige Fenech)-- know anything about the initiating event. All the models and their managers are sleeping with, or attempting to sleep with, one another, and even before the big reveal it's implied that the killer views the fashion house as a microcosm of Milan, itself a city of corruption.
None of the victims are strongly characterized, though Felisatti made them all look maladjusted in one way or another. A standout example is the overweight manager of the fashion house who comes close to raping a model, only to be unable to perform when she allows him to do his thing. There is copious nudity, though none of it is there to give pleasure to the murderer, as the title (both in Italian and English) suggests. The murders are just basic stabbings, but the killer's outfit is outre enough to propel this film into the uncanny domain, making her into something of a dark avenging angel. However, NUDE is a long way from Bianchi's best collaboration, 1972's WHAT THE PEEPER SAW.
Just as a contrast to the above "uncanny masked killer film," DEATH WALKS ON HIGH HEELS provides a naturalistic iteration of the same trope. In other posts I've addressed the problems inherent in trying to distinguish between these phenomenal iterations, but here it's fairly easy. Though HEELS, like NUDE, sports a masked killer who commits some brutal murders with a knife, it's clear from the earliest scenes that HEELS is a crime-film, not a horror-film, largely because some or all of the villains are pursuing a cache of stolen diamonds. (Note: the masked man also uses a voice-changing instrument to make sure none of the people he simply threatens can identify his speaking voice, but the artificial voice serves just as mundane a purpose as his ski-mask.)
Though this movie IS a mystery that pays a lot of attention to clues and red herrings (including a mysterious woman in the titular "high heels'), I won't go into a lot of detail about the plot of HEELS. I will note that though it starts off with a female viewpoint character who's unwillingly involved in the diamond theft, neither she nor the canny police inspector who solves the crime are the main characters. That honor falls rather to the masked man. I will give away that the female viewpoint character, who is suspected of knowing the diamonds' location, is initially attached to an age-appropriate young man. Then, when she suspects him of being the killer, she flees into the company of a wealthy older man. However, this action only propels her deeper into the maze of the criminal conspiracy. Because of the concentration on the resolution of the mystery, HEELS has less emphasis on sex and violence than the more horror-themed giallos,
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