Last Caress (2010)

I've wished to see a good, talented tribute to the Italian horrors of the 70's, for a long time now. Matthew Saliba's short movie Amy's in the Attic failed miserably and I kinda gave up hope after that - until I, earlier this year, saw the trailer for Last Caress and Blackaria and my pulse started to beat a little bit faster. 

Now Njuta Films has released an excellent package - Last Caress, Blackaria, two short movies ( Die Die My Darling and Under the Blade) plus the splendid soundtrack! And it also have English subs for those who's not familiar with the ancient language for Swedish! Today I've watched Last Caress and what's it all about? Not much really, but who the frakk cares!

In a scene similar to the opening sequence in Mario Bava's Bay of Blood (and Blood and Black Lace) one character is killed after murdering another character and the story is on. A man wearing sunglasses and a spiked metal glove breaks into a country villa, on the hunt for a mysterious painting. Shortly after four victims... eh, characters, arrives for a weekend of booze, sex and occultism. The man with the sunglasses starts killing everyone off in his hunt for the painting and a chance to meet someone from the past...

Last Caress is more or less a series of extremely cool murder set-pieces. Yeah, that's it. And I love it. It's probably the most relaxing movie I've seen in a long time, with gorgeous (and sometimes sloppy) photo, a bit uneven editing and actors that's very natural in one scene and extremely stiff in one. But that's how it is with very small, cheap, indie-movies. Directors François Gaillard and Christophe Robin knows what the giallo-fans want and packs the story with references and stylish sets. The blood is flowing, the gore is graphic and there's enough nudity for everyone who might appreciate it.

Honestly, this is neither a technical or artistic masterpiece, but it works surprisingly and the strong passion and love for the genre is there. Compared to Swedish indie-movies here we have actors or actually works with their characters and understands it's a movie and not reality, but the French has always had a different approach to art and understand it to the fullest. To create a giallo-mode isn't only about light the wall in the background with red and green, it's about flow and editing, the choice of actors and themes like art and culture.

I wish someone could give these awesome filmmakers a bigger budget and give them time to construct a more complex, but not less bloody, story. They are worth it, we in the audience are worth it. So go on, invest in them!