Shock (1977)
Directed by: Mario Bava
Reviewed by: Joshua Taj Bozeman on December 23, 2002

warning: minor spoilers below

Well, I must say first off...I was really pleased with this movie. It is Italian horror I think...just as the case with Deep Red which I didn't like and Suspiria, which I pretty much hated...this movie, on the other hand, I really liked. A lot. It's not as artsy as Suspiria which I reviewed last, but it's got a really good story, which is much better than cool colors and camera angles anyday. Not to mention, there are atleast two big scares in the movie...actually more like, 'WHOA THAT MADE ME JUMP' scares that you know are coming, but they still scared the bejesus outta me! The acting is decent...the music is pretty nice, really works to set a nice tone, tho some of it was sorta lame 70's sounding stuff...and the direction is nice overall. The way Bava works the camera, again, isn't as artsy as Argento, but it works well to keep the suspense up throughout.

The story is about a young couple moving into a new home. We find out that the woman was married before, but her husband commited suicide. She has one young son, who has taken a liking to his stop father. Maybe even more of a relationship with the man than his own mother, it seems. A loving couple, and a good kid all moving into this big new house. We eventually get some back story that sets the story up. The woman's husband killed himself in the very house they are now moving into...she had a nervous breakdown after it happened and was commited for 6 months in a sanitarium....She eventually met Bruno, her new husband, who is an airline pilot, and is frequently gone, leaving her alone in this house where weird things start to happen. We also learn that her husband was a known drug addict and probably treated her badly.

Strange things start to happen around the house...things move when no one is there, weird sounds, and worst of all, the young child seems to turning into a totally different person- an evil person almost. He is playing tricks on his mother. Hiding from her, sneaking down into the cellar, where we keep seeing some weird brick wall that seems totally out of place in the house. The kid starts shivering like he's freezing, then when the mom takes him upstairs and puts him into bed, she finds that he has taken her underwear and cut them to shreds...and when she returns to the bed with medicine for him, he jumps up and says 'tricked you' and runs off, hiding once again. Throughout all of this, the husband thinks the woman is losing it a little. Maybe because she is back in her old house where the miserable things took place, or maybe because of the kid who is slowly driving her crazy. The woman, on the other hand, has a strange feeling that her husband is within the house...she can feel his presence. The child starts to act even more strangely, and we see him alone, and it's clear that he is being possessed by his father, and is trying to get his revenge on the woman.

I will leave the story off there, as to not ruin anything else.

Shock has some really creepy moments, and, as I mentioned before, a few really big scares that make you jump out of your seat, which is always fun. The tension throughout the movie is very well done...you keep waiting for the big event to happen, because you know the action is only going to escalate until someone ends up getting killed by the spirit within the house. I will tell you that overall, there is little blood, and few deaths to speak of until the end. There is a high level of anticipation thru the entire film, and it's very well written. The characters are believeable, and they're people you start to care about...which helps a lot in a horror movie. If you don't care about the characters, who cares if they get hacked in the end? Shock is an unusual movie...you get a true sense of 1970's moviemaking here. This is something you would never see from a horror director today, that's for sure. Its unique, and in the end, it's a really great movie. 8/10 rating.