Shock (1979)

Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Best movie of this year hands down!

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

It's Always an Anticipation when coming to a Mario Bava Movie. Considered one of the Best Italian Horror Directors, Bava Never Failed to be an Auteur, always bringing an Artistic Flair with His "on the move" Camera Work, Color Schemes, and a Fertile Imaging of the Genre (Horror/Giallo).This, His Final Film, was done during Failing Health, like Hitchcock, the Talent Remained and His Vision is Incorporated here even though much of the Movie was Relegated to His Son, Lamberto.It's a Creepfest of Considerable SHOCKS and the Strong B-Acting working with one of the Masters manages to Help in the Delivery. Coming at the End of the Horror/Giallo Cycle, while Certainly Not One of the Genre's Best or Worse, it is still Worth a Watch and is only Slightly Disappointing, Mostly Due to the Aging Director and the then Tiredness of the Story. Also, His usual Standout Color Trademark is Surprisingly Absent.The Dynamic Duo of Modern Italian Horror, Bava and Dario Argento, both made some Mediocre Movies (the Human Condition), and this is one of Bava's. But both of the Director's Lesser Works are Still Above Average and Always a Treat for Fans.This Haunted House-Supernatural-Possession Film is a Respectable Inclusion with a Child Character Near the Center and that can be Problematic, but it is OK here. Note...Some prints are titled "Beyond the Door II" and was a Distributor Decision, is exploitive and has nothing to do with the Original.

After moving into an old house with her family, a mentally unhinged woman begins to increasingly suspect her former husband still haunts the property and tries to save her son from his presence.Overall this was an incredibly enjoyable and exciting effort with a lot to like. One of the best qualities here is the incredibly strong central premise of being stuck in the old house and why it was designated to return there, having such a strong connection with the location that's spelled out here in the convoluted back-story that grows increasingly more disturbed with each layer effectively making the stay there quite unwelcome in the first place and readily setting this one up right from the start. The way this one really digs into the psychosis of it all, that back-story giving a plausible excuse for all manner of really inventive scares from a hallucinatory attack by a floating razor-blade that follows her every move, a series of visions about a strange brick-wall that appears out of nowhere and the growing fascination her son has with either molesting her or her personal undergarments that altogether combine into a classy yet effectively sleazy affair in the greatest Italian traditions. The use of the child being possessed and whether that in itself is simply another form of her overall madness really makes for quite an intriguing premise throughout this that really makes the most of the time given to it with a rather intense and quite shocking series of events that may or may not be all in her head that continues on here and really helps to make the first half all that much more chilling as it lets the story unfold. When the second half really lets loose, this one tends to favor the action as the centerpiece is a massive ghostly attack throughout the entire house as it continually hurls furniture and belongings at her from an unseen force while demonic howls and screaming continually make their way throughout the scene which is long, intense and quite chilling overall which sets up the best part of this one. While this one did have a few small flaws, the only really damaging part is the factor of the first half here being a bit more relaxed in pace as the majority of the events play with her psychosis to the point that those are the only points of interest and that leads to a somewhat plodding, lumbering march to get going. It's all quite fun, but it doesn't match the relentlessness of the later half of the film and is really all that holds it back.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language, Nudity and intense child behavior.

This movie is dubbed, not subtitled. Some of the problems I saw in it might have been due to bad dubbing--I am really not sure, as the DVD ONLY offered the dubbed version."Shock" (aka "Beyond the Door II") is a film that has a neat story--though you have no idea WHAT it is until the movie is almost over! In the interim, you mostly see an actress Daria Nicolodi writhe about--moaning and panting! If you've ever seen "A Very Potter Musical", Draco Malfoy also does this...but is intended as a comedy! "Shock", on the other hand, is NOT a comedy! The film begins with a lady marrying some guy and moving with him and her son to the same house she used to live in with her first husband. Much later you learn more about this first marriage--and this is pretty neat information. But you really don't know WHAT is going on for much of the film. You do know that the boy is behaving very weirdly (like he's having a really, really bad Oedipal complex), some voodoo-like stuff is occurring and the woman keeps dreaming about zombie sex. None of it was very entertaining since the context was missing for much of the film and because Nicolodi overacted so badly--and you've got to blame at least some of this on the director, Mario Bava (his last film).

I don't know, maybe it's just me. But it seems as though a lot of viewers may have confused their sentiment for Mario Bava with effect. I adore Bava, he was the visual master of classic Italian horror who's movies all seem to have a surreal quality to them suggesting he was somewhat more than just another man with a gift for vision. Nobody can touch his efforts in Italian genre cinema 1960 - 1980. (Though I personally prefer the workmanlike films of Antonio Margheriti and Riccardo Freda.) There is no denying that Mario Bava knew how to construct a shot, from the camera angle to the lighting to the color schemes to having the characters do bizarre, unexpected things that are riveting to witness, and then turn 90 minutes of such shots into what usually end up being amazing little movies. Just watch the guy pry the spiked mask off his face in MASK OF THE DEMON and tell me that isn't the coolest thing ever. Even if you don't care for the film it's an arresting, diverting image that sticks with you.SCHOCK is a comparative mess. It's a great looking mess, but I am just going to refuse to go along with the party here. I hated every simpering, mealy-moused, over-rated minute of it. Expecting a twisted, nauseating, Freudian EXORCIST/OMEN ripoff about a creepy kid possessed by the spirit of his murdered father in a haunted house, instead I found myself waiting with growing impatience through a nonstop parade of every low-budget Italian horror shortcut ever conjured up, including a fake near disaster on an airplane staged just like they did it on "Star Trek": shaking the camera and having people gyrate in their chairs like Sulu recoiling to a photon torpedo blast.Another reviewer here gets it right when he says not to bother with the plot and just concentrate on the images. Usually with a Mario Bava film that's not a problem. The issue here is that there actually was a story being told, it catches up with the imagery in the final few minutes and the payoff didn't equal the investment of attention that led up to the film's gloriously gruesome concluding moments. There were two great gore sequences, a fantastic little sleight of hand freak-out moment where the annoying little kid transforms into something else without the use of off-camera editing, but the other 93 minutes of the film were dead in the water, and the kid was incredibly annoying (or maybe just poorly cast: I never believed for one minute he was really the child of the protagonist). The film does boast another great John Steiner faux method performance, but then again he's great in everything. Even CALIGULA.I think there are two things going on with the film. First and most important, the enthusiasm for it having finally been restored to it's uncensored widescreen glory: After years of muddled, cut, overly dark fullscreen transfers, we can finally see what the maestro was getting at. The second point is more problematic and this might annoy others, but I think a lot fans are overcome by the very human sentiment of SCHOCK literally being Mario Bava's final movie (though much of it us alleged to have been directed by his son, Lamberto Bava, credited here as assistant director), and their sincere wish that it was a better movie than it finally turned out to be. All of his films are special and I'm pretty sure that after another viewing or two I'll warm up to it. But it lacks the unrelenting power of BLOOD & BLACK LACE, the cheeky perversity of TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, CALTIKI's playfully morbid reckless invention, the poetic resonance of KILL BABY KILL, the guile of BLACK SABBATH, and the overwhelming pioneering artiness of MASK OF THE DEMON, which are ultimately the films that Bava will be remembered for.4/10, and all apologies to anybody who is annoyed by my comments. Art is signified by its ability to generate different reactions in people, and believe it or not I find it refreshing to say that I've finally met a Mario Bava movie that I disliked intensely. He was a human being after all.