The Psychic (1979)

Truly Dreadful Film

Beautiful, moving film.

Absolutely Fantastic

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Excellent Movie. Great Cinematography & Editing. Great close ups and actor reaction shots. Great editing. Music works well. Well put together movie.Acting is good. Dubbing OK. The story is a bit convoluted and slow in the middle. But it all works great. The ending is not great. It needed some more killings.This is a great B movie. Rating is a B. 8 out of 10 stars. 10 stars given to counterbalance the loser reviews.Excellent Movie. Great Cinematography & Editing. Great close ups and actor reaction shots. Great editing. Music works well. Well put together movie. Acting is good. Dubbing OK. The story is a bit convoluted and slow in the middle. But it all works great. The ending is not great. It needed some more killings. This is a great B movie. Rating is a B. 8 out of 10 stars. 10 stars given to counterbalance the loser reviews.

What a great film! I wasn't expecting it to be so good after reading all the bashing towards it, and it's probably his best film alongside The Beyond IMHO. It's not your typical Fulci film, though. It has hardly any gore (so if you liked Zombie or New York Ripper it's quite probable you won't like this one), yet Fulci manages to convey fear and suspense throughout, with a suffocating sense of dread that grows throughout out the film. The script is solid, and lacks the dreamlike feel of his other films, but it's that's obviously not the main thing here. The acting is nothing special, but that is to be expected. The music score is just amazing, and helps set up the creepy atmosphere. The middle part of the film drags on a bit, but the final payoff is brilliant and very Spoorloos-esquire. Overall, a fine giallo from Fulci and highly recommended, but keep in mind it's quite different from most Italian horror movies of the time.

Enthralling and well made giallo tinged thriller. Superb central performance and great score and if it lacks a little blood, it certainly contains enough menace. We are constantly trying to work out both 'who dunnit' and when or even if, but the quirky music starts up again and amidst the crashes and recurring dream/vision/memory we are sent reeling once more. Fine opening, which is pretty bone crunching, stunning ending and in between plenty to keeps one's attention. My son who heard the 'seven black notes' of the title as he was passing through, whilst I watched, advises me that they were used by Tarantino in Kill Bill, as a tribute, presumably and quite right too.

I must confess: I do not like the cinema of Lucio Fulci. Although he is often considered a top tier director of Italian horror/gialli, I found his films to be nothing more than exploitative and shameless, capitalizing on violence and sex to appeal to nothing but the viewer's carnal desires while providing little (if any) intelligence for the viewer's mind and cognitive thinking.Imagine my surprise when I found this not only to be a *good* movie, but also quite possibly one of the best gialli I have ever seen (second only to some of Dario Argento's best work).Despite a rather unnecessarily violent and gory opening (which is more laughable than shocking), the film is very subtle and restrained, with no nudity and very little violence, focusing upon its labyrinthine mystery to provide the thrills rather than anything visceral.And the mystery is superb, playing out very much like a jigsaw puzzle. The main character (Jennifer O'Neal) sees a barrage of images in the opening of the film, like pieces of a puzzle, and as the film progresses we see the pieces beginning to come into place and form a whole picture. All of this creates a very engrossing experience as we get en-wrapped within he mystery.That is not to say the film is totally devoid of visceral thrills. The suspense sequences are genuinely suspenseful, with the chase scene in the run-down church being almost unbearable in its potent tension. Not to mention, the very last sequence in the house will also have you on the edge of your seat.And the story isn't the only thing that makes this giallo work so well - the direction by Fulci (I can't believe I'm saying this) is magnificent, with such stunning sequences of camera movements and edits that just draw the viewer into the action. Also, the music by Bixio, Frizzi, and Tempera is hypnotic, creating a very much palpable atmosphere of dread and ominous foreboding.However, I don't mean to sound like this is a masterpiece of Italian cinema - it's not. I am merely so shocked at how good this film is considering its film-making pedigree. The opening scene, as mentioned earlier, is entirely out of place, and the plot, while complex, is strangely predictable once you begin to understand what's happening.Despite this, the plot is tight, focused, and clever, with genuine suspense, which makes it one of the best giallo films ever.Essential viewing for not only giallo fans, but also any lover of a good mystery.