The Bloodstained Shadow (1978)

Waste of time

Such a frustrating disappointment

Captivating movie !

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It is slow - mainly due to some unnecessary scenes (the romance parts) and dragging out scenes too long (like walking, and walking, and they are still walking then finally get to where they are going). If some scenes where cut out all together and the others cut down then the move would move faster.A predictable mystery but that doesn't harm the film - it's how the story plays out that matters. There are plenty of films where the viewer is shown the killer at the beginning of the film but it's watching the characters in the story trying to figure it out that is interesting. Being a mystery, with this film it's not just the characters in the story but also the viewers that are supposed to figure out who is the killer. I guessed this one right not long after the film began but I'm not saying whodunit, you'll have to watch the film yourself to find out.I would have rated this film a bit higher if it wasn't for all the unnecessary and overly long scenes.6.5/10

THE BLOODSTAINED SHADOW is an engaging if lesser giallo from director Antonio Bido. The problem with the film is its story, which is all too familiar from movies that came previously, in particular Argento's DEEP RED which is a big influence here. The Venice setting is a decent one but the film can't help but resemble Nic Roeg's DON'T LOOK NOW at times and of course it can't hope to hold a candle to that particular masterpiece.Otherwise this is a watchable enough piece with a story that resembles a jigsaw puzzle, with the viewer required to put the whole thing together. Some unexplained murders are assailing the main cast members, who are two brothers, a priest and a professor. Historical crimes, romance, mental illness, and a typical gloved murderer are all elements of the story. The cast is generally good, giving solid turns to sometimes clichéd characters, but the real star is Bido, who brings style rather than gore to his movie. The best parts are the atmospheric stalking sequences that precede every murder.

The Bloodstained Shadow is a later entry into the giallo genre. The film revolves around an unsolved murder from many years before the picture begins, leading to subsequent murders in a section of Venice. A college professor returns to the village to visit his brother, the local priest. Soon after arriving, the priest witnesses a murder but cannot identify the killer. This leads to séances, blackmail, and a film that is about 20 minutes too long.Unlike many giallo films, this one never becomes sleazy, though there is an extended nude scene at one point. The killer is not a "sex maniac" as is so often the case in these sorts of films. Rather, blackmail is a main plot point. There isn't much bloodshed, and even less stalking, though the director does manage to throw in some voyeurism, back alleys, gloved hands, and POV shots. Nothing to really recommend about the feature; it's a very average entry.Of passing interest is that Blue Underground DVD seems to have swiped a musical sample from this film's score and used it as their bumper music at the intro of any DVD they release. This is interesting since The Bloodstained Shadow was released on DVD by Anchor Bay.

A Professor visits his Priest Brother on an isolated Island near Venice to recover from stress brought on by flashbacks related to a Childhood trauma. On his first night his Brother witnesses a murder and later begins to receive notes from the murderer threatening (what appears to be) violence. The brothers begin investigating the crime and the expected red herrings, pov shots etceteras entail...What separates this film from the Giallo of Argento and co. is not it's lack of that genera's expected tricks (black gloved killer, inventive murders, pov shots) as these are all referenced in knowing ways (the Director even discuses his debt to Argento in an interview included on the Blue Underground DVD) but it's obsession with guilt, loneliness and existential pain. The film's washed out colours and waterlogged settings alienate us not just from the surroundings but even from the visual aspects of the film, the aspect of film itself, the idea of entertainment. Instead we focus on the character's interior life's: their traumas, their loneliness, their religious doubts.The film features great performances, beautiful editing techniques and an ironic echo of the Catholic Rite of Confession wherein it is not the killer's confession that provides the relief from suffering but the discovery of the killer, the release from childhood trauma.Watch with Fulci's Non si sevizia un paperino rather than Susperia and have a catholic encyclopedia open.