A young woman is troubled by the fact that she keeps having erotic dreams about her promiscuous neighbor. The woman’s psychiatrists sees it as a great sign of progress when one of these dreams involves the murder of the dream-lover. The police are not so enthused when her real-life counterpart also winds up dead.

I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by this little flick. After an opening which greatly suggested I was about to be viewing one of those sleazy little Skinemax style ‘erotic-thrillers’ (i.e. porn aspiring to be an actual movie). I was happy to find that the film quickly became a genuinely engaging mystery.

I’m going to be damn sure to keep this brief and not spoil any surprises for you. If you’re familiar with the genre of Giallo, or Italian horror/murder mystery, you know what to expect. A deliriously convoluted plot, heavy on the sex and violence, with red herrings cropping up every ten minutes. (Oh, and a lot of characters who are total pricks, that’s also an Italian horror film convention)

It’s not that this film excels at being original, it just takes the Giallo formula, and executes it extremely well. In fact, it’s probably the best spaghetti-thriller I’ve ever seen.

For added pleasure, the film is directed by cult horror fave Lucio Fulci. No, the film’s a little light on slow-motion close ups of oozing gore, but there’s plenty of brilliant camera work to compensate Lucio’s visuals are full of nifty little tricks, and dripping with color, light, and shadow. (I may be going out on a limb, but he seems to have been influenced a bit by Carnival of Souls.) With this film alone, Fulci proved that when he was given an actual budget and a good script, his work could easily rival that of the overrated Dario Argento (Yes, overrated. There, I’ve said it.)

If you’re looking for a stylish and well-made murder mystery, do give this a look, won’t you?