Una Lucertola Con La Pelle Di Donna (aka A Lizard In A Woman's Skin) (1971)

The wife (Florinda Bolkan) of a prominent British attorney (Jean Sorel) is having disturbing dreams that are violent and erotic in nature. The focus of her dreams is a promiscuous neighbor (Anita Strindberg). When the neighbor is found brutally stabbed to death, she is convinced she is the murderer. Directed by Lucio Fulci (DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING), this giallo is a case of style over substance because the film is batshit crazy! It's all over the place and makes no logical sense but then again the gialli genre is really all about style and atmosphere anyway, isn't it? For example, Bolkan opens a door and sees a bunch of vivisected dogs who appear still alive and faints. No explanation is given of why or what those vivisected dogs are doing in that room and no reference is made to them again. Well, of course, they are there for shock value, that's why they're there! It has nothing to do with the plot! But Fulci has given us a rollercoaster ride into a hallucinatory nightmare with images that are hard to shake off. One sequence with Bolkan being attacked by a flurry of bats appears to be a homage to Hitchcock's THE BIRDS. The underscore is unadulterated Ennior Morricone. With Stanley Baker, Leo Genn, Silvia Monti, Mike Kennedy and Penny Brown.