BA_Harrison All The Colors Of The Dark is a really strange psychological/occult thriller that many also regard as a giallo (although I can see very little that qualifies it as such). The film opens with a surreal nightmare sequence worthy of Lynch or Jodorowksy, and continues in offbeat mode right to the very end.Edwige Fenech stars as Jane, who suffers from bad dreams as the result of a childhood trauma—the stabbing of her mother—and the loss of her unborn child following a car accident. In these dreams, Jane is haunted by a man with startling blue eyes (Ivan Rassimov) who brandishes a bloody dagger. Jane's boyfriend Richard (George Hilton), a pharmaceutical salesman, tries to help with a steady diet of vitamins, but the troubled woman seeks support elsewhere, firstly from psychiatrist Dr. Burton (George Rigaud), who is recommended by her sister Barbara (Nieves Navarro), and then from her neighbour Mary (Marina Malfatti), who suggests a little black magic to ease the mind, inviting her to join in on some Satanic fun.Amazingly, the bizarre rituals (which involve killing Mary and having sex with the cult's bearded leader) seem to do the trick, but Jane eventually discovers that her involvement in the black arts is all part of a sinister plot devised by her sister, who is also a member of the devilish sect and only has her own interests at heart.With a very convoluted plot that blurs reality and fantasy, and delirious visuals from director Sergio Martino, All The Colors Of The Dark sure is one weird film. But strangest of all, as far as I am concerned, is how Edwige Fenech alternates from absolutely ravishing in some scenes (the ones where she gets nekkid) to looking disconcertingly like Michael Jackson in others.

Red-Barracuda All The Colors of the Dark is a combination of a giallo, an occult horror and a Roman Polanski style claustrophobic apartment-based thriller. It's possibly director Sergio Martino's most ambitious film from a period when he produced a series of excellent pictures. Unlike Martino's other gialli, this one is much more psychological in approach. It doesn't have a series of murders or anything like that but instead focuses on the troubled world of its female protagonist played by cult actress Edwige Fenech. She is recovering from a car crash which claimed the life of her unborn baby, shortly after this she is menaced by a mysterious man and is introduced to a black magic group by an enigmatic neighbour. The story isn't all that great to be perfectly honest it's the style in which it's presented that's its strength. It's consistently photographed in an interesting way, with unusual angles and good colour schemes. The disorienting camera angles do add to the overall theme of a psychologically troubled woman. The London settings are also used very well indeed – the apartment block and country manor are both very effectively shot. It would also be deeply remiss to not mention Bruno Nicolai's soundtrack. It's a really nice psychedelic piece that adds to the atmosphere very nicely, it comes into its own in the scenes of the cult indoctrinating Edwige Fenech's character into their circle; this scene is one of the best that Martino ever directed, it's pure 70's psychedelic delirium. It's only matched in this movie by the very creepy and bizarre opening dream sequence which includes things like a murdered pregnant woman and a hideous old crone dressed like a child's doll.The movie is immeasurably helped by the presence of Edwige Fenech. She looks like the definitive giallo heroine here, with her gorgeous mane of long black hair, porcelain skin and big eyes. She is certainly a welcome character to base the movie around and does play the vulnerable victim very well it has to be said. Her co-star, the always excellent Susan Scott, who plays her sister, is sadly underused but at least she's there. The male stars don't particularly shine but Ivan Rassimov has a fairly memorable role as the blue-eyed psycho. Overall, Sergio Martino produced another fine Italian thriller with this movie. I'm not convinced it's his best necessarily, and perhaps it sometimes promises more than it actually delivers. Nevertheless, this one should most certainly please fans of this kind of thing.

Tender-Flesh A pseudo-giallo, All the Colors... once again puts Edwige behind the knife, or rather in front of it and sometimes under it, when she stumbles(or is she lead?) into a satanic cult. Say it ain't so. Now, even on a rainy day when I'm all out of meth, I don't go in for satanic cult movies since they bore me. But, I started to enjoy this film in spite of myself, though I was expecting less devil and more giallo. If you are expecting the razor wielding sex maniac in black gloves to stalk beautiful girls to kick ass music, look elsewhere.What you get here instead is Jane, a poor gal suffering from nightmares and also possibly daymares. Her beau, Richard, is often away from their flat, leaving her to her nightmares since she refuses to take her vitamins or whatnot. So, a new neighbor offers to take her to a black mass to help rid her of this weird dude named Mark who keeps stalking her and feeling her up with his cool blue eyes. However, all is not well, since after she goes to the mass, she realizes Mark belongs to the coven. D'oh! And now he starts showing up even more, which means Jane was gang raped for nothing. I hate it when that happens. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm always up for a black mass when I'm having nightmares or if some weird person shows up at a couple of places I've been recently. I'm sort of surprised more doctors don't recommend it. Anyway, except for Mark and the mass ringleader, McBride(who looks like a devilish Robert Downey Jr.), the rest of the cultists look like rejects from a Wiccan ceremony held in a local park.Director Sergio has a few good moments of nice camera-work, lighting, effective music, but overall it struck me as rather average, if watchable. Obvious inspirations from Rosemary's Baby abound.

matheusmarchetti Having recently watched and loved Sergio Martino's two other gialli "Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh" and "Your Vice is a Locked Room and only I have the key", I decided to rewatch this one, which I always thought to be a pretty average film, and I ended up loving it. It's probably the director's best tied with "Strange Vice". Highly atmospheric and suspenseful, the film opens with a bang and never lets go. It's nightmarish, dreamlike feel is about as good as anything done by David Lynch, and is enhanced by Bruno Nicolai's lovely soundtrack and Bava-style cinematography. Also, Edwige Fenech proves that she actually can act, giving a tremendous performance of a sexually frustrated housewife who may or may not be going insane. The film is often criticized for being a rip-off on "Rosemary's Baby", and while I can see an influence of Polanski's classic, both films very different in style and substance, and if anything, "All the Colors of the Dark" plays much more like an acid version of "Repulsion" than anything else. One thing that may put some people off is that the film has a very strong 70's feel, which makes it slightly campy at times, but still, I think it only adds to it's charm and 'grooviness'. Overall, a highly entertaining and stylish giallo. A must-see for genre fans.