Leofwine_draca An obscure, low budget and rather sleazy attempt at the giallo genre which misses more often than it hits, but still contains a hint of the crazy old Italian style that makes these films so watchable. The oh-so-predictable plot line involves a series of young beauties being graphically slashed to death by a figure in black, the first two murders in the series being particularly bloody and gruesome. After lots of slow-paced police procedural investigation (led by a guy who closely resembles Luis Guzman), it turns out that lesbianism is the cause of the crimes and the killer's identity will be familiar to fans of Lamberto Bava's A BLADE IN THE DARK. Low production values mar REFLECTIONS IN BLACK from the beginning, with the predictable scripting and lack of decent characters all round. El cheapo director Tano Cimarosa offers static camera-work and a lack of style and the music is less than memorable.Surprisingly a fairly well established cast of genre veterans are present in the film, probably accounting for a large amount of the budget. John Richardson and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart are both genre veterans turning in less than distinguished performances here whilst once again the girls are picked for their looks over their acting skills. The film plods along, offering up a few half-hearted action chase sequences to break up the monotony of the dull narrative, but the real focus for the movie and the cameraman can be summed up in one word: nudity. Almost all of the female cast appear naked at one time or another and time is taken to show naked photo shoots and gratuitous love scenes. In fact I've never seen so much nudity in any giallo film before. The sight of naked female flesh will undoubtedly attract the attention of male viewers which is good, because nothing else in this film is of interest. A cheap, tedious, and instantly forgettable genre attempt.

Red-Barracuda Reflections in Black is a good name for a movie. And this one has a tantalising poster too if you bother to seek it out. But you know that old saying about never judging a book by its cover… This is certainly one of the least impressive examples of the Italian giallo that I have seen. It was directed by Tano Cimorosa, who also plays the diminutive detective with the 'tache. Cimorosa will be familiar to a lot of you from his memorable appearance in Renato Polselli's brutally sleazy giallo Delirium (1972). Well this movie sure has its fair share of sleaze as well but it's a much less entertaining affair. On the one hand it certainly contains many of the giallo conventions such as a convoluted mystery, violent murders and a healthy amount of nudity; on the other hand it completely lacks any sense of style. As a result it merely comes off as rough edged and at best semi-interesting. It stars giallo regulars such as Dagmar Lassander and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart but they aren't really given a lot to do.It should be pointed out that the copy I saw was pan and scan and 72 minutes, with poor sound. Perhaps if I saw it in a better version my opinion would improve, as I do believe that there is a 90 minute cut out there. But my main feeling is that the basic ingredients of this one are not terrific no matter the version.

HumanoidOfFlesh A young woman nicknamed Nellie is murdered with a razor by a woman dressed in black.The next victim named Emma has her throat slashed in a park.The police begins their investigation and question lawyer Anselmi with whom Emma worked as a secretary.The third woman is slashed to death by enigmatic beauty in black.All the victims were friends of layer's wife Leonora Anselmi."Reflections in Black" aka "Vice Wears Black Hose" is a dreary and unremarkable Italian giallo with plenty of sleaze and some sexy Euro-exploitation starlets including Dagmar Lassander and Magda Konopka.My copy runs 74 minutes and I don't have any idea where to find fully uncut 90 minutes Italian version.If you like your gialli with sleaze and full-frontal nudity check this one out.6 out of 10.

lazarillo This is one of your sleazier gialli right up there with scuzzy favorites like "Strip Nude for Your Killer" and "The Slasher Is a Sex Maniac". The plot even by giallo standards is hopelessly convoluted and ridiculous with far too many thinly-drawn and similar-looking characters for any non-Italian viewer to keep straight. To his credit, the first-time director, sleazeball character actor Gaetano Cimorosa, obviously tried to inject some visual style into the proceedings, but to little avail. Still there is fun to be had here; at least, if you can get past the unusually homophobic storyline that has any number of heterosexually desirable bisexuals and lesbians being killed for no other reason than their sexual orientation (even as the movie itself hypocritically wallows in prurient lesbian sex).Normally, I'd describe the plot right here, but, believe me, it really doesn't matter with this one. The movie is currently available in two versions. The English version is full-screen with Dutch(?)subtitles, but it looks pretty decent. The Spanish language version (obviously from the post-Franco, post-censorial "destapa" period) is wide-screen and is the only version featuring nudity from the ravishing Dagmar Lassender and Magda Kopovka. Unfortunately, its also WAY too heavily padded with softcore sex scenes that manage to slow even further the movie's already glacial pace, and it looks horrible to boot. Pick your poison (lucky me, I own 'em both).