Claudio Carvalho Dora Baldini (Daria Nicolodi), her husband Bruno Baldini (John Steiner) and her son Marco (David Colin Jr.) move to a huge house that belongs to her. Dora lived in this house with Marco and her former husband, who was drug addicted and committed suicide. The house is empty since them and Bruno, who is a pilot, has decided to move to the place claiming it is close to the airport. Soon Marco is possessed by the ghost of his father and Dora is haunted by the house. She tells to Bruno that they need to leave the house and she is afraid of her son, but he believes Dora relapsed since she had a breakdown when he husband died. Why the vengeful spirit is seeking revenge?"Schock" is a scary and creepy story of possession and haunted house. The direction of Mario Bava is capable to make a great low-budget film with a simple storyline. Daria Nicolodi has a convincing performance in the role of a traumatized woman that is haunted by the ghost of her former husband and discovers the motive in the end. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Schock"

Scott LeBrun The final completed film for Italian horror master Mario Bava is a decent one. It lacks the atmosphere of his very best work, but Bava still proves himself an expert at establishing a mood and putting macabre imagery on film.Although sold in North America as "Beyond the Door II", this bears little relation to the earlier Italian "Exorcist" imitation "Beyond the Door". It does have one cast member in common - young David Colin Jr. - and features a similar possession theme - but otherwise, that's it.The beautiful Daria Nicolodi stars as Dora Baldini, a young woman who moves with her son Marco (Colin Jr.) and second husband, Bruno (John Steiner), into her former home. She'd lost her previous husband under suspicious circumstances, and spent some time in a mental hospital. Now Marco is behaving strangely, and Dora begins to be tormented by various visions, to the point that she believes she may be losing her mind.Bavas' son Lamberto was assistant to his father on this show, co-wrote the screenplay, and also plays a minor, uncredited role. "Shock" also co-stars Ivan Rassimov as a psychiatrist who attempts to help the fragile Dora. The Goblin-esque soundtrack composed by "I Libra" is effective most of the time. Bava, to his credit, eschews going for a lot of supernatural effects in favour of a mostly psychological approach. Things only start to get a little more conventional towards the end. However, gore fans need not worry as things become pretty bloody at the conclusion. Some viewers will also appreciate the nudity supplied by Ms. Nicolodi.And speaking of Ms. Nicolodi, she's almost the entire show here, delivering a convincingly unhinged performance. It's safe to say that she makes the most out of this top billed role.The director brings much of his customary style to this tale. He definitely could have done much worse for what would turn out to be his swan song.Seven out of 10.

MartinHafer This movie is dubbed, not subtitled. Some of the problems I saw in it might have been due to bad dubbing--I am really not sure, as the DVD ONLY offered the dubbed version."Shock" (aka "Beyond the Door II") is a film that has a neat story--though you have no idea WHAT it is until the movie is almost over! In the interim, you mostly see an actress Daria Nicolodi writhe about--moaning and panting! If you've ever seen "A Very Potter Musical", Draco Malfoy also does this...but is intended as a comedy! "Shock", on the other hand, is NOT a comedy! The film begins with a lady marrying some guy and moving with him and her son to the same house she used to live in with her first husband. Much later you learn more about this first marriage--and this is pretty neat information. But you really don't know WHAT is going on for much of the film. You do know that the boy is behaving very weirdly (like he's having a really, really bad Oedipal complex), some voodoo-like stuff is occurring and the woman keeps dreaming about zombie sex. None of it was very entertaining since the context was missing for much of the film and because Nicolodi overacted so badly--and you've got to blame at least some of this on the director, Mario Bava (his last film).

Polaris_DiB Italian horror cinema, especially it's more exploitative stylings such as giallo, is so hit-and-miss. Some directors are great, others are terrible, even when they're contemporaries. Within oeuvres, some director's movies are quite effective, others are nearly useless (I'm glaring at you, Dario Argento). And, in some cases, even a single movie has its amazing parts and its terrible parts--yes, like Shock, Maestro Mario Bava's final directorial effort.The concept itself is very good. A mix of Shining and Amityville Horror style haunted house narrative, a woman and her family move into the house of her youth, only to be beset by spectres. Dora, the mother, is first beset by apprehension, then anxiety, then horror, and finally insanity as the house slowly destroys her mind. Young Marco, her child, almost immediately gets possessed -- by what is not so clear, but that's actually a good way to go about it. Bruno, Dora's second husband and Marco's step-father is ostensibly the voice of reason, but first his absence's sink the security of Dora's psyche, and then his sordid past comes back to destroy all vestiges of hope for the family. If you're looking for skeletons in the closet, that's basically the best way to describe this movie.However, it's execution is spotty at best. There's the aforementioned possessions, ghostly happenings, psychoses; there's also voodoo, token objects, endless dream sequences, and a trippy montage in the middle of the movie that comes out of absolutely nowhere. There are some sequences that are superbly executed (one shot near the end of the movie involving a hallway and Bruno suddenly changing into someone else has to be one of the most terrifying moments in cinema I've ever witnessed), and then there are others that do more than drag down the narrative (Dora slowly going hysterical while Bruno just sits there watching goes on too long while little reaction from Bruno makes it entirely unbelievable). In classic Italian cinema means, the imagery is mostly beautiful but their penchant for dubbed post-production sound is very disconcerting, making the movie a little harder to get into.I'd really only recommend this one to fans of Bava, the other Italian giallo filmmakers, and those who really do love really flamboyant horror movies of all sub-types. It's a shame, too, because some sequences are deserving of recognition for their skill and execution, but the whole does not support the parts, and vice versa.--PolarisDiB