I first heard about this film on a featurette on the GRINDHOUSE blu-ray. Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez were sitting on a panel discussing the genesis of their double feature idea. Tarantino mentioned how he would splice film reels together at his house and have friends over for double features. He mentioned Lucio Fulci's Zombie and Sergio Martino's Torso. I love it when film makers talk about the films that inspired them. I've seen Zombie and it is awesome! So naturally I had to check out Torso.
TORSO a.k.a. Carnal Violence is a 1973 Italian horror thriller that Eli Roth states as one of the direct inspirations for his film Hostel II as well as one of his all time favorite thrillers. A group of college students are picked off one by one. After three of them are found with throats cut, strangled, drowned, eyes gouged out, and bodies slashed open the surviving friends decide to leave town. They hold up in one of their country houses until the investigation is over.
While out in the country the three girlfriends attract the attentions of many of the men living in the small town. Several of the men try to steal a peak at these young beauties. But someone else is watching too. One of the men spying is murdered. A fourth friend arrives later that night. This new friend trips while descending the stairs spraining her ankle. The doctor prescribes her a sleeping pill and pain med to knock her out for the night. She locks the door and falls asleep.
She wakes mid-morning and emerges from her room. She calls out to her friends but receives no reply. Carefully she makes her way down the stairs. Sprawled out along the floor are the bodies of her three friends, throats torn open and bodies stabbed. Just then the door lock clicks. She hobbles over to a hiding place as a man in a mask enters with a hack saw. She watches as the bodies of her friends are hacked to pieces. But the killer doesn't know she's there. With a hurt ankle, still groggy from the drug, cut off from the rest of town she must find a way to escape or risk being discovered by the killer.
The film opens with some striking nudity. Given that it's an Italian film my first assumption is that this is nothing more than an exploitation film. Then the first murder happens and you realize that this is more than that. The violence is even more striking than I would've imagined for 1973. The killer wears a white ski mask and slowly stalks his victims even walking after them a la Michael Myers. The further you watch the sooner you realize that this film is a Slasher film in every sense of the genre made 5 years before Halloween and 3 years before The Town That Dreaded Sundown.
Eli Roth praises the last twenty minutes of the film and indeed he is right. The final act of the movie is riveting. He also comments on how well the murder mystery is presented, dozens of red herrings and setup that makes you think nearly every single male character could be the killer. I have to agree with Eli Roth. I bought this film based solely on Tarantino's mentioning of it and it proved worth it. Check out this forerunner of the slasher genre and see for yourself why it's such a fun scary flick!
Overall Ranking: 6 out of 10
Nude-O-Meter: 7 out of 10
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