Plot: What’s it about?
A mysterious killer is snuffing out female college students as well as anyone else that threatens to reveal his or her identity. After several murders, college student Jane (Suzy Kendall from “The Bird With The Crystal Plumage”) and a couple of friends get away from the campus for a weekend in an isolated Italian country villa. Could they be the next victim’s on the killer’s list?
“Torso” is a horror thriller in the likeness of Dario Argento films such as “Bird with The Crystal Plumage” and “Tenebre.” If you liked those films, you should enjoy this. It is bloodier than “Crystal Plumage” but not “Tenebre.” Anchor Bay is offering “Torso” uncensored for the first time ever in the U.S. with extra violence and scenes of dialogue. It’s probably about 4 minutes longer than the U.S. Prism Video cassette release. About 30 to 40 seconds involves extra violence such a character being crushed by a car, another with the eyes poked out, an arm sawed off, a cut open chest and a saw to the stomach. The extra dialogue scenes are the ones that are in Italian while the rest of the movie is in English. The opening credit scene is different from the Prism cassette. In the Anchor Bay version the opening sex scene is longer and doesn’t have the brief clip of a later murder scene at the beginning like in the Prism version.
Video: How does it look?
The transfer looks very good, especially for this type of film which was made in 1973. This is unbelievable how much better this picture looks than the crappy, dark Prism version. The picture is clear and the colors look great. The 1.85 transfer offers much more picture information from the left and right. However, there is some noticeable pixalization during the night scenes but nothing too distracting to my eyes.
Audio: How does it sound?
The audio is a 2 channel mono that is in English except for a couple of minutes that are in Italian with English subtitles that appear only during those scenes. The audio is clear, but nothing explosive considering how old this movie is and the type it is.There is also a 2 channel mono full Italian track. However, there are no optional English subtitles. Hopefully Anchor Bay will put them on later disks.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Two cool looking trailers: One for the U.S. and an international one that is under the title “Carnal Violence.” There is also a reproduction of the Italian poster on the insert card inside the case. If you haven’t seen the movie yet you should not look at the insert card because it shows a picture of the killer without the mask holding a knife. Also the menus on the disk have music from the movie which is a very cool extra in my book.
