The Psychic (Aka Sette Note in Nero) (Blu-ray, 1977)

Fulci's masterpiece

Lucio Fulci's "The Psychic" is arguably his finest film. It's certainly his classiest. It's a high-gloss thriller starring the ravishing Jennifer O'Neill as an American expatriate who has premonitions of murder. When she uncovers a murder and her husband is arrested as the logical suspect, she obsessively delves further and further to clear his name, placing herself in mortal danger. It's by far the most cogently scripted Fulci picture I've seen and nerve-wrackingly suspenseful. He could have been the Italian Hitchcock if he'd put his mind to it.

Though I'd certainly hesitate to label it a feminist film, it's worth noting that O'Neill's is the only positive character in the film. The men are all passive or worse. Luchino Visconti had coaxed amazing things from O'Neill a year earlier in "The Innocent" and although she doesn't exactly backslide, she is more posed than directed here. Although the movie ends with an unforgettable twist, it also deprives us of the catharsis we sorely want by that point. O'Neill's protagonist deserved better.

Admittedly, Fulci behaves as though he had just discovered the zoom lens. I wish I had a dollar for every crash zoom. But the dubbing is well above average for an Italian film of the era. But the focus is, atyptically, on suspense rather than horror O'Neill takes her place beside such Fulci divas as Florinda Bolkan ("Lizard in a Woman's Skin") and Barbara Bouchet ("Don't Torture a Duckling").

Scorpion Releasing's Blu-Ray benefits from a 2K restoration, although it's not in the advertised 2:35 but thee more appropriate 16:9. It can hard to find but is worth running to ground.Vollständige Rezension lesen

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