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The Psychic (1977)
Director Lucio Fulci always manages to surprise me in one way or another. Weather it's the over the top gore sequences, the extremely angry tone, or the style he brings to his movies it's always something worthy of viewing. For a long time I had heard of his film "The Psychic" (aka "Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes") and how it was never released uncut in the United States. Finally, thanks to the people at Severin Films we get a proper DVD release of the directors 1977 haunting thriller.
"The Psychic" is the story of Virginia a woman who since the age of a child has been able to see things before they happen. As a child she witnessed her mother falling to her death off a cliff when she was nowhere near where it happened. As an adult Virginia is having the same thing happen to her again only this time the visions aren't as clear. One day while in a home owned by her husband she has another vision that really got her wheels turning so to speak. After having a vision about a wall in the home she decides to break it open and happens to find a skeleton behind it. With the help of her psychiatric doctor she attempts to find out what exactly is happening and tries to solve the mystery of the skeleton in the home. But strange occurrences, and some bad vibes make Virginia think that maybe she might be more involved than she was in the first place.
Fulci's "The Psychic" is a film that is rather unique for the director. Much less mean spirited than most of his efforts into the horror genre, this movie holds up because it's rather complex plot. The story is surely a very slow burn of a film but the final scene of the film totally validated the slow movement throughout. Although it's not the film for fans of his more gore laced efforts I would think that this would be a great starting point for anyone looking to get into Fulci. The director is pegged by a lot of people as nothing more than a tactless goremeister, but with films like this and his earlier effort "Don't Torture a Duckling" that couldn't be further from the truth. The fact of the matter is that Fulci has been pigeon holed as that type of director when he first made his way into film with sex comedies and spaghetti westerns. This is just another example that Fulci was much more than said goremeister and is one hell of an ambitious director.
I thought that actress Jennifer O'Neill (Scanners) did a great job as the Virginia character and manages to play a rather believable role in the film. With a bunch of shady characters surrounding her it makes everything more interesting along the way even though the film is slow. Very much unlike the rest of his horror catalog I think a lot of people maybe disappointed by that fact, but believe me when I tell you that this one is worth the wait for. The red herrings and the ending along put this film above many others of it's kind and give it it's own legs to stand on for sure.
Overall I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND this movie for people are looking into getting into Fulci's less gory material, but if that's all you are looking for you'd be better of going for some of his other efforts. Now this movie has a few scenes with some good gore, but it has less red showing up on screen than pretty much any other film of his in the horror/thriller category.
Rating - ***
-Ed Demko
