A strangler is terrorizing an Italian town and we are served many of the giallo's* corner stones: the black gloves, a tragic childhood experience, sex and violence.

    When it comes to exploitation, legendary director Sergio Martino goes a few steps further than customary. The killer is a sexually frustrated man, and most men in this movie seem to be sexually frustrated. All the women are horny, bi-sexual and often naked. All of them - except for the beautiful Suzy Kendall (from Dario Argento's debut THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE), who is the heroine. Nude scenes pop up regularly, it takes 19 seconds before the first one!

    Halfway in, the movie's character changes. The heroines travel to a desolated villa in the countryside, where they get slaughtered by the masked killer, who now starts using a hack saw. The movie turns into some kind of prototype for FRIDAY THE 13:TH and is pretty far from the works of Argento and Mario Bava. That's why I don't think TORSO reaches the same level as my favorite gialli - but the cinematography and music is excellent.

    The scene with the town square in Eli Roth's HOSTEL: PART II is inspired by the square in TORSO. The male hero is played by Luc Merenda, who usually was a Spaghetti Western hero, and who actually made a little comeback and shows up in a mini-part in Roth's movie mentioned above.

    Sergio Martino made several other classic gialli, like CASE OF THE SCORPION'S TAIL, ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK, and YOUR VICE IS A CLOSED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY, but he's probably most well-known for his action and exploitation movies like MOUNTAIN OF THE CANNIBAL GOD, HANDS OF STEEL and 2019: AFTER THE FALL OF NEW YORK. Martino's wife is the godmother of former actress Janet Agren's daughter; Charlotte.

  

*Giallo = A type of Italian thriller that borders on horror, and that often features stunning visuals and music contrasting to the gore and perversions. Giallo means "yellow" and was originally referring to cheap crime paperbacks with yellow covers.