Films That Witness Madness

review

BODY PUZZLE

BODY PUZZLE screams "routine", something that can be said for many of the films in Lamberto Bava's filmography. With the exception of his debut film, MACABRE, a nifty slice of semi-surrealistic suspense - and most definitely an acquired taste - and DEMONS, Bava's work is mostly slow, kind of dull and usually half-baked. He has little of his father's unique feel and bravura. Some of his films, like A BLADE IN THE DARK, DEMONS 2, YOU'LL DIE AT MIDNIGHT and DELIRIUM: PHOTO OF GIOIA, feel suspiciously like made for video quickies, lacking substance, style and, most importantly, scope. They feel cheap and look cheap, filled with failed set-pieces, cliched situations and unintended comedy. It's understandable why some might be tempted to dismiss Bava altogether as a man whose career owes largely to his father's good name. I think, at times, they may be right.

Tracy Grant has a problem that has just gotten worse. Ever since her pianist husband, Abe Grant, was killed in a car accident, someone has been harassing her. Recently the harassment has taken a turn for the worse. Not only is her apartment being broken into on a regular basis but she's been finding body parts lying around the house. The police officer brought in to investigate the strange rash of serial murders, Michael, falls in love with Tracy and begins to step up his investigation. The clues lead him to a disturbed young man, Tim Bell, a friend and possible lover of Tracy's deceased husband and a rather startling conclusion. Whoever is behind these murders has a copy of Abe's organ donor file and is slowly, methodically, gruesomely taking those organs back one at a time.

BODY PUZZLE is typical of the more recent giallo film. It doesn't feel part of the genre, per se. Just reminiscent of it. It has all the familiar pieces in place but it feels disconnected and disinterested, like it knows that this has all been done before. Bava films his actors and the action with an air of detachment, mainly filming in medium shot with a few quick pans and glides to spice things up. For those of us who eat, breathe and shit gialli, this film is more of a letdown than a celebration. For all its twists and turns, sudden revelations and graphic bloodshed, BODY PUZZLE barely registers a pulse.

BODY PUZZLE might have the same gruesome motive for its murders as both BODY PARTS and PIECES but it lacks the high-strung, hilarious pitch of either of those films. It is a slow moving film with little in the way of interesting plot developments - besides the final reel groaner of an explanation - or situations. The only time the film comes alive at all is when Bava's warped sense of humor shines through - the castration scene in the swimming pool or the murder committed before a classroom of blind children are both great scenes - but those moments are so few and far between that they're likely not to register on a first viewing. The quality cast is largely wasted on lackluster material. Joanna Pacula and Tomas Arana are not exactly leading actor material - no matter how beautiful Pacula is - but both can carry a scene quite well and the film boasts cameo performances by three fan favorites, Gianni Garko, Giovanni Lombardo Radice and Erika Blank. The screen writing, however, reduce them all to total bores. That's a damn shame as BODY PUZZLE has, perhaps, the strongest cast of actors Bava has had in a long time. Bava and his co-writer, Teodoro Corra, let them go to waste.

Had Mario Bava lived to see today, it's highly doubtful his filmmaking style would have survived with him - take a gander at MOTHER OF TEARS to see just how far the old masters have fallen. Lamberto Bava, on the other hand, is a filmmaker from a different era, dealing with a different style of film and filmmaking than his father. If his films fall so hard in comparison to his fathers, it's not because his father was simply a better director. It's because his father knew what he had to work with and used it to the best of his abilities. His son, however, does not and that's the reason BODY PUZZLE, along with so many of Lamberto Bava's other films, falls so hard.

Not recommended.

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