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S E A R C H    D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Torso" or "Carnal Violence" or "The Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence" or "Die Säge des Teufels")

 

Directed by Sergio Martino
Italy 1973

 

A talented and versatile journeyman, director Sergio Martino (The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key) lent his talents to multiple genres across his long and varied career, but is undoubtedly best known for his giallo thrillers from the early 70s. Among the most highly acclaimed of these, 1973’s Torso revels in the genre’s time-honored traditions while simultaneously laying the groundwork for the modern slasher movie.

A sex maniac is prowling the streets of Perugia, targeting the picturesque university town’s female students. Alarmed at the plummeting life expectancy of the student body, Jane (Suzy Kendall, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) and her three friends elope to a secluded country villa – only to discover that, far from having left the terror behind, they’ve brought it with them!

Also known as Carnal Violence, Torso was released in Italy towards the end of the giallo boom before enjoying a second life on the American grindhouse circuit. Co-starring Tina Aumont (Salon Kitty) and Luc Merenda (The Violent Professionals), the film finds its director at the top of his game, delivering copious levels of violence, sleaze, and one of the tensest cat-and-mouse games ever committed to celluloid!

***

When two comely coeds at the University of Perugia's summer art program are brutally murdered, all of her classmates and a couple associated unsavory types fall under suspicion. When Daniela (Tina Aumont, The Nude Princess) suspects her childhood-friend-turned-stalker (Roberto Bisaccio, Deadly Sweet), she decides to get away to her family's conveniently isolated home in the countryside with her friends (lesbian lovers played by Carla Brait and Angela Covello and "final girl" Julie played by Suzy Kendall of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) only to be followed by a couple red herrings as well as the killer. John Richardson (Black Sunday) and Luc Merenda (Tinto Brass' Action) also star.

After a leisurely first act peppered with both atmospheric stalk-and-slash setpieces and some quintessential seventies moments (like the memorably-scored pot orgy, some skinny-dipping and nude sunbathing), the film takes a sudden suspenseful turn with a particularly nail-biting final act. Although the identity of the killer was rumored to have been withheld from the cast, its pretty obvious who are the red herrings and who's the killer (as such, the police procedural element is obligatory and dropped relatively early). Fortunately, plot is not a necessity in this late Giallo which - along with the following year's Black Christmas - prefigures the slasher trends of the late seventies and early eighties. After a series of delirious, globe-hopping, scope-lensed, sadomasochistic Giallo films like The Strange Vice of Signora Wardh,
The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail, and All the Colors of the Dark, the Carlo Ponti-produced Torso (aka The Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence) manages not to seem quaint in comparison thanks to a fine cast (particularly Kendall and Aumont though Richardson, Merenda, and Bisaccio given little to do), direction, Giancarlo Ferrando's excellent photography, and excellent production values. The gore cut from the US theatrical release is relatively tame by today's standards and not always convincing.

Eric Cotenas

Posters

Theatrical Release: October 21st, 1994

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Review: Arrow - Region FREE - 4K UHD

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Bonus Captures:

Distribution Arrow - Region FREE - 4K UHD
Runtime

Italian Version: 1:33:39.572

Hybrid English / Italian Version: 1:33:00.491

English Export Version: 1:30:11.113

Video

1.66:1 2160P 4K Ultra HD

Disc Size: 95,857,375,398 bytes

Feature: 71,367,414,912 bytes

Video Bitrate: 93.35 Mbps

Codec: HEVC Video

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate 4K Ultra HD:

Audio

DTS-HD Master Audio Italian 1031 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1031 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)
* DTS-HD Master Audio English 1032 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1032 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)
* DTS-HD Master Audio English 1041 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1041 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 1.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)
Commentary:

DTS Audio English 256 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 256 kbps / 16-bit

Subtitles English, English (SDH), None
Features Release Information:
Studio:
Arrow

 

1.66:1 2160P 4K Ultra HD

Disc Size: 95,857,375,398 bytes

Feature: 71,367,414,912 bytes

Video Bitrate: 93.35 Mbps

Codec: HEVC Video

 

Edition Details:

4K Ultra HD disc

• New audio commentary by Kat Ellinger, author of All the Colours of Sergio Martino
• New video interview with co-writer/director Sergio Martino (34:01)
• New video interview with actor Luc Merenda (34:52)
• New video interview with co-writer Ernesto Gastaldi (29:15)
• New video interview with filmmaker Federica Martino, daughter of Sergio Martino (24:58)
• New video interview with Mikel J. Koven, author of La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film (25:03)
• 2017 Abertoir International Horror Festival Q&A with Sergio Martino (46:59)
• Alternate "Torso" titles (4:02)
• Italian (3:07) and English (3:05) theatrical trailers
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Adam Rabalais
Illustrated collector’s booklet featuring writing on the film by Adrian Smith and Howard Hughes


4K Ultra HD Release Date: September 17th, 2024

Black 4K Ultra HD Case

Chapters 16

 

 

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray and 4K UHD captures were taken directly from the respective discs.

ADDITION: Arrow 4K UHD (September 2024): Arrow are releasing Sergio Martino's Giallo "Torso" 4K UHD. It is cited as a "Brand new 4K restoration by Arrow Films from the original camera negative" and the package has a 4K (2160p) Ultra HD presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible) of the 94-minute Italian and 90-minute English-language export versions, including hybrid English/Italian, of the film. These are all seamlessly-branched (so have the same video quality) and it has a massively high bitrate. The image is heads + tails above the previous digital editions - Shameless 2007 PAL DVD, X Rated Kult Video PAL DVD, 2003 Alan Young Pictures PAL DVD, 2009 Blue Underground / Anchor Bay NTSC DVD, 2011 Blue Underground Blu-ray, 2017 Shameless Blu-ray and 2018 Arrow Blu-ray - that we compared HERE with help from Eric Cotenas. The 2160P image has far more balanced colors (cooler flesh tones,) is generally brighter (the 2018 Arrow Blu-ray had the darkest of all releases and has an occasional green/blue leaning.) The 4K UHD has a reasonable HDR pass and is more detailed. The presentation still has some inherent softness issues but is easily the best to date with strong grain textures. Hopefully our matched captures below can represent that highly pleasing improvement.

It is likely that the monitor you are seeing this review is not an HDR-compatible display (High Dynamic Range) or Dolby Vision, where each pixel can be assigned with a wider and notably granular range of color and light. Our capture software if simulating the HDR (in a uniform manner) for standard monitors. This should make it easier for us to review more 4K UHD titles in the future and give you a decent idea of its attributes on your system. So our captures may not support the exact same colors (coolness of skin tones, brighter or darker hues etc.) as the 4K system at your home. But the framing, detail, grain texture support etc. are, generally, not effected by this simulation representation.

NOTE: 52 more more full resolution (3840 X 2160) 4K UHD captures, in lossless PNG format, for Patrons are available HERE

We have reviewed the following 4K UHD packages recently: All of Us Strangers, Last Year at Marienbad (NO HDR applied to disc), Peril & Distress (And Soon the Darkness / Sudden Terror) (NO HDR applied to disc), The Case of the Bloody Iris (software uniformly simulated HDR), Reptilicus (software uniformly simulated HDR), Risky Business (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Conversation (software uniformly simulated HDR), Perfect Days, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) (software uniformly simulated HDR), Le samouraï  (software uniformly simulated HDR), Castle of Blood (software uniformly simulated HDR), Pat Garret and Billy the Kid (HDR), Fist of Legend (HDR), American Gigolo (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Long Wait (no HDR,) Bound (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Valiant Ones (software uniformly simulated HDR), Mute Witness (software uniformly simulated HDR), Narc (software uniformly simulated HDR), Peeping Tom (software uniformly simulated HDR), Dr. Terrors House of Horrors (software uniformly simulated HDR), High Noon (software uniformly simulated HDR), Picnic at Hanging Rock (Criterion) (software uniformly simulated HDR), I Am Cuba (no HDR), The Demoniacs (software uniformly simulated HDR), The Nude Vampire (software uniformly simulated HDR), Nostalghia (no HDR), Werckmeister Harmonies (no HDR), Goin' South (software uniformly simulated HDR), La Haine (software uniformly simulated HDR,) All Ladies Do It (software uniformly simulated HDR), Old Henry  (software uniformly simulated HDR), To Die For (software uniformly simulated HDR), Snapshot (software uniformly simulated HDR), Phase IV (software uniformly simulated HDR), Burial Ground (software uniformly simulated HDR), Dark Water (software uniformly simulated HDR), Fear and Desire (software uniformly simulated HDR), Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf (no HDR), Paths of Glory (software uniformly simulated HDR), Southern Comfort (software uniformly simulated HDR).

On their 4K UHD, Arrow use DTS-HD Master mono tracks (24-bit) in both the Italian or English language. "Torso" is filled with various types of violence that comes through authentically flat. Effects, screams etc. are flat but carry depth with an often tested high-end. The, occasionally intense, score by Guido and Maurizio de Angelis (Goodbye and Amen, A Blade in the Dark, 2019 After the Fall of New York, The Mountain of the Cannibal God) is suitable to the genre and sounds fine in the lossless - perhaps with shade more depth than Arrow previous linear PCM mono offerings, and, with the stellar video improvement more effective. The disc offers optional English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack and optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack - and the disc is, like all 4K UHD, region FREE, playable worldwide.

NOTE: The English audio track on the original, longer cut has some portions of English audio missing. English audio for these sections was either never recorded or has been lost. As such, these sequences are presented with Italian audio, subtitled in English.

This Arrow 4K UHD duplicates all the supplements from the 2018 Arrow Blu-ray starting with the observant audio commentary by Kat Ellinger, author of All the Colours of Sergio Martino. She is 'on her game' and provides impressive insight into the production and especially the director. There is a 34-minute video interview with co-writer/director Sergio Martino, and a 35-minute, video interview with actor Luc Merenda, a 1/2 hour video interview with co-writer Ernesto Gastaldi and a 25-minute new video interview with filmmaker Federica Martino, daughter of Sergio Martino. We also get a new video interview with Mikel J. Koven, author of La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film plus 3/4 of an hour of the 2017 Abertoir International Horror Festival Q&A with Sergio Martino. The only new (I think) are the 4-minutes of "Alternate "Torso" titles". There are both Italian and English theatrical trailers and the package has a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Adam Rabalaisand the first-pressing purchasers get an illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Adrian Smith and Howard Hughes.

Sergio Martino's "Torso" is a favorite of many as a mainstay in the Giallo genre including filmmakers who cite it as influential. It is from the pen of prolific Italian screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi (The Horrible Dr. Hichcock, The Case of the Bloody Iris, The Grand Duel, My Name is Nobody, Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory.) Tim Lucas remarked that Gastaldi was the first Italian screenwriter to specialize in horror and thriller films. I think this 4K UHD edition is the first of a Sergio Martino (The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh, The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, Suspicious Death of a Minor) film in this 2160P format. Torso is not shy, demur or delicate cinema and has a killer utilizing a plain-woven foulard as the strangulation weapon of choice, a peeping tom, lipstick lesbians, mutilation and dismemberment, blackmail, childhood trauma, an ominous girl's doll at a cliff's edge... and a mandatory bottle of J & B Scotch. Stalked gals include Suzy Kendall (Circus of Fear, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Fear Is the Key, Spasmo) Tina Aumont (Illustrious Corpses, Two Orphan Vampires, Fellini's Casanova,) Angela Covello (Baba Yaga,) Carla Brait (Escape from the Bronx, The Case of the Bloody Iris.) Premium but gruesome Giallo. Arrow's 4K UHD release is top shelf and a grand video improvement over their own 2018 Blu-ray edition. For those who love the genre - it's a "must-own".

Gary Tooze

 


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Distribution Arrow - Region FREE - 4K UHD


 


 

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