I commited to this film as a Bava fan, but I would not subject anyone other then another Bava fan to sitting through it. Aside from a great location, sets, costumes and music...there is not a whole lot of positive things to say about this film. Not sure if it was the bad writing, editing, acting or a combination of all three...but this was very hard to sit through.

Art direction and cinematography are as distinctive as any of Bava's other giallo films of the period, but the garbled script to what is essentially little more than a standard body-count movie really lets this one down. After a plodding and talky start, the film disintegrates into a total mess. Bava pulls off the odd visual flourish, but such scenes never gel together. Still, the mesmeric use of zooms, focus pulls, and tracking shots and the stylish use of colour ensures that, from an entirely aesthetic perspective, this film never becomes boring, and as an auteur piece, is well worth a watch. Now, if only I could work out what the hell happened in it...