Violenzia Carnale

Just a quick post today. Most people have seen - or even heard of, come to think of it - the original Torso. Therefore, I thought I'd post up some information regarding the film.

One of the archetypical drive-in movies of the early-1970s and favorite of contemporary horror directors such as Robert Rodriquez and Eli Roth, Torso was shown to the cast of the self-indulgent Rodriquez/Tarantino project Grindhouse prior to filming to help them get a feel of the genre.

The film has recently been released in the UK - with dreadful cover art and misleading tag-lines - by Shameless DVD releasing. To pick up a copy, click here. As for a region 1 release, up until recently Torso was available from Anchor Bay, but that release seems to be deleted.

Information on the film itself on the internet, aside from reviews, is scant. Keith Brown's eBlog Giallo Fever provides in-depth academic analysis of the film, along with other Martino and genre titles. Although not 100% relevant here, I might add a few posts on the history of the Giallo to help out those unfamiliar with the genre. I'll see how bored I feel over the weekend. :-D

Like everything else that's ever been put to celluloid/video/webcam, there's some Torso-related clips on YouTube. Find the sensationalized (Torso! Torso! TORSO!) Joseph Bremner Associates US release teaser here, a wonderfully psychedelic European trailer here, and the full US trailer embedded below. Look out for the hilarious voice-over that states "From Carlo Ponti, the man who bought War and Peace and Doctor Zhivago..." If anyone went to see Torso expecting anything in a similar vein to those pictures, they were probably very disappointed.