'The Corruption of Chris Miller' is a weird and well-crafted Spanish psychological Giallo thriller with an engaging plot, a tense atmosphere and stylish production courtesy of director Juan Antonio Bardem who crafts a cracking thriller with style and substance. The slow burning pace and lack of on-screen violence may put some viewers off, but everything comes together towards the thrilling and satisfying climax.
The plot = Ruth (Jean Seberg) has been abandoned by her husband leaving her alone in his large isolated mansion along with his disturbed daughter Chris (Marisol). Then Barney (Barry Strokes) a drifter turns up at the estate and soon begins an affair with the two ladies while a series of murders begins not long after his arrival.
The movie is a solid effort as it focuses more on the psychological aspects of the story such as isolation and moral disintegration of its two main leads while the violent aspects are apart from the opening scene are more or less pushed to the side until the last act. But the movie has a way of holding your attention throughout as you're constantly second guessing as to what's actually going on with the three main leads and everything slowly builds to a boiling point which makes everything quite fascinating.
The performances are excellent from all three of the lead characters. Jean Seberg with her graceful beauty delivers a strong and compelling performance and easily the main selling point of this flick. Marisol also holds her own and showing impressive range in the emotions that her character goes through. Barry Strokes rounds things off nicely, he looks the part and handles the material brilliantly.
Overall 'The Corruption of Chris Miller' is an interesting and weird entry in the Giallo genre, but it's a top notch effort nonetheless.
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