Shock (1977) User Reviews (75)

Even lesser Bava is still well worth a look.

[Hey_Sweden · 7/10 · 23 March 2015]

The final completed film for Italian horror master Mario Bava is a decent one. It lacks the atmosphere of his very best work, but Bava still proves himself an expert at establishing a mood and putting macabre imagery on film.

Although sold in North America as "Beyond the Door II", this bears little relation to the earlier Italian "Exorcist" imitation "Beyond the Door". It does have one cast member in common - young David Colin Jr. - and features a similar possession theme - but otherwise, that's it.

The beautiful Daria Nicolodi stars as Dora Baldini, a young woman who moves with her son Marco (Colin Jr.) and second husband, Bruno (John Steiner), into her former home. She'd lost her previous husband under suspicious circumstances, and spent some time in a mental hospital. Now Marco is behaving strangely, and Dora begins to be tormented by various visions, to the point that she believes she may be losing her mind.

Bavas' son Lamberto was assistant to his father on this show, co-wrote the screenplay, and also plays a minor, uncredited role. "Shock" also co-stars Ivan Rassimov as a psychiatrist who attempts to help the fragile Dora. The Goblin-esque soundtrack composed by "I Libra" is effective most of the time. Bava, to his credit, eschews going for a lot of supernatural effects in favour of a mostly psychological approach. Things only start to get a little more conventional towards the end. However, gore fans need not worry as things become pretty bloody at the conclusion. Some viewers will also appreciate the nudity supplied by Ms. Nicolodi.

And speaking of Ms. Nicolodi, she's almost the entire show here, delivering a convincingly unhinged performance. It's safe to say that she makes the most out of this top billed role.

The director brings much of his customary style to this tale. He definitely could have done much worse for what would turn out to be his swan song.

Seven out of 10.

Bava's last film lives up to its title.

[Nightman85 · 7/10 · 7 March 2006]

The final film from Italian horror director Mario Bava was this chilling tale.

Upon returning to the home where her former husband died, a woman begins to believe that her young son is possessed and is attempting to kill her.

Plot-wise Schock is slim on sense, but those of us that love the films of Bava (or most any Italian horror period) know that the entertainment is all in the style and Bava's direction flourishes with style in this film as well. Schock carries a strong atmosphere of darkness and an increasing feeling of dread that drives it to nightmarish proportions at times. The film's scenic locations, creepy music score, and its female star add all the more to the elegance that is this twisted spooker.

The cast is good over all, but it is Daria Nicolodi that really shines as a wife/mother who begins to question her sanity.

Granted, Schock may not be the greatest of Bava's films, but it certainly was a great last work. Worth seeking out.

*** out of ****

The last of the Bava shockaroos and it's good

[macabro357 · 7/10 · 7 November 2003]

(aka: SHOCK or BEYOND THE DOOR II)

In fact, it's a lot better than most of the Italo-horror shot in the late-70s. It's not the best of Bava's films but it ain't no dud, either.

Bruno & Dora Baldini and her son, Marco, move back into a house where Dora and her late husband Carlo used to live. All sorts of ghostly things occur as Marco is slowly being taken over by his late-father's spirit and he winds up doing bad things to his mother. Like sending strange notes, making threats and sticking razor blades between the piano keys so his mother will cut herself.

It also seems that Dora (Daria Nicolodi) also has a bizarre past herself. She was once locked up in a nuthouse and had to undergo electro-shock therapy because she had a mental breakdown after her late-husband's death. It's also been alleged that her late drug-addicted husband Carlo had committed suicide but that's not the case at all. It seems Carlo's corpse is actually buried in the cellar behind a wall and that... (?)

Well...you'll have to see the film for yourself to find out how he got there. It doesn't have very much gore but it makes up for it in well-constructed shocks and scares that should put viewing audiences on edge.

With David Colin playing the 10 year old Marco, and Ivan Rassimov as Dora's psychiatrist, this is well worth seeing. Check it out if you're looking for something along the lines of THE OMEN or John Carpenter's HALLOWEEN.

7 out of 10

I saw this the other night on tv and I was hooked

[micheldan · 1 May 2001]

The other night, an excellent documentary was on tv about Mario Bava. I had never seen a film of his before, but I had heard of him. After the doco, they played 'Shock'. The guy who introduced the film said that it wasn't Bava's best film but that it was a film that gets better every year.

Bava's films are hard to get in Australia so I watched this one without any expectation.

I wasn't more than pleasantly surprised. I felt that it was probably the best haunted house flick that I had seen. I enjoyed the twists and the turns of the plot, and the economy of the size of the cast,(3 principals). The whole film left me with a very creepy feeling and for that I feel that the film worked completely.

I could see the influence on other films such as 'The Sixth Sense', 'Stir Of Echoes', and 'What Lies Beneath', and I can safely say that I enjoyed 'Shock' more than all these others. I suppose it's because Mario Bava's direction was not flashy and concentrated more on telling his story and keeping us guessing.

Finally, my enjoyment of this film has encouraged me to seek out Bava's other films and that can only be a good thing.

watch for the images, not the plot

[Jonny_Numb · 7/10 · 16 June 2004]

Mario Bava's final film proved that his one true strength was surreal, nightmarish imagery (when that kid runs up to Daria Nicolodi...), and though I've found most of his body of work to be overrated and dull, I was able to tolerate, even enjoy "Shock" (though it does become talky and drawn-out); the presence of Nicolodi ("Deep Red," "Tenebre") as a mentally unbalanced mother adjusting to her family's new (and haunted) house, offers up enough paranoia and sex appeal to make the final act as suspenseful as the workings of a bad dream. Shades of this film can also be seen in Lucio Fulci's "House by the Cemetery" (another good exercise in Italian horror).

Creepy and eerie Mario Bava terror movie with a lot of horrifying twists and turns

[ma-cortes · 6/10 · 6 August 2020]

A woman on the brink of insanity , Daria Nicolodi , his child : David Colin Jr and her new husband, John Steiner , move back to her old house , after the gruesome death of her previous hubby . Then things go wrong when the couple on the edge of breakdown is terrorized by a cycle of evil that is about to occur again at the old memory-ridden mansion . As an avengeful spectre possesses the young son with fateful consequences . A new look at the face of Evil !.

Nice Mario Bava film including chills , thrills , nail-biting suspense , twisted plot , gory effects, and ghastly happenings about ordinary poltergeister phenomenon with plenty of preternatural evil forces . Terror expert Bava provides his ordinary tricks maintaining interest and intrigue enough. In spite of a few scenarious and its low budget, Bava develops stunning photography, making great use of lighting, set design, and camera positioning to compliment mise-en-scenes bathed in deep primaries . This film was titled Schock, though in some countries pretended to be a sequel titled : ¨Beyond the door II¨ , revolving around the known plot about a haunted house , this time with a revenger ghost who roams here and there, while possessing a little boy, David Colin , who gives a really terrifying acting , despite his short age . Along with the beautiful Daria Nicolodi as the unsettling and at the edge of insanity wife , a plane pilot played by John Steiner as the new husband and brief appearance by Ivan Rassimov as the doctor advising Daria Nicolodi who at the time married Dario Argento , another director especialized in Terror and Giallo.

It displays atmospheric and sinister cinematography from Alberto Spagnoli and Mario Bava himself . As well as eerie synthesizer musical score in Goblin style composed by Libra . Well directed by Mario Bava who is considered to be one of the best Terror filmmakers . His first horror film was ¨Il vampiri¨ (1957) , also known as "The Devil's Commandment" , co-directed by another great filmmaker, Riccardo Freda .While working with Freda in this film , the director left the project after an argument with the producers and the film mostly unfinished . After a similar incident occurred on ¨Freda's Caltiki¨ (1959), and Bava's having been credited with "saving" Tourneur's ¨Battle of Marathon¨ (1959). The following film that emerged, ¨The mask of the demon¨ (1960), is one his most well known as well as one of his best and it inspired a wave of gothic Italian horror films . This widely influential movie also started the horror career of a beautiful but then unknown British actress named Barbara Steele , subsequently become a horror myth . While ¨Black Sunday¨ is a black and white film , it was in the color milieu that the director excelled , as Bava's films took on the look of works of art with the projects which he went on making . Later on , he directed ¨Black Sabbath¨ with the great Boris Karloff and others as ¨Baron Blood¨ with Joseph Cotten , and ¨The whip and the boy¨with Chistopher Lee . Bava along with Riccardo Freda and Dario Argento created Giallo subgenre including films as ¨The girl who knew too much¨ , ¨Five dolls for an August moon¨, ¨A hatchet for honeymoon¨ and ¨Six women for a killer¨ . As Bava created the style and substance of the giallo, a genre which would be perfected in the later films of Dario Argento . But Bava also made other genres as Peplum : ¨Hercules and the haunted world¨ , Western : ¨Roy Colt and Winchester Jack¨ , Viking movie : ¨Knives of the avenger¨, Sci-Fi : ¨Planet of vampires¨, Sex comedy : ¨Four times that night¨, Oriental fantasy : ¨The wonders of Aladdin¨, and the first Slasher movie : ¨Bay of blood¨, among others . Rating : 6.5/10 . Decent terror movie .

A Great Bava and Bava Film

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 25 October 2010]

When a family moves into a home with a shocking secret, their lives become a nightmare of homicidal hallucinations as their young son begins to communicate with the spirits of the dead. Remodeled in madness and painted in blood, they soon discover that domestic bliss can be murder... when home is where the horror is.

Daria Nicolodi stars in a role where she doesn't just get killed off violently, and with her are John Steiner, David Colin Jr. and Ivan Rassimov. This is director Mario Bava's final film.

I really enjoyed the boy grunting out "Pigs! Pigs! Pigs!" and his weird fetish for shredded underwear. And there is a really cool shot in bed with hair flying every which way.

Howard Maxford calls it "unwatchable", "childish" and "unfortunate", completely in contrast to Luca Palmerini, who thinks it is a "splendid artistic testament" that anticipates "A Nightmare on Elm Street", full of "high tension". I, personally, enjoyed it.

The script was written by Lamberto Bava along with Sacchetti, Lamberto's first script. Lamberto has said the film is more his than his father's, and stylistically that is quite true. Critics comparing this to Mario Bava's other work may be surprised, but I found it was in many ways in the same vein as "Macabre".

Mehhh

[Steve_Nyland · 4/10 · 6 February 2009]

I don't know, maybe it's just me. But it seems as though a lot of viewers may have confused their sentiment for Mario Bava with effect. I adore Bava, he was the visual master of classic Italian horror who's movies all seem to have a surreal quality to them suggesting he was somewhat more than just another man with a gift for vision. Nobody can touch his efforts in Italian genre cinema 1960 - 1980. (Though I personally prefer the workmanlike films of Antonio Margheriti and Riccardo Freda.) There is no denying that Mario Bava knew how to construct a shot, from the camera angle to the lighting to the color schemes to having the characters do bizarre, unexpected things that are riveting to witness, and then turn 90 minutes of such shots into what usually end up being amazing little movies. Just watch the guy pry the spiked mask off his face in MASK OF THE DEMON and tell me that isn't the coolest thing ever. Even if you don't care for the film it's an arresting, diverting image that sticks with you.

SCHOCK is a comparative mess. It's a great looking mess, but I am just going to refuse to go along with the party here. I hated every simpering, mealy-moused, over-rated minute of it. Expecting a twisted, nauseating, Freudian EXORCIST/OMEN ripoff about a creepy kid possessed by the spirit of his murdered father in a haunted house, instead I found myself waiting with growing impatience through a nonstop parade of every low-budget Italian horror shortcut ever conjured up, including a fake near disaster on an airplane staged just like they did it on "Star Trek": shaking the camera and having people gyrate in their chairs like Sulu recoiling to a photon torpedo blast.

Another reviewer here gets it right when he says not to bother with the plot and just concentrate on the images. Usually with a Mario Bava film that's not a problem. The issue here is that there actually was a story being told, it catches up with the imagery in the final few minutes and the payoff didn't equal the investment of attention that led up to the film's gloriously gruesome concluding moments. There were two great gore sequences, a fantastic little sleight of hand freak-out moment where the annoying little kid transforms into something else without the use of off-camera editing, but the other 93 minutes of the film were dead in the water, and the kid was incredibly annoying (or maybe just poorly cast: I never believed for one minute he was really the child of the protagonist). The film does boast another great John Steiner faux method performance, but then again he's great in everything. Even CALIGULA.

I think there are two things going on with the film. First and most important, the enthusiasm for it having finally been restored to it's uncensored widescreen glory: After years of muddled, cut, overly dark fullscreen transfers, we can finally see what the maestro was getting at. The second point is more problematic and this might annoy others, but I think a lot fans are overcome by the very human sentiment of SCHOCK literally being Mario Bava's final movie (though much of it us alleged to have been directed by his son, Lamberto Bava, credited here as assistant director), and their sincere wish that it was a better movie than it finally turned out to be. All of his films are special and I'm pretty sure that after another viewing or two I'll warm up to it. But it lacks the unrelenting power of BLOOD & BLACK LACE, the cheeky perversity of TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, CALTIKI's playfully morbid reckless invention, the poetic resonance of KILL BABY KILL, the guile of BLACK SABBATH, and the overwhelming pioneering artiness of MASK OF THE DEMON, which are ultimately the films that Bava will be remembered for.

4/10, and all apologies to anybody who is annoyed by my comments. Art is signified by its ability to generate different reactions in people, and believe it or not I find it refreshing to say that I've finally met a Mario Bava movie that I disliked intensely. He was a human being after all.

Scary and Creepy Story of Possession and Haunted House

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 24 March 2016]

Dora Baldini (Daria Nicolodi), her husband Bruno Baldini (John Steiner) and her son Marco (David Colin Jr.) move to a huge house that belongs to her. Dora lived in this house with Marco and her former husband, who was drug addicted and committed suicide. The house is empty since them and Bruno, who is a pilot, has decided to move to the place claiming it is close to the airport. Soon Marco is possessed by the ghost of his father and Dora is haunted by the house. She tells to Bruno that they need to leave the house and she is afraid of her son, but he believes Dora relapsed since she had a breakdown when he husband died. Why the vengeful spirit is seeking revenge?

"Schock" is a scary and creepy story of possession and haunted house. The direction of Mario Bava is capable to make a great low-budget film with a simple storyline. Daria Nicolodi has a convincing performance in the role of a traumatized woman that is haunted by the ghost of her former husband and discovers the motive in the end. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Schock"

Not too bad

[Oggz · 7/10 · 27 December 2006]

Furthering my education on Italian 70's cheesefest horrors, and having an ambivalent but generally favourable relationship with Dario Argento, I went on to check out Italian directors often put in the same brackets with him. Whereas I found Lucio Fulci's "The Beyond" downright dull, boring and nonsensical, Mario Bava's "Scho(c)k" shows a lot more style and ability to manipulate (albeit clichéd) genre characteristics. It also owes a lot more to Argento than it's readily willing to admit. References to "Deep Red" are numerous (a crazy mother/crazy son interaction, children's drawings, nursery melodies being heard, a house where funny things are occurring and so on). Elements on which the bulk of "Suspiria" is based are prominent here too - tormented women in nightgowns run around off their faces screaming aloud, amongst them Daria Nicolodi being a unifying factor too between the two filmmakers. There's more, though - Mario Bava is well acquainted with Polanski's "Repulsion" - you just expect Nicolodi's boobies to be grabbed by hands reaching from the walls or furniture any second now. There's jumpy mirror reflections in here too. And, lastly, "Shock" fits right in with "The Omen" and other films with malignant children messing about. It's not all copy & paste, though - whereas Argento disposes of his women relatively quickly and there's always quite a few of them, Bava decides to torture the single one he has till she's really driven quite insane. He also gets Daria Nicolodi to show more width to her acting ability than Argento ever did, and the payoff is considerable - she does rather well.

There are giveaway aspects of production that ring cheap and inept: the main body of the music score consists of one singular and derivative musical motif which is banged out on a slightly detuned piano and nauseatingly repeated over and over again - same with the nursery tune, resulting in the effect being annoying rather than haunting and creepy, as was supposedly the intention. Scenes that work the best are the trippy ones involving Nicolodi's nightmares and torments, including the giggly "flying blade" sequence. On the other side, Bava pays much more attention to and handles better the narrative and the dialogue - and that's, amongst other things, what distinguishes him from Argento, let alone Fulci. There's also something about his camera work and editing that is vaguely reminiscent of De Palma, although Bava's visual sense is a lot more detached, less elegant and earthier. A reasonably good representative of it's genre, I'm sure this one often gets scrutinised by enthusiast film buffs and scholars alike.

Add another kid to the list.

[BA_Harrison · 4/10 · 9 April 2021]

Why are children in Italian horror films always so irritating? Marco (David Colin Jr.), the kid in Mario Bava's final film Schock, rivals the legendary Peter Bark in Burial Ground (1981), Bob from The House by the Cemetery (1981), and the brother and sister in The Sweet House of Horrors (1989) as one of Spaghetti horror's most obnoxious little brats.

Marco, his mother Dora (Daria Nicolodi), and her new husband Bruno (John Steiner) move into the house that was once home to Dora and her first husband Carlo, who suffered from depression and is believed to have committed suicide. Soon after, Dora suffers from unusual, unnerving and inexplicable experiences, and Marco starts to behave very strangely. Dora comes to the conclusion that Carlo is haunting the family - is she losing her mind or is there really a supernatural reason for the bizarre occurrences?

Schock was written by Lamberto Bava, who is rumoured to have had a big hand in directing the film as well, which might go some way towards explaining why the film isn't up to Mario Bava's usual standard, lacking his sense of style, but having his son's . Instead of stunning visuals with bags of atmosphere, we get Nicolodi looking scared and bewildered for most of the time, accompanied by an annoyingly repetitive music box style score that has no connection with the plot.

After lots of random spooky happenings, with the kid being extremely grating throughout and Nicolodi becoming more and more hysterical, Bava finally reveals what really happened to Carlo, and why the house is haunted, but it's really not worth the wait. Bava does, however, save one really good visual shock for his final act: a clever on-camera trick that sees Marco running into his mother's arms, turning into her dead husband at the last moment. If only there had been more creative moments like this, Schock would have been a fitting swan-song for Mario, instead of a disappointment.

Pretty Creepy "Haunted-House" SHOCKER...

[EVOL666 · 8/10 · 13 September 2006]

SHOCK is one of those late 70s/early 80s that combines a good bit of atmosphere/creepiness with a decent and intriguing storyline. Some of the visual FX (the "flying razor" scene comes readily to mind) are a bit dated and goofy - but overall this one holds up pretty well...

Dora, Bruno, and Dora's son, Marco, all move back to a house that Dora lived in with her previous husband. Strange, ghostly things begin happening that seem to revolve around the young boy, and Dora is haunted by strange hallucinations and dreams. Bruno is a pilot and is gone most of the time, so he writes the strange happenings off as Dora's over-active imagination - but we find through the course of the film, that the history of the house is a lot more sordid than is initially let-on to - and Dora may or may not be as crazy as she seems...

SHOCK is a solid film that Italian-horror lovers are sure to dig. The acting is solid for this sort of film, and there are some truly creepy sequences that are quite strong. The kid that plays Marco steals the show in the scenes he's in and is nearly as notable as that bugged-out little creep, Peter Bark, in BURIAL GROUND. There are a few decent gore FX, but nothing real stand-out in that respect. The ending is also notably "down-beat" - something that I enjoy as opposed to the typical happy Hollywood ending. Definitely worth checking out...8/10

Not Bava's Best but Worth a Watch Despite Coming Late in Career & Genre

[LeonLouisRicci · 7/10 · 17 April 2016]

It's Always an Anticipation when coming to a Mario Bava Movie. Considered one of the Best Italian Horror Directors, Bava Never Failed to be an Auteur, always bringing an Artistic Flair with His "on the move" Camera Work, Color Schemes, and a Fertile Imaging of the Genre (Horror/Giallo).

This, His Final Film, was done during Failing Health, like Hitchcock, the Talent Remained and His Vision is Incorporated here even though much of the Movie was Relegated to His Son, Lamberto.

It's a Creepfest of Considerable SHOCKS and the Strong B-Acting working with one of the Masters manages to Help in the Delivery. Coming at the End of the Horror/Giallo Cycle, while Certainly Not One of the Genre's Best or Worse, it is still Worth a Watch and is only Slightly Disappointing, Mostly Due to the Aging Director and the then Tiredness of the Story. Also, His usual Standout Color Trademark is Surprisingly Absent.

The Dynamic Duo of Modern Italian Horror, Bava and Dario Argento, both made some Mediocre Movies (the Human Condition), and this is one of Bava's. But both of the Director's Lesser Works are Still Above Average and Always a Treat for Fans.

This Haunted House-Supernatural-Possession Film is a Respectable Inclusion with a Child Character Near the Center and that can be Problematic, but it is OK here.

Note...Some prints are titled "Beyond the Door II" and was a Distributor Decision, is exploitive and has nothing to do with the Original.

Beyond The Door II: Shock

[HorrorFan1984 · 5/10 · 10 August 2020]

A deceased man possesses his son in order to accomplish some dark things in this late 70's unofficial sequel to Beyond The Door.

The film starts with us meeting Dora, her new husband Bruno, and young son Marco. She has decided to move back into her former house where she lived with her ex-husband Carlo who killed himself at sea. After that traumatic event, Dora was given electro shock therapy to cope with the death of Carlo. We learn that Carlo was a drug addict who was taking LSD and heroin leading up to his death. As the film moves along, Dora reveals to everyone around her that she feels her young son Marco is being possessed by the deceased Carlo. Is this true, or is Dora simply going made from guilt she feels surrounding Carlo's death?

This unofficial sequel to Beyond the Door has absolutely no connection the original film. Shock is an original story that tells the tale of a young child who seems to possessed by his deceased father who was a serious drug addict that killed himself. The story lets the viewer know that the father may have in fact NOT committed suicide, and was perhaps murdered by our lead character Dora.

My issue with Beyond the Door II: Shock is how slow it moves. The plot is laid out very straight forward and is easy to follow, but it moves at a snail's pace. There are very little action scenes or moments of terror until the end of the film. Daria Nicolodi leads the way for me in the acting department. I thought gave a strong performance as the lead protagonist, Dora. The others were background noise for me for the most part. Noteworthy as the appearance of David Colin Jr. who was in the first Beyond The Door film. He definitely had a larger role in this one and did a fine job.

Overall, Shock (or Beyond the Door II) is a mediocre horror film done by the legend Mario Bava. I'd give it a viewing to make an opinion for yourself, but I was underwhelmed.

5/10

Underrated Bava creepy haunted house chiller.

[Infofreak · 30 November 2001]

Mario Bava's final movie 'Schock' may be far from his finest work, and will never gain the cult following of his classics 'Black Sunday' or 'Planet Of The Vampires', but it is still a very strong and effective thriller.

Dario Argento's former lover and leading lady Daria Nicolodi ('Profondo Rosso', 'Tenebre',etc.) plays Dora, a young woman getting over a breakdown and the aftermath of the suicide of her first husband. With her young son Marco (David Colin, Jr the only tenuous link to 'Beyond The Door' which this movie was sold as a sequel to in the US), and her new husband airline pilot Bruno (Euro-horror regular John Steiner) she returns to live in her old house. Despite the bad memories that surround it, she attempts to get on with her new life, and make a fresh start. Sadly, this is not to be. Odd things start to happen, the normally cheerful Marco begins to act out, and Dora becomes increasingly disturbed by her surroundings, believing an evil force is lurking around and attempting to drive her insane. She isn't exactly wrong!

Bava manages to create a disturbing atmosphere throughout, which escalates as young Marco goes from disobedient to downright scary. We may have seen many basic elements of 'Schock' before but they are approached freshly and originally, and the incestuous undercurrents in Dora and Marco's relationship is very rarely seen in Hollywood horror. I wouldn't argue that this movie is flawless, but it has more than enough interesting touches and genuine scares to make it worth watching. Bava's reputation is increasing with every year, and 'Schock' deserves another look!

Knockout finale saves the film

[ODDBear · 6/10 · 30 November 2005]

I read somewhere that this is as much a Lamberto Bava film as it is Mario Bava's. If it's Lamberto; it's one of his best, if it's Mario; it's not one of his best.

Shock mostly delivers in a knockout finale that is truly terrifying. Up until then it mostly drags, with highlights that are few and far between. This is not one of Bava's visual feasts, it's more gritty looking than I expected but Bava is, as always, very capable of creating a moody and eerie atmosphere and he doesn't fail here either. If the film had a better script and a few more surprises up it's sleeve it would be a superb horror movie.

The film is also bolstered by Daria Nicolodi's best ever performance, pity she didn't perform as well for Dario Argento as she did here. The fact she could act so well here was a big SHOCK for me.

My brief review of the film

[sol- · 6/10 · 4 August 2005]

Fairly well directed and very effectively photographed, this Italian horror film works so well on a visual level that it can still rate as above average stuff overall, despite having some definite weaknesses. There is really very little in the way of a plot, with a storyline quite typical of such horror flicks. A few of the music choices are also awkward, and Daria Nicolodi's performance totally lacks credibility. There are interesting elements to it, or at least the photography: gliding, zooming and in and out focus effects are all used very well. Not a great film, but for fans of horror, it is probably worth a look.

Mediocre Bava, but still Bava...

[matheusmarchetti · 7/10 · 24 April 2010]

So, I finally got myself watching Mario Bava's final film "Shock". As soon as the credits started rolling I realized this was going to be way different from Bava's other works, and not in a good way. Ironically though, the film itself is not bad, but if it had been made by any other director in any other country, I doubt the film would've turned out any different. It's basically another one of those haunted house films such as "Poltergeist" and "The Amityville Horror", even if slightly superior. It's not as if these two are bad, but the whole thing is way too 'routine' by Bava standards. Even if the great camera-work is still there and it does manage to produce some genuine chills, but it pales in comparison "Kill Baby, Kill", "Black Sunday", "Blood and Black Lace", among others, who did it so much better. Scriptwise, it does a good job at being a 'regular ghost story' with an Oedipal twist, but overall, it is anything but original and, as a matter of fact, Bava already used a strikingly similar premise in the obviously superior "The Whip and the Body", and the endings of both films are almost exactly the same. On the bright side, the film does manage to create some subtle, yet extremely effective scares. The final 20 minutes or so are quite suspenseful and frightening, and Daria Nicolodi does her best at conveying fear and despair her role requires. David Collin Jr as the child who may-or-may-not-be-possessed is indeed very creepy, and an excellent counterpart to Melissa Grapps from "Kill Baby Kill". Also, it was quite refreshing to see Ivan Rassimov playing a good guy this time. Last but not least, the Goblin-esquire score by Italian band Libra helps giving the film a sense of total dread and terror. In the end, it's certainly not bad, but rather mediocre for a director like Mario Bava. Yet a mediocre Bava is still a hundred times better than the god-awful so-called 'horrors' that are coming out of Hollywood nowadays. 6/10.

i don't understand the love for bava

[Bwent · 4/10 · 7 September 2019]

Here's another cheesy bava "masterpiece." just more trash from the king of italian trash. so boring. even after an entire career in film, the man still clocks in at amateurish at best. for christs sake mario, why all the zoom? every 33 seconds another zoom in, four seconds later a zoom out. its just cringeworthy. altman did it better five years before with images. watch that instead.

Italian horror done almost perfect

[Quinoa1984 · 9/10 · 5 May 2010]

Sometimes all you need in horror is a sense of mood in a place. Other times, a warped state of mind can help a great deal by a filmmaker's point of view to get a viewer tapped in. In Shock, we do know for certain that a mother, Dora, her cute little son Marco, and her second husband Bruno, are at a new house they just bought. But what we don't know for certain, perhaps not fully even until the very end, what is really taking the shape of the horror, and that's the key to Mario Bava's success here (actually his last film, quite a feat for any time in his career). We're lead to believe that this is most likely a ghost story - at least at first. It seems straightforward enough: the boy keeps getting weird, sneaking on his mother (even stealing her underwear) and acts generally creepy, and soon get some supernatural mojo with a doll made up of his mom and a swing that can control his stepfather's flight plan as he pilots a plane.

There is that aspect, and Bava does get some good mileage out of the mannerisms and kind eyes of the child actor Colin Jr (his voice on the other hand leaves much more to be desired). But then sometime else happens after a little while: we get to follow Dora more closely, specifically when she has nightmares or can't really tell between what is real and what is dark fantasy. She has a dream where she's trapped in her bedroom, and a box-cutter moves by itself, hovering and threatening her at every turn. She also sees a giant brick wall and screams in agony, for reasons that won't become clear until much later. Again, could still all be the ghost going on - who we also learn soon after could allegedly be her first husband, who died from suicide as a junkie.

But the fact that Dora was a former mental patient, and spent some time in an asylum and got some shock treatments, calls into question her reliability as a character. Her husband doesn't believe her, but who would in this situation (and, naturally, in this kind of semi-ghost sub-horror genre)? What we see is a split between what is expected, and Bava has a gay-old-time showing us imagery that is just downright disturbing. Some of it early on borders on being just wrong (the boy making sight of her mother as she sleeps, perhaps possessed or directed by his dead father... or is he?), and then other times things just get strange, deliberately. It is Italian Horror, after all, but done without the tasteless style of a Fulci. This is more... I don't know if classy is the word, but Bava knows his camera and knows how to create eerie suspense out of nothing, so it's kind of a bridge between being grindhouse and being true Gothic terror.

And sure, some parts the dialog is weak and the actress Nicoldi shrieks so high that you can hear Fay Wray telling her to knock it off. But Bava gets us interested in the plight of this character, what will happen to her as, naturally, she stays in the house because her husband doesn't want to leave (at least not just yet), and what sinister act the husband-cum-son will do next as well. There's are scenes where horror creeps up on a viewer; watch as Dora keeps hearing her boy call out for her from... somewhere, and can't find him, but sees something wicked in the piano room (at one point, I should add, it laughs), and the ambiguity of this scene, among others, drives the tension and madness. While not flawless, it's the work of a master. 9.5/10

For the love of God, Montresor!

[dfranzen70 · 6/10 · 22 March 2019]

Mario Bava's final film plods along for a little over an hour before it really starts to cook, and then it turns into an authentic Mario Bava film - heavy on effects, chills, and suspense and light on plot and acting prowess. A widow remarries and moves with her young son and new husband back into her old home she'd shared with her first husband, only to find that sometimes dead is better. Well, maybe not in those exact words, but she does feel awfully haunted all of a sudden. Or is she being gaslighted? Again, nice twists, but it's so slow. The kid sure is damn creepy, though.

Slow moving, Poor acting

[siriusdancer · 2/10 · 23 May 2020]

Slow, drawn out haunted house flicks are some of my favorite flicks; unfortunately this one was dull, unimaginative, and plagued by some of the poorest acting I've ever seen in an Italian horror film. The only thing that saves this movie is the visuals; there are some creepy/sexy surreal sequences and so-so effects if you can get over the screen chewing leading lady and lad.

Bava's Creepy Final Film

[Witchfinder-General-666 · 8/10 · 10 April 2008]

Horror genius Mario Bava is, as far as I am considered, one of the greatest directors ever, an opinion that most true Horror lovers will share. His repertoire includes more masterpieces than any other Horror director's, titles like "Black Sunday", "Blood And Black Lace", "Kill Baby... Kill", "The Whip And The Body", "Bay Of Blood" or "Lisa And The Devil" are just some of the many essential Horror films this Italian genius has made. 1977 was a memorable year for Italian Horror fans. Fellow Horror genius Dario Argento directed "Suspira", one of the most brilliant horror films of all-time, in that very year, and Mario Bava ended his career with "Shock", mainly in order to boost the career of his son Lamberto (Dèmoni), who is an OK director himself, but never came near his father's brilliance. This last Mario Bava picture is an Italian-style Haunted House film, and while "Shock" is not as memorable as most other films by this brilliant director, it is definitely a creepy, genuinely scary and downright great film that Italian Horror fans can not afford to miss.

Dora Baldini (Daria Nicolodi) moves into a house with her husband Bruno (John Steiner) and her son Marco (David Colin Jr.). Her first husband and father of her son has long been dead, but the Pilot Bruno, who is mostly away due to his job, has become a surrogate father. The new house which they are moving into, is actually the old house in which Dora used to live with her former husband, and while Bruno enjoys the huge mansion immensely, Dora becomes more and more scared of the strange things that seem to be going on. Especially the strange behavior of her little son begins to frighten her...

Daria Niccolodi, the long-time girlfriend of Dario Argento who starred in many of his films, is a very good actress and she once again delivers a great performance, and while I didn't find her attractive in every movie she was in, she is very beautiful here. John Steiner is a great actor, who is especially talented for playing villains and psychos, and my only regret with his casting here, is that he plays a kind-hearted family man. The supporting cast furthermore includes Italian Horror and Exploitation regular Ivan Rassimov. The academy award goes to little David Collin Jr., who delivers an exceptional child performance. This is one out of only two films he ever was in, and yet this nine-year-old actor is capable of giving you the creeps merely by his facial expressions. The excellent Progressive Rock score by 'I. Libra' (a band that includes 'Goblin' member Walter Martino) and the ingenious camera work compliment this film's atmosphere even more, and the exceptionally creepy finale lives up to the film's title. As mentioned above, this last film is not as brilliant as most of Bava's other films (such as his brilliant second-to last film "Cani Arrabiati" aka. "Rabid Dogs"), but this man was a cinematic genius, and even though this does not nearly range among the highlights in his career, it is a highly atmospheric, creepy and great Horror film. Mario Bava sure was a brilliant director. Even his slightly lesser films, such as this one, are exceptional movies that outshine the rest!

Meandering story with a decent amount of shocks.

[lost-in-limbo · 6/10 · 7 September 2005]

Dora Baldini (Daria Nicolodia) returns back to her old place with her new pilot husband Bruno (John Steiner) and her son Marco (David Colin Jr.) to start a new happy life, but the place brings back bad memories of her dead ex-husband who committed suicide at sea. After a couple days, nasty surprises with her son acting up and nightmarish delusions start to plague Dora and slowly push her towards the edge of madness.

After recoding it off TV and forgetting about it sitting on my shelf, I finally got around to seeing Bava's final film. I'm not overly familiar with his work, other than being amazed by the exquisitely stylish "Lisa & the Devil" a month or two earlier. Anyway, it's only my second dose of this talented filmmaker. So, I still reasonably have fresh eyes towards his work and when I finished this film, I just didn't know what to feel. Indifferent might be the best way of putting it, well for most part I felt that way. Nothing too much about it really drew me in. Wait! Actually what I'm whining about, the film did grab me in parts, but just a couple things didn't. I'm speaking more towards the plot, as the direction holds up rather well and elevates the feature, I thought. The ponderously dire first hour felt like a real drag as the loose plot springs to life with well directed sequences of tension, mystery and discomfort, but these moments aren't sustained for that long, as they come and go, although that's until it reaches its thrilling finale that pumps up the energy with some nerve wrecking hallucinations and surprising jolts. The slow nature of the film does help build on the stressful situation and slowly gets under your skin to jump you with a macabre climax. But the unconvincing story just didn't pull me in or make me care for these characters. Although I'd say the character's relationships were well thought out and believable, but it just didn't go anywhere with it. It's not to hard to figure what's going to happen around each corner, as you just know something is terribly wrong to begin with. The plot was rather one-note, with it leaning more towards the shocks and that's what kept my attention more than anything. It worked in some interesting segments, but just not as a whole. The performances were good, I guess? Daria Nicolodia is reasonably effective as the woman losing her grip on reality and haunted by her dead ex-husband. David Colin Jr. was an irritating brat of a child, but that kind of work for the character he was playing, especially when all that changes and he become a possessed little monster and John Steiner is decent enough as the worried husband who seems to be hiding something. The acting was better than expected, but for me the characters were nothing but your usual cardboard bystanders in a predictable story.

The story might be very simplistic and a tad restless, but you can't deny the professional nature of the production. It's filled with a great blend of atmosphere. The eerie atmosphere that it starts off with suddenly turns unsettling and the bloodcurdling images that pop up, have you and not just our protagonist on the edge. The unusual score seemed odd in parts but the persistent tune that was repeatedly used really does eat away at you. Graceful camera-work of the house's interior and surrounding features adds to this slickly made feature. The visuals are definitely its strongest part and that also goes for the well-crafted climax that totally wipes the floor.

Mario Bava gradually strings some genuinely spooky shocks and creates a really uncomfortable state in this haunted house tale, but overall it just didn't do enough to entirely wow me over. But that doesn't make it a bad film; actually it's far from it. Who knows maybe it will improve on another viewing? Well, at least the film has kind of added to my curiosity of seeing more of his work.

Take the good with the bad

[Polaris_DiB · 5/10 · 2 October 2008]

Italian horror cinema, especially it's more exploitative stylings such as giallo, is so hit-and-miss. Some directors are great, others are terrible, even when they're contemporaries. Within oeuvres, some director's movies are quite effective, others are nearly useless (I'm glaring at you, Dario Argento). And, in some cases, even a single movie has its amazing parts and its terrible parts--yes, like Shock, Maestro Mario Bava's final directorial effort.

The concept itself is very good. A mix of Shining and Amityville Horror style haunted house narrative, a woman and her family move into the house of her youth, only to be beset by spectres. Dora, the mother, is first beset by apprehension, then anxiety, then horror, and finally insanity as the house slowly destroys her mind. Young Marco, her child, almost immediately gets possessed -- by what is not so clear, but that's actually a good way to go about it. Bruno, Dora's second husband and Marco's step-father is ostensibly the voice of reason, but first his absence's sink the security of Dora's psyche, and then his sordid past comes back to destroy all vestiges of hope for the family. If you're looking for skeletons in the closet, that's basically the best way to describe this movie.

However, it's execution is spotty at best. There's the aforementioned possessions, ghostly happenings, psychoses; there's also voodoo, token objects, endless dream sequences, and a trippy montage in the middle of the movie that comes out of absolutely nowhere. There are some sequences that are superbly executed (one shot near the end of the movie involving a hallway and Bruno suddenly changing into someone else has to be one of the most terrifying moments in cinema I've ever witnessed), and then there are others that do more than drag down the narrative (Dora slowly going hysterical while Bruno just sits there watching goes on too long while little reaction from Bruno makes it entirely unbelievable). In classic Italian cinema means, the imagery is mostly beautiful but their penchant for dubbed post-production sound is very disconcerting, making the movie a little harder to get into.

I'd really only recommend this one to fans of Bava, the other Italian giallo filmmakers, and those who really do love really flamboyant horror movies of all sub-types. It's a shame, too, because some sequences are deserving of recognition for their skill and execution, but the whole does not support the parts, and vice versa.

--PolarisDiB