A Shocker From Bava: Review of 1977’s Shock

By Mark Slade

Once in a while films make such an impact immediately and are never forgotten. More often than not, films that go unnoticed find an audience slowly and then catapult into glory. This is what I hope happens to the magnificent film, Shock (1977) by Mario Bava.

I often check Turner classic Movies on Saturday nights to see what cult films they are showing. For a channel that shows the films of A-list Hollywood of the old, they actually do a pretty good job of programming cult films. Although their TCM Underground show no longer has a host, which began with Rob Zombie, the films of the odd and strange, have carried on. Last week I happen to stumble on this little known Bava gem.

Giallo’s often are criticized for scenes of misogyny and cruel and/or horrible deaths to female characters. There’s no denying those scenes exist, but there’s also no proof that any of the makers enjoy such scenes as pleasure, maybe the scene itself is a work of art, from the camera work, right down to the clothes and art design. With that said, it was a genius idea to tell a story of a woman who may be abused by a dead husband from beyond the grave.

The film stars Daria Nicolodi, (Former girlfriend of Argento, and star of Deep Red, appearances in Tenebrae and Creepers, and murder victim in quite a few Argento films, also went on to direct as well). and John Steiner, (Bedazzled with Cook and Moore, and Tenebrae.).

The film begins with Dora, her son Marco, and her second Husband, Bruno, move into a house that we later learn was the house of Dora’s first husband. Marco seems like a well-adjusted seven year old, and has a great relationship with Bruno, in spite of being his stepson. Dora is in the middle of cleaning up the old house, finds a sculpture of an oversized hand. She has strange feelings about this sculpture and without saying a word, the viewer can see it on her face. After a little playtime and dinner, they send Marco up to bed. Dora comes in to check on Marco, after she leaves, we see that Marco has been pretending to be asleep. Dora comes downstairs and shares a Dixie cup of champagne with Bruno.

Bruno and Dora discuss coming to live in the house of her first husband Carlos, which we learn had committed suicide seven years ago. Dora seems to have a nervous condition, and after a few more scenes, there’s good reason she’s so easily rattled. We also learn that Bruno is an Airline Pilot, going off to New York. Dora says: “You’re always flying off when I need you.” And then the camera shows the cellar, panning up the stairs, we see Marco lying in bed listening, and back down into the living room, where Bruno and Dora are making love on the couch. The camera slowly pans over where the ever- present sculpture of the over-sized hand has taken full view of this act. Suddenly, Marco bolts upright in his bed, obviously disturbed. He angrily whispers, “Pig! Pigs!”

The scene shifts and Marco and Dora are chasing each other through a wooded area. Dora says, “You can’t catch me, I’m the wicked witch of the forest”. When they catch each other, a very unsettling thing happens. He lands on top of Dora. He won’t let her up, she realizes he has a bit of supernatural upper body strength. Grunting, Marco begins humping Dora. Distressed, Dora finally eases Marco off her.

They go to the park and watch a puppet show with other children. The subject matter has either perplexed the other children or somewhat horrified them, as we see on their faces. But Marco is smiling, enjoying the show quite a bit, where an evil king announces to a female puppet that he will take her away to his castle and teach her the art of black magic and they will rode on the backs of giant bats and terrible black cats will scratch out her eyes. Dora tries to reason with Marco to leave the show. Marco tells her no and states that, “Oh boy! This is wonderful!”

Some time has passed, and Marco and Dora are reflecting on a sunset. In a very poignant scene, Marco asks Dora why his real Daddy doesn’t come visit him. Dora explains to Marco that his Daddy is dead, and goes on to explain to Marco that his Father has moved on, taking a trip he will never come back from.

Marco decides he wants to sleep with Dora. In a very creepy scene, Marco gets out of bed and looks out the window. The swing he and Bruno had set up, begins to move on its own. Almost like something was communicated with Marco, he turns and goes back to bed with Dora. Another disturbing moment from the film, Marco touches Dora’s hair, he recoils, the camera pulls back, and Marco’s hand has become the hand of a rotting person.; erotically caressing her face and neck, which Dora enjoys immensely.

Dora decides to give a party in honor of Bruno’s homecoming and reconnect with old friends she had not seen in years. At the party we learn that Carlos was half-crazy and on the needle. We also learn that an old friend, Aldo had feelings for Dora and at one time she was her patient. Marco sees Bruno and Dora making out. He is not happy at all. Dora sees the maddening look on Marco’s face and she is taken aback. Sometime later, while cleaning up after guests, she turns and sees Marco again. “Mama,” Marco says. “I have to kill you.” He runs off and Dora is shocked by that statement.

Taking a tray of empty wine glasses into the kitchen, the lights go out and Dora trips. Glass shatters and Dora is cut deeply on her forearm. The lights come back on and Bruno and others run to her rescue. The camera pulls away and it is revealed set of keys are in the lock of a door to breaker box. She goes to the window and sees a very angry Marco swinging on the swings, then he disappears and Dora flashes back to a metronome clicking. She sways along with the swing, flashing back again to a piano and its keys laughing at her. A pair of hands tries in vein to play that piano with discordant keys tapping. The scene swipes and there is a pair of hands injecting a needle and the face of a woman becomes blurry.

Next, we see Dora burn herself on a coffee percolator, and she tells Bruno she is very upset over what Marco said to her. He tells her, “A lot of seven year old boys say things they don’t mean.” Bruno goes off to work and a still distraught Dora sits at the piano, and tries to play. She runs her fingers down the keyboard and is cut. She discovers someone has placed a razor blade between the white keys.

This movie has so many scenes involving the Oedipus complex that would make most normal people squirm and any Psychiatry student burst with enthusiasm. This would be Bava’s last film as he died from a heart attack in 1980. Bava was a great Cinematographer for many great directors as well a screenwriter. In Horror circles and film buffs, he is mostly known for Black Sunday.

His son Lamberto helped with direction of Shock Who also co-wrote the screenplay with Dardano Sacchetti, but you can see where Bava set up the scenes more. Shock has one of the best music scores of any of the Giallos, I think would rival any of Argento’s films, written by Libra. According to Wikipedia, the film was renamed for U.S. audiences Beyond the Door II, because both movies featured child actor David Colin Jr. Also from Wikipedia, the U.S. version was very faithful to the Italian version and did not have any reshoots, unlike Bava’s 1973 film, Lisa and the Devil.