Directed by Mario Bava
Starring Claudine Auger, Luigi Pistilli and Laura Betti (lots of vowels in there)
Whoo boy, Twitch of the Death Nerve. Without a doubt one of the most influential horror movies of all time, coming from a guy whose decidedly much more-restrained tone had practically become a hallmark. Mario Bava has a good many films that qualify as classics of the genre (Black Sunday and Kill, Baby, Kill being preeminent among them), but this one...it's a classic, alright, but for entirely different reasons.
For starters, almost every slasher movie to come out during the '80s owes a debt to this flick. Going through my own horror viewing chronology, I can't place a single film that was released before this one that featured this degree of sicko violence. While it would be topped countless times throughout the slasher movie's reign at the top of the heap, the film raised the standard of what was acceptable for onscreen, graphic violence. For that reason alone, this movie is worth seeing. When it comes to story, however, what we're in for is something decidedly tedious peppered in between some pretty damn historically significant kills. Let's get moving.
As simply put as possible, Twitch of the Death Nerve is a movie about a large group of characters competing over a large inheritance. The amount of backbiting and murder that Bava manages to pack into the very lean 84 minutes of running time and this barebones concept is pretty damn impressive, but it's just a damn shame that so much of it is so uninteresting, but let's recap.
Frank Ventura (Chris Avram) and his girlfriend Laura (Anna Marie Rosati) are essentially in one corner vying for a primo slice of bayside property, while Renata (Auger, a.k.a. Domino from Thunderball, and she's just as beautiful here) and her husband Albert (Pistili) are the primary opposition. The reason that the property is open for murderous negotiation is shown in the flick's prologue, where both principal owners are killed in very different ways - both of them shown onscreen, although they aren't quite as graphic as what we'll get a bit later. It's ALSO worth noting that Renata is the daughter of the couple and has a personal stake in the game. Along the way, there are a whole bunch of wrinkles thrown in as Frank (a real estate agent) also has an ace in his hole in the form of the illegitimate son of the murdered Countess. Negotiations take place, sides are chosen, and we get a whole bunch of house visits, attempted murders, and double crosses. Kind of like a much shorter, much less boring (but still relatively boring) and much bloodier version of Pirates of the Caribbean.
If you can't tell by the previous paragraph, this is a movie that requires you to pay some pretty close attention. The first time I watched it, I was half-distracted by my game of Hoyle Casino 2006 and lost out on half of it, meaning that I had to start watching the damn thing again after I was graced with the movie's truly "huh?" ending. Call me an ugly American, but I'm used to the fairly simplistic slasher formula. Group of kids/young adults goes to remote location, meet some past evil, violence ensues, final confrontation. Now, this formula hadn't quite come to fruition at the time this movie was released, but this movie has a LOT of false finishes. It's also got a pretty large group of dislikable characters, robbing us of the opportunity to hop on anyone's bandwagon as this game develops.
No, folks, what makes Twitch of the Death Nerve so influential and even worth watching despite its numerous faults is a rather brief section after the prologue as four perfectly happy and perfectly horny teenage kids make their way to the scenic bay for a good time, only to get offed by a (briefly) mysterious killer in ways that I'm certain hadn't been seen by ANYONE in movie theaters at the time of the 1971 release. For about 15 minutes, this movie is absolutely electric, the tension rising to a fever pitch by the time we get the double-sex-impalement scene that would later be repeated beat-by-beat in Friday the 13th Part 2, but just like that, it's over, and the four characters that have been wiped off the screen are essentially never spoken of again. Movie premature ejaculation penalty confirmed.
Alas, for 70 of the 84 minutes, this isn't a very fun movie. Without a doubt it's historically significant, but ultimately it fails as a horror movie since the characters that take up the vast majority of the screen time are so uninteresting and/or dislikable. As aforementioned, it also requires you to be a pretty active watcher, meaning that you'll be reading those subtitles pretty damn intently while you're attempting to keep your eyes awake.
** out of ****. It's definitely worth checking out for curiosity's sake, but it's strictly a one-time watch.
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