Shock (1977) – Film Review

Director: Mario Bava
Cast: Daria Nicolodi, John Steiner, Ivan Rassimov
Certificate: 15

By Sarah Morgan

Mario Bava is a giant of horror cinema. The Italian maestro’s debut film as a director was 1960’s Black Sunday, a stylish tale of a vengeance-seeking witch. He followed it with genre classics including Black Sabbath, The Whip and the Body and A Bay of Blood.

Shock, released in 1977, was his final directorial effort before his sudden death from a heart attack in 1980, shortly before he was due to start work on a sci-fi movie entitled Star Riders.

“Disturbed”

Dora Baldini is a widow whose dead husband, Carlo, was an abusive drug addict. When we first meet her, she’s moving back into the home they once shared, this time with her and Carlo’s seven-year-old son Marco and her new husband, Bruno.

Although her experiences at Carlo’s hands left her utterly traumatised, resulting in electro-shock therapy which has resulted in some memory loss, all appears to be going well for Dora – until Marco witnesses several bizarre events around the home, turning him from a happy little boy into a disturbed monster.

Unnerved by this, she wants to leave the house, but Bruno scoffs at the idea, convinced it’s all in her seemingly still damaged mind.

Matters take an even more shocking turn when Dora’s long-repressed memories begin to return…

“Plenty of style”

As you’d expect from a Bava movie, it’s shot with plenty of style and infused with atmosphere. However, some of the special effects don’t pass muster today, which nevertheless could be overlooked if the plot didn’t seem so well-worn. We’ve seen similar stories told plenty of times both before and since, and in this case, it feels as if a short story has been spun out, which doesn’t help matters.

Daria Nicolodi, then the partner and collaborator of Dario Argento on such films as Deep Red, Inferno and Tenebrae (they also co-wrote the masterful Suspiria), seems to merely be going through the motions as Dora.

British actor John Steiner, who made most of his films on the continent, appears as Bruno, while David Colin Jr portrays Marco. The youngster is genuinely creepy, although that may be down to the way he looks and sounds as much as his performance.

Shock, regarded as an unofficial sequel to 1974’s Beyond the Door in the US, is only notable due to Bava’s involvement, and even then, it’s a sorry end to a once glittering career.