Rings of Fear (1978)

 

 

Next up we have Rings of Fear or Red Rings of Fear or Trauma (as it was named on the DVD I own) from 1978.  This is the third film in the Schoolgirls In Peril trilogy by writer Massimo Dallamano who was also supposed to direct this one as well but unfortunately passed away before he had the chance.  In case you are wondering and didn't know What Have They Done To Your Daughters? was the second film in the series with What Have You Done To Solange? being the first film.  Solange is a very good film in fact it is the first giallo that I saw thanks to my Horror Homie Rickster Rick who you can find here on letterboxd: https://letterboxd.com/cerpts/     Maybe not officially the first time I saw a giallo but it was the first one I saw after I knew what a giallo was.  Some I had already seen but didn't know the term "giallo".  Alberto Negrin was given the job of director in lieu of Dallamano after his death. 

 

 

Starring is Fabio Testi (Once Upon a Time in the West, Barbarella, and was also in What Have You Done to Solange? but playing a different role than here) as Inspector Di Salvo, Christine Kaufmann (Bagdad Cafe, Taras Bulba, and Town Without Pity) plays his girlfriend Christina who has a lot of cats.  Also we have Jack Taylor again, this time playing Michael, who may or may not have killed a sixteen year old girl and dumped her body in a river.  Helping Testi with the case is the murdered girls little sister Emily (Fausta Avelli who was also in Dario Argento's Phenomena and  Lucio Fulci's Don't Torture a Duckling so she's a giallo vet) who is not short on ideas nor is she short on the creepy factor.  She leads him to a group of classmates of her sisters called The Inseparables for information.  The group of girls start getting poems from someone calling themselves "Nemesis".  Soon weird accidents begin to happen to The Inseparables as well.      

 

 

 

 

 While a decent enough film I can't help but wonder how it would have been if Dallamano had directed this one.  I mean while writing it he had an idea of how it was going to look since he had all intention of transferring this one onto film from paper.  With that being said this one still has Testi and he has a certain screen presence that demands attention.  There's lots of gratuitous nudity and a pretty terrible as well as off the wall rape scene that is unsettling.  I mean (and I don't think I'm ruining anything here) a giant sex toy is a murder weapon so it's gotta be weird, right?  Maybe not as good as Solange (and now I have to find Daughters so I can complete the trilogy) but good enough for me to give it a similar grade.  Some folks have issues with the ending as there are two twists not one to discover.  Three and a half bags of marbles out of five for this one maybe closer to three but I gave it what I gave it and I stand behind it.