Behind the Couch

1972 Dir. Aldo Lado When the young daughter of Venice based sculptor Franco is heinously murdered, he and his estranged wife begin an investigation to track down the killer. Meanwhile the body-count continues to grow as the crazed maniac bloodily dispatches anyone who strays too close to discovering the truth about their identity. Set in Venice and featuring the story of a grief-stricken family crippled by the death of their child, Who Saw Her Die? is in many ways uncannily similar to Nicolas Roeg’s startling masterpiece Don’t Look Now , which was released only a year after. Opening with the shockingly frank and brutal murder of a little girl on a snowy mountain in France, Lado’s film pulls no punches, however while its central mystery constantly intrigues as it twists and turns unendingly, it never really manages to repeat the power of this opening scene. Focusing on Franco’s obsession with finding his daughter’s killer, the film unfolds as in typical giallo fashion, with red...

1975 Dir. Aldo Lado AKA L'ultimo treno della notte, The New House on The Left, Second House on The Left, Don't Ride on Late Night Trains, Last Stop on the Night Train, Late Night Trains, Last House Part II and Xmas Massacre Two young women take a night train from Germany to Italy on Christmas Eve, and cross paths with three sadistic criminals. What follows is a gruelling night of degradation, rape and murder. In a twist of fate the murderous trio eventually encounter the parents of one of the girls. When the parents realise what happened to their daughter, they exact bloody revenge… A loose reworking of Wes Craven’s harrowing  Last House on the Left , which itself was a remake of Ingmar Bergman’s The Virgin Spring , Lado’s Late Night Trains is an intense and claustrophobic experience with slow-burning, sustained suspense. Not content to just create a bloody, censor-baiting revenge yarn, Lado contemplates themes of fate, social responsibility and class conflict int...

1971 Dir. Aldo Lado Whilst lying on an autopsy table, motionless but conscious and in some sort of cataleptic state, American journalist Gregory (Jean Sorel) recalls how he was desperately searching for his missing girlfriend Mira (Barbara Bach) in Prague, when he fell foul of a mysterious cult of social elites who thrive on the ‘life essence’ of the younger generation. As he relays his story, he attempts to solve his own ‘murder’ before it is too late and the surgeons begin performing their autopsy on his still warm body. Whilst not a typical giallo boasting black-gloved and psychologically traumatised killers, like The House of Laughing Windows , Short Night of Glass Dolls  establishes itself as a thoughtful, provocative, atmospheric and highly effective thriller with distinct espionage elements and a serious allegorical message. The film begins with the discovery of the protagonist’s body in a park in Prague, recalling other films such as Double Indemnity and Sunset Boul...