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Dora (Daria Nicolodi) and Bruno (John Steiner) move into a new house with Marco (David Colin jr), her 7 year old son from a previous marriage. But actually it's not a new house but the house Dora lived with her first husband Carlo (Nicola Salerno) - but years ago, Carlo, a heroin addict, killed himself, which temporarily turned her into a mental case. Thing is, now that she's back in the house, she starts being haunted by her past more and more ... and that Marco starts to behave ever more strangely and even menace his mother doesn't help one bit either. Soon enough, Dora is convinced that the house is haunted Carlo ... but Bruno simply refuses to believe her, thinking it's just a slight case of hysteria set off by bad memories, and whatever bad happens to her is just a series of unfortunate accidents. And even Marco behaving oddly can be explained away by just  phase the boy's in. Thing is, after much to and fro Dora starts to remember things about her husband's death, things that might offer an alternative explanation to his apparent suicide - and the uncertainty about what has happened back when pushes her further and further over the edge ...

Italian horror maestro Mario Bava's last theatrical feature, and frankly, not a super-deserving swan song: For the most part, the richness of Bava's imagery is gone, giving room to a more perfunctory style of filmmaking - and that's allegedly due to Bava being absent during much of the filming, leaving direction in the hands of his son and assistant director for a decade now Lamberto Bava - who as a director in his own right always lacked the flamboyancy of his father. However with Mario Bava's stylistic brilliance gone, one can't help but notice that the script isn't exactly brilliant, and some of the setpieces (like Daria Nicolodi being menaced by a cupboard in the finale) are a little on the silly side. That said, Shock is still an effective shocker, a nice mix between haunted house flick and The Omen-style evil kid thriller. Not one of Mario Bava's best films, that's for sure, but a pretty entertaining genre piece still.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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