Lucio Fulci
Sette note in nero

Let's start by saying that, despite numerous flaws, "Sette note in nero" is considered by many to be the most successful thriller by the director. And I really can't disagree.

Synopsis: Virginia, a woman always endowed with clairvoyance (or "heightened sensitivity," as her parapsychologist friend calls it), discovers, guided by her visions, a corpse walled up in one of her husband's properties...

The film opens with a trashy effect (the dear mannequin, probably kept from the days of "Non si sevizia un paperino" and ready for use again). Little Virginia, even kilometers away, "sees" her mother's suicide, thanks to her paranormal abilities.

Years later, Virginia is an adult woman, married to the wealthy Francesco Ducci, but the visions do not leave her: in the car, she feels ill, accompanied by a detailed vision of an apartment and a woman walled up alive inside one of the walls. All of this is completed by the music of what seems to be a music box.

Having gone to one of her husband's properties with the aim of restoring it, Virginia recognizes the place from her vision in one of the rooms. She takes a pick to the wall, discovering indeed a corpse walled up years and years before.

Lucio Fulci carefully measures the splatter element, which accompanies, without overpowering, the dreamlike and supernatural aspect. The structure is linear: step by step, we piece together the puzzle with the protagonist, sometimes making mistakes, sometimes relying on intuition. Not everything is as it seems, as Virginia will also find out at her own expense.

Without spoiling, the major defect of the film is indeed the "explanation" a few minutes from the end (come on, Lucio, you could have given us some trust and let us figure it all out). Yet the film wraps you in a subtle and creeping tension that you don't immediately notice (very different from the sensation provoked, for example, by the more violent and morbid "New York Ripper"). The stifled sounds, the music, and the wide eyes of Virginia (the beautiful Jennifer O'Neill) do the rest.