The Psychic
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
- Release Date: August 10, 1977
- Directed by: Lucio Fulci
- Written by: Lucio Fulci, Roberto Gianviti and Dardano Sacchetti
- Runtime: 1 hour 37 minutes
The Psychic was the fourth giallo that Lucio Fulci made, five years after Don't Torture a Duckling. Like Duckling, I first heard this film mentioned in a super old Cinema Snob episode, where it was accidentally included as a bonus feature on a bootleg DVD. I watched the film for the first time not too long after my first viewing of Duckling, and since that film impressed me so much, I was very excited to see what Fulci could pull off with his next giallo outing. Having seen it a few times now, I can confidently say that The Psychic is just as strong as Duckling, if not more!
The Psychic revolves around a woman named Virginia who gets flashes of images and scenes in her head that depict a woman being sealed behind a brick wall. Having gotten images in her head of her mother's suicide when she was a child, she is determined to figure out who this murder victim is, and ultimately who the killer is as well. My favorite aspects of this movie are its presentation and level of suspense. Giallos have a reputation for featuring excessively violent murder scenes and sleazy characters. Don't Torture a Duckling was restrained in its levels of onscreen violence, so with this film, I was expecting Fulci to lean more into his trademark gore as we get closer to the release of Zombi 2. Instead, I was surprised to see just how little onscreen violence is in this film. The Psychic only features three murders in the entire film, with all of them being off-screen. In fact, I can remember only two scenes with actual bloodshed in them. The movie is almost pure mystery, with our main character's visions growing more and more frequent as the film goes on, and this makes her more and more desperate to solve the case. This creates a fantastic level of suspense, and I'm never bored watching this story unfold. In addition, most of the characters feel like realistic people, and don't carry the sleaze or edge that would be typical for other giallos. It feels like Fulci was trying to do something like a Hitchcock thriller, and he really succeeded in my opinion.
There are also some visual and audio flares that I really enjoy. One thing I like about Fulci's films are the handheld zoom-ins on people's faces or eyes when something shocking happens. This movie uses that technique a lot, to the point where when Virginia's visions are becoming more and more frequent, it can even come off as a little comical. But for me, every time I watch this and a zoom-in happens, I like to think "Oh shit! What's she gonna see now?", and that adds a little bit of personal fun. The music is also quiet and eerie compared to his later horror films, which featured bombastic music to match up with the gory visuals. There is also a haunting little melody consisting of seven notes that becomes crucial to the movie's finale, hence its Italian title of Seven Notes in Black. This more subdued music makes it a great late-night viewing for me, as I find it very easy to sink into this movie's atmosphere.
I honestly feel like writing too much more about the story of the film would be doing a disservice to it. The Psychic works best when you watch it on a blind viewing, or with only a little bit of knowledge about the plot. In fact, I highly recommend never watching a trailer for the film, or looking at its American poster. The biggest reason for this is because, for some stupid reason, the American distributors decided to spoil the big twist of the movie in the film's tagline and promotional materials. When I first watched The Psychic, I didn't know how it was going to end or where the plot would go, and that made the final 15 or 20 minutes an incredibly rewarding experience. When I bought the film on Blu-Ray and saw the original tagline on the front of the box, I was astonished that they would put a spoiler that big front and center. If you've ever seen newer DVD releases of Planet of the Apes that feature the Statue of Liberty on the front, that's about as big of a spoiler as this one is. That's also why I'm using a lower-quality Italian poster on this page, because I genuinely believe that the American marketing for this movie almost completely ruins the experience.
The Psychic is my favorite giallo that Lucio Fulci made, and I would easily recommend this as a starter film for anyone looking to get into his work. For a director who became known for films featuring eyeball gouging and vomiting of intestines, this film proved that he could also be a master of suspense if the project called for it. He never did another horror film that was this restrained and almost classy, and that's a bit of a shame. I wish he had explored more of this area of thrillers, but as is, this movie is a fantastic little gem of its own. Find a copy somewhere and go in as blind as you can. I promise that the ride will be worth it in the end.