Entry Eleven: La sorella di Ursula (The Sister of Ursula) (1978)

La sorella di Ursula (The Sister of Ursula) (1978)

Dir: Enzo Milioni

Dour, man-hating Ursula (Barbara Magnolfi, Suspiria) and understanding Dagmar (Stefania D'Amario, Zombie) are young Austrian sisters on holiday in Italy after the death of their estranged father.  Women begin turning up dead at the hotel their staying at, and psychic Ursula, who has visions of the murders, is convinced she's the next victim.  Sleazy club rat Filippo (Fulci regular Marc Porel) is the prime suspect.

When it comes down to basics, this late-period giallo is a (particularly nasty) softcore skinflick masquerading as a psycho-thriller.  There are lots of borderline-explicit (and totally superfluous to the plot) sex scenes and D'Amario has a full-frontal scene three minutes into the movie.  The film has an obvious obsession with genital-fondling and endless hairy bush shots (an instant **** review from my friend, Mr. Cyteles).  The killer uses a razor-sharp dildo to dispatch his victims, which surely inspired a similar scene in 1995's Se7en.  Unbelievably angst-ridden Ursula has some hilariously melodramatic lines (in an early scene, she asks a Christ statue "Where are your eyes?  Did we gouge them out, or did you remove them, so as not to see us fall into the abyss?")!  Director Milioni lacks the talent to keep the proceedings suspenseful, relying instead on the copious amounts of naked female flesh and always-atmospheric Roman locations to hold the viewers interest.  As a side note, Magnolfi and Porel were married in real life until the latter's death from heroin-related complications in 1983; he plays a heroin addict in this film.