Simply Perfect

Beautiful, moving film.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Since having been kindly passed the DVD of the film a few weeks ago from a friend,I have sadly been constantly pushing it to the back of my "must view" pile.Thankfully,I recently decided that I should put the film right at the top of my "to watch" pile of DVDs/Videos ,so I could at last say that I have seen it,which has led to me discovering a marvellous Giallo,which features a gripping screenplay,interestingly off-centre performances and brilliant nervous energy directing from screenwriter/director Juan Logar.The plot:Due to recently seeing "visions" of corpses at a local morgue "taunting" her,pathology med student Simona Sana begins to wonder if she is becoming a bit too obsessed with her study.As SImona attempts to take a step back,her city experiences sudden suicides,that men and women are doing seemingly from out of no where.Attempting to figure out a reason,it is eventually suspected that the mass suicides may be getting "set off" by "Sunspots" in an intense heatwave.Trying to relax a bit in her flat,Sana gets a sudden knock at her door from a neighbour who she has never seen before.Passing the pleasant-sounding neighbour an envelope,Sana finds out that the new neighbour lives on the same floor of the flats as her father.Strangely,the neighbour tells Simona that she has something to tell her which she must keep quite about.Before she tells her the secret,the woman gets a phone call and runs away into the night..The next day:Feeling more relaxed Sana returns to the morgue and finds out that her new neighbour has been brought in,with a suspected self- inflicted gunshot wound to the head!.Whilst the police declare it to be an open and shut case,Simona's instincts starts to make her feel that something foul may have led to the girls death.Sniffing around for clues,she begins to suspect that her father may have been dating the woman.Returning to the morgue to check on the body,Simona is confronted by an extremely aggressive priest,who tells her Sana that she must follow him,so that he is able to show her some very interesting clues.Initially not wanting to follow him,Sana changes her mind,when the priest tells her the his name is Father Paul Lenox,and that he is the dead womens sister.Feeling stressed out over the strange death,Simona's relationship with her boyfriend Edgar starts to become very strained.Things are not helped out that much,when some suspicious "sercurity" is placed at the front door of the flat to "protect her".Due to thinking that Sana's family is attempting to stop him giving her information about some strong evidence over his sister being murdered,Father Paul beats up Simona's "sercurity guard",and then makes a run for it,this then leads to both of them badly falling out.Trying to put all the pieces together over the murder,Simona starts to feel that there may be no one at all who she can trust,which includes Edgar,who seems oddly interested in asking a lot of questions about what the now-killed woman wanted an envelope for..View on the film:Checking the IMDb credits for co-writer/director Armando Crispino, (who died just before he turned 74 in 2003)I was sad to see that he had only director nine films in a very short (66-75) time period.Thankfully-if Autopsy is anything to go by,it seems that the quality of Armando's directing easily makes up for the small quantity.Whilst Umberto Lenzi's fantastic scatter-shot directing always gives the impression that this is a directer who is jumping up and down with excitement,desperate to show his next clever camera move or plot twist.Here,there is a gripping, very nervous mood to the film,which gives the film a tremendous strong feeling that Armando really does want the audience to be hooked by the film,whilst also being nervous that you might be left shocked by what pops out his jack-in-a-box.From the early,almost Zombie-horror scene,Armando and co-writer Lucio Battistrada show the this is a Giallo that has gotten off the straight and narrow path right away,with a fantastic screenplay which cleverly uses well- placed flashbacks to give the story an interesting extra dimension,and also showing some of the lead characters to be not as "clean" as they have originally appeared.For the second half of the film,Crispino shows a noticeable more calm,focus style with his directing,as the threads of the plot start to join up,to give the film an exciting conclusion (which disappointingly,has not much to do with the "Sunspots",that seemed to play a big part for the first half of the film)Looking at the great cast,I have to say that the main person that really caught me by surprise was Ray Lovelock as Simona Sana's (played by a great Mimsy Farmer,who keeps Sana balanced by always showing that she is just half a step away from solving the murder)boyfriend Edgar.Having last seen Lovelock play a fresh face rebel in Lenzi's interesting Giallo Oasis Of Fear,I was completely thrilled to see Lovelock rip any chance of Edgar becoming a "loveable" rebel into shreds,with Edgar always having a chip on his shoulder,and being someone who is prepared to rip the face off of anyone who dares to criticise him,or get in his way. Final view on the film:A very distinctive Giallo,with a good twisting screenplay,terrific performances from the cast,and fantastic,speedy directing,which will leave you breathless.

Armando Crispino's "Macchie Solari" aka. "Autopsy" of 1975 is an underrated and quite unusual Giallo that lovers of Italian horror can not afford to miss. Great suspense, bizarre elements and very interesting, often troubled characters come along with a menacing atmosphere and a great, very eerie score by none other than Ennio Morricone. The film already starts out excellently, with several nasty suicides. Rome has been struck by a heat wave, which leads to increased suicidal tendencies among the population. Being constantly surrounded by disfigured corpses is becoming too much for young pathologist Simona (Mimsy Farmer), who is writing a thesis about suicide and murder. Simona, whose job is giving her nightmares and terrible visions, doesn't believe that all of these violent deaths were suicides..."Autopsy" features many frightening and often bizarre sequences, a quite complex plot and elaborate characters. The storyline is sometimes quite complex to follow, especially since the scene changes often seem quite abrupt, but this only makes the film less predictable, and everything makes perfect sense as a whole. The performances are entirely very good. Mimsy Farmer is excellent in the lead, and portrays her character's fears and nightmares in a very believable manner. Another great performance is delivered by Barry Primus, who plays a quite unusual catholic priest. The cast furthermore includes Ray Lovelock, a regular to Italian genre cinema, and Ernesto Colli, who should be known to Italian Horror buffs for his role in Sergio Martino's 1973 giallo masterpiece "Torso" (aka. "I Corpi presentano tracce di violenzia carnale"). It should be said that "Autopsy" is not the gore-fest the DVD cover might make you think. Even though there are some very violent sequences and many repulsive images, the violence is quite tame compared to many other Gialli of the mid 70s. The movie's main intention is suspense and it definitely succeeds in being suspenseful. "Autopsy" is a stylish, atmospheric and very suspenseful Giallo, that no lover of Italian Horror should allow himself to miss. Highly Recommended!

Starting with multiple suicides, this weird ass little giallo film then introduces us to Simona, a young med student who suffers from grisly hallucinations of the dead walking around and screwing each other. She reluctantly teams up with a priest who is also the brother of one of the girls who died to figure out who killed the people that were first thought to be suicides brought on by sunspots of all things. That brief synopsis doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of how out there and a tad confusing this film is. And while not a particularly good film, it is a whole lot of fun.My Grade: B- DVD Extras: Theatrical & the spoiler laden International trailers

Granted, this isn't Argento-caliber, but "Autopsy" is a rewarding, interesting, and sometimes surprisingly brainy giallo. Beware of the Anchor Bay packaging that makes it out to look like a slasher taking place in a morgue, this is more of a traditional 'whodunit' featuring Mimsy Farmer ("The Black Cat") as a frigid student doing a thesis on suicide (real vs. assisted), Ray Lovelock ("Let Sleeping Corpses Lie") as her playboy boyfriend, and Barry Primus, who's wildly over-the-top as a screw-loose priest. "Autopsy" tends to be long on exposition and limited in violence, but if you appreciate a good story, look no further.6/10