A waste of 90 minutes of my life

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The Murder Secret (1989)* 1/2 (out of 4)Richard Hamilton (Gabriele Tinti) takes his wife (Adriana Russo) and their two kids to visit his Aunt Martha. Even though Richard hasn't seen her in years when they arrive to her house she's no where to be found. The family is told to just wait around but soon murders begin to happen.THE MURDER SECRET, aka THE BROKEN MIRROR and many other titles, is one of the handful of films that were released as "Lucio Fulci Presents" and, as you can probably tell, he had very little to nothing to do with the actual film, although clips would eventually show up in his A CAT IN THE BRAIN (as well as clips from other movies). If you're looking for a great Italian horror film then you certainly won't find it here, although there are a few interesting moments.People often talk about how the Italian horror market was in its dying days during the late 80s but people also seem to forget that the genre was pretty much dying everything. This film here has a few interesting ideas that I'm sure could have been better exploited back in the early part of the decade when film's were allowed a bigger budget. There are a couple twists in the story, which is actually pretty good but the biggest problem is the fact that there's way too much talking and not enough action. Not to mention, the film really drags, contains no atmosphere and certainly no scares.Outside the nice plot twists, the film also offers up a couple memorable death scenes. The decapitations are all done without too much of a budget so they aren't very convincing but at least there's some blood here. There's also an obvious wink to the shower scene in PSYCHO, which is certainly the highlight of the picture.

It's hard to find...and I'm glad! If this film dropped off the face of the earth tomorrow, it would be no great loss. yet another stupid and implausible Italian horror that attempts to be edgy and shocking, but actually isn't much more than incoherent and plodding, even neglecting to address huge, major plot points that it apparently wasn't aware it brought up. It's so unlikely in the first place, and the voice-over ending it is made hilarious by its attempt to make it all seem intentional.The pacing is nonexistent and the whole thing is pretty predictable, except where it's random (and implausible there too). It's so predictable that you'll watch it, know exactly what will happen, and say to yourself 'no -- no, nothing's that stupid, nothing would do that anymore'. But you will be mistaken and it will disappoint you even more.From the start, you'll find yourself wondering why these people, who obviously have pretty demanding lives, are so inanely doing the things they do. The father has no reason for doing what he does, especially. Nothing makes sense, and it's unfulfilling. This isn't the sort of 'dream logic' Argento could get away with when he was still good; it's just a mess of shoddy writing, and the ending is absolutely contemptible.If you want to see something on a similar sort of note, watch Atrocious. It's not a masterpiece by any means, but it's far better than this rubbish. This isn't worth finding, and it's certainly not worth sitting through once you do find a copy.

Your enjoyment of this film 80's Italian horror flick will probably depend somewhat on your expectations. If you're expecting a superior Lucio Fulci film (Fulci produced this), you'll probably be somewhat disappointed (but to be fair it's really no worse than a lot of the stuff the gore-master himself was directing at the end of his career). On the other hand though, if you've seen any of the previous work of Mario Bianchi, the actual director of this (for instance, his deadly dull "Satan's Baby Doll") you'll no doubt find this one comparatively entertaining.A family, consisting of a father (Gabriele "Mr. Laura Gemser" Tinti), his second wife (Adriana Russo), and his three children--a young son, a voluptuous "teenage" daughter (Jessica Moore), and his adult son who shows up later--all drive out to a secluded family estate to meet the father's "Aunt Martha" who has just been released after spending thirty years in a mental institution for the criminally insane. Naturally this sounds like bad idea, but if dumb characters didn't do dumb stuff like this, we'd have a lot less gory horror movies. The place is managed by a creepy caretaker and "Aunt Martha's" arrival is mysteriously delayed. Meanwhile, all kinds of strange things begin to occur. . .This movie is not very well paced as almost all the murders take place in a ten minute period near the end. They're suitably gory at least--one thing I like about the Italians is that they have no compunctions about doing things like decapitating annoying child actors with chainsaws. Tinti is always enjoyable, even in roles like this where he's not making "the beast with two backs" with his more famous wife. Russo and Moore both have memorable nude scenes. I think the former might be the sister of the voluptuous Carmen Russo (they look a lot alike anyway) while the latter appeared in several Joe D'Amato movies like "11 Days, 11 Nights" and "Convent of Sinners". (Here she takes a very long and very hot shower that all by itself might be worth the price of admission). Unlike most latter-day Fulci films or Bianchi's earlier "Satan's Baby Doll", this is not yet available on legitimate DVD. But it really ought to be.

The Murder Secret is a crazy giallo/slasher which, although directed by Mario Bianchi, was 'supervised' by Lucio Fulci. This inevitably means that the final product bears more than a passing resemblance to a Fulci flick, ie., it has a decent smattering of cheesy gore and a story that lacks any logic or cohesion. However, even with its flaws, The Murder Secret is still an entertaining film with enough good bits for it to be worth a watch.A family travel to a remote country house where they hope to meet Martha, the aunt of the father, whom he hasn't seen for 30 years. When they arrive, they are met by the caretaker who informs them that Martha has been delayed and that she will arrive the next day.But Martha never shows up, and one by one the members of the family are butchered by an unseen assailant.The movie begins fairly sedately—Bianchi allows 45 minutes or so to introduce characters and build the story—but once it hits its stride, The Murder Secret doesn't let up, delivering plenty of welcome gratuitous nudity and some rather outrageous death scenes.It is the mother who first reveals her charms during a brief 'sex' scene, but it is the cute (and busty) daughter who should be applauded for stripping off, not once but twice. It is immediately after her second strip that the violence really kicks in, with her bloody stabbing-in-the-shower scene. After that we get two great be-headings, one using a wooden chest(!), and another in which the young son gets decapitated by a chainsaw. This film certainly has balls, even dishing out the pain to the children!!Unfortunately, after these juicy murders, the film rapidly goes off the rails, and the story becomes a jumbled (but still quite engaging) mess. It finishes with a surprise 'twist' ending which is a complete disappointment, making no sense whatsoever and completely lacking in originality.But with its cheesy dialogue, no-holds barred killings, mad-as-a-bag-of-badgers killer, and OTT splatter, Bianchi's film is still a fairly fun way to pass the time.