The Psychic (1977)

aka Sette note in nero

When referring to the films of Lucio Fulci, I’ve always considered, THE PSYCHIC, to be one of his best films; that’s not to say that it doesn’t have its flaws—or is even close to being a perfect film. THE PSYCHIC is bound to leave some viewers underwhelmed, especially those that are fonder of Fulci’s more gore soaked flicks. While at a first glance, the poster art for THE PSYCHIC, or even it’s alternate title, SEVEN NOTES IN BLACK, one might make the assumption that the film is a horror film; the first poster depicting a skull with a dead woman oozing out of the eye socket, and the latter depicting a screaming woman being sealed behind a brick wall. THE PSYCHIC would actually fall under the Italian sub-genre of horror, the gialli—albeit an unconventional gialli, but when was Fulci ever conventional?

THE PSYCHIC stars Jennifer O’Neill (SCANNERS) as Virginia Ducci, a woman haunted by dreamlike psychic visions. While driving through a tunnel she has a premonition about an old woman with her head bashed in, a limping man, a room dominated by the color red, a broken mirror, and someone being sealed inside a wall alive. She writes it off as an hallucination, until she later discovers the same room from her vision, located inside her husbands vacation home. She finds a spot on the wall that looks like it has been patched up, and she proceeds to bust it open to discover a skeleton lodged inside. Could this be the body of the dead woman from her vision? The police don't think so, and pretty much write off Virginia as delusional. Luckily (for some reason) her therapist thinks there is something to the vision, and decides to help her.

Meanwhile, Virginia’s husband, Francesco (Gianni Garko) gets taken into custody due to the corpse being found on his property. Virginia and her therapist (Marc Porel) desperately try to decipher the vision, and figure out what really happened in the red room, and hopefully clear her husband's name. What follows is a mystery that twists and turns, with red herrings, and an intriguing plot developments that lead to a terrific tension mounted finale.

I mentioned that the film does come with it’s flaws, and while Fulci’s directing is as tight as ever, and most of the cast pull out stellar performances; the movie lags in spots, and Jennifer O’Neill is far from the greatest leading lady. The first twenty minutes of the film are great, followed by the last thirty, which which is even better—it’s that damn middle part that drags, and made me want to give up on the film all together when I first saw the film. Luckily, patience pays off, because like I mentioned, the finale pay off of the last thirty minutes or so, is worth the film’s dull spots. Now granted, the middle part is important, and sets up the finale to make it as great as it is, but it’s dullsville nonetheless. Part of this falls on the writing a bit, but the other part falls squarly on the performance of Jennifer O’Neill, whom I’d call a O.K. actress at best. I can think of 3 other women that Fulci worked with previously that would have blown O’Neill out of the water, and improved the overall quality of the film, and those women would have been, Florinda Bolkan, Barbara Bouchet, and Edwige Fenech. Don’t get me wrong, O’Neill is fine in the role; I just happened to find her acting skills a bit soap operaish. Luckily, the supporting cast is incredible.

Marc Porel, the priest from DON’T TORTURE A DUCKLING, shows he could have been an incredible leading man as Virginia’s therapist. Sartana himself, Gianni Garko puts in a fabulous performance as Virginia’s loving, if not shady husband—though everyone is shady in this film. Also, Fabrizio Jovine, the priest that opened the gates of hell in CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, plays the almost comically bespectacled police commissioner. Veteran actor, Gabriele Ferzetti (ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST) plays the man with the limp who may—or may not be the film’s killer. Did I mention that almost everyone in the film comes across as a suspect?

The score—though mostly subtle, but very affective, was written by Fabio Frizzi, Vince Tempera, and Franco Bixio. All three men had worked with Fulci prior and would work with him again. Frizzi going on to provide legendary scores for some of Fulci’s most popular films; ZOMBI 2 and THE BEYOND, just to name a couple. I mention it’s a subtle score because the first time I saw the film I found it unremarkable. It wasn’t until further screenings that I found it just the opposite. It’s nothing too powerful, but really works, especially the musical watch theme that gives the film its SEVEN NOTES IN BLACK title. The piece is sort of reminiscent of Lee Van Cleef’s musical watch from Sergio Leone’s, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE.

The DVD put out by Severin comes with a fascinating featurette on the making of the film, which is basically just phone interviews with people from behind the scenes (the writers, Roberto Gianviti and Dardano Sacchetti; cinematographer, Sergio Salvati, and so forth). While some interviews with the cast would have been nice, the behind the scenes scoop from the people involved was quite interesting. It actually made me research the writers and I was stunned to find out that Dardano Sacchetti had written a shitload of great (and not so great, but still some of my favorites) films, including some of Fulci’s most famous films from his splatter era (ZOMBI 2, CITY OF THE LIVING DEAD, THE BEYOND, HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY).

While this film won’t appeal to everyone, it should appeal to Fulci fans because it finds the director at his technical peak. All of the trademark Fulciisms are here; the dreamlike atmosphere, close-ups of the eyes (he really goes for broke here), gore (although toned down compared to the films that followed), and an unexplainable overall creepiness that made Fulci’s films so god damn awesome. THE PSYCHIC was definitely the launching pad for Fulci’s most memorable body of work, and worth seeking out for diehard Fulci fans.

THE PSYCHIC trailer