Macabre  (1980)

Theatrical Release Information:
Macabre

Lamberto Bava directed this exceptional, moody shocker based on an idea by cult filmmaker Pupi Avati. The film deals with a New Orleans woman named Jane (Bernice Stegers) who leaves her two children at home one day to meet her lover Fred in an apartment she keeps across town. Unfortunately, her insanely jealous young daughter Lucy (Veronica Zinny) finds out about the affair and decides to punish Jane's adultery by drowning her little brother in the bathtub. Receiving the news, the frantic Jane has Fred drive her home at high speed, leading to a gory accident in which he is decapitated. After a year in the local asylum, Jane goes to live in the apartment, now owned by a young blind man named Robert. The numerous mysteries surround Jane's locked freezer and the motives of Lucy, whose frequent visits are almost unbearably tense. Most of the film is pure Avati, despite Bava's direction -- suspenseful, eerie, and pervaded with an air of decay both physical and mental. Even the ghastly revelations of Jane's necrophilic obsessions with Fred's severed head are handled in reasonably good taste. Only in the final scene does Bava falter, but this is otherwise an outstanding film. After seeing his son's solo directorial debut, legendary director Mario Bava was impressed enough that he reportedly said "Now I can die in peace." The elder Bava died two months later. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide