A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin

1971 Directed by Lucio Fulci

Horror Marathon 2024 Day 23 Film 48

Jazzy trippy interludes become pierced with high pitched whistling throughout this film. It's an annoying brain split; an LSD inspired camera that zooms in and out too quickly to be groovy. It may be a giallo- but it's undeniably a Fulci movie.

The giallo story is more convoluted because of its subject- a woman who has gone to a psychoanalyst to discuss the lesbian sex dreams she has about her neighbor that throws wild drug orgies. She seems to be driven insane with hippie paranoia and dreams of killing her neighbor. The Dr provides all the context around her sexual repression and need for freedom, but we're left to wonder when the neighbor turns up dead in the exact way that she dreamed. With the investigation afoot the detectives seem eager to include the prime suspect's father, a wealthy politician, in the case.

Buffoonery is afoot here, and multiple suspects are worked through after the woman is arrested. In Fulci style not only is there more paranoid dream feels, but gory practical effects that still stand the test of surreal nightmare scenarios. Large windows seem to overtake the small figures as they run ... and run... and run... unable to escape their dream.

Eventually people have to wake up though, and by daylight the investigation goes up in smoke. Some of the convolution gets a bit too nonsensical- and the constant flashes and edits are designed to be maddening to watch. Low and high art are lampooned- as well as the societal structures that want conformity. The psychosexual mystery isn't as interesting as the journey there, but it's a worthwhile ride that differentiates itself from a standard murder mystery with a flurry of vivid images.