Torso starts out with a naked woman and the disturbing eye gouge of a doll before the opening credits even start, then moves on to a threesome during the opening credits. So hey, it’s already got that going for it. Oh, and the victims are all pretentious art students. Bonus!

After a mysterious be-gloved killer takes out a couple of their friends with a scarf, a group of college students decide to head out to a friend's country villa. Too bad the killer has followed them and traded in his scarf of death for a hacksaw.

I wasn’t expecting much but Torso (I Corpi Presentano Tracce di Violenza Carnale, or Bodies Bear Traces of Carnal Violence) was a surprisingly good giallo in the style of Argento. There isn’t anything here you haven’t seen before but the story was plausible, the cinematography gorgeous and the acting didn’t suck.

The kills and the gore are only so-so but stay for the incredibly beautiful women (who are naked a great deal of the time.) Or, if women aren’t your thing then stay for the incredibly beautiful scenery. The story itself is a pretty good one, I didn’t figure out who the killer was until almost the end (although to be fair, I can’t even figure out whodunnit in an episode of Scooby-Doo, I’m that bad.)

The last 20 or so minutes are the best as the suspense finally ratchets up after most everyone has been taken out. You still have your moments of eye-rolling ridiculousness but come on, you’d be disappointed if they weren’t there. What other type of movie features brilliant lines dropped out of the mouths of children like, “Lisa, if you let me see you without your panties I’ll go and get your doll.” You’re not getting greatness like that anywhere else people.

7 out of 10 dumb hookers who don’t get the money up front.

A killer is on the loose in Rome, strangling young coeds and mutilating their bodies in a sexual manner. A small group decides it's a good time for a vacation and head into the mountains, unfortunately the killer follows.

Somewhere between a slasher and a giallo lives Torso, a meandering tale of an improbable killer chasing hot Italian chicks. I'm not a fan of giallos in general, but it wasn't horrible. It was filmed artfully and the settings were really gorgeous and some of the scenes were done perfectly, unfortunately the story just didn't hold the scenes together.

The best scene by far is the swamp scene, if you'd like to see how a masked killer can be used in a truly artistic scene, watch Torso. The scene would have been beautiful in a Friday the 13th, so perfect. Here it just built me up for disappointment, though. The kills are done in a symbolic manner using a porcelain doll as the victim, partially. What gore is there is very bad, which is particularly disappointing considering that usually that's such a strength of Italian horror.

I really loved the house in the movie, a gigantic Italian mansion that any fan of Italian horror's spent so much time watching. It's an oddly comfortable feeling for us, really. My mind wandered to this while several of the kills were actually not shown in the movie, making me think the directer might be an imbecile. Ah well, the gore would have sucked anyway.

The plot was typical, not strong by any means. Another whodunit where we're not really given a fair shot at guessing, which is dirty but common in giallos. Also common in giallos is nudity, which there is plenty of, but it's not enough to save this flick.

3 out of 10 movies that sound way more hardcore than they are