1977 – Daria Nicolodi – Shock

More often than not overlooked as a mere schlock movie (often known in North America under the incredibly boring and misleading title Beyond the Door II), this remains maestro’s Mario Bava final masterpiece. Distancing herself from then-partner Dario Argento’s body of work, Daria Nicolodi stands on her own to deliver an haunting portrayal of a woman slowly driven to the point of madness. As Dora Baldini, a young wife psychologically tormented by the suicide of her ex-husband, Daria goes off the deep end in a most provocative manner. Just watch the unfortunate progression of behavior her character suffers through: from sweet mother to hysterical harpy. But what’s really the matter with her young son (played with clunky creepiness by David Colin Jr., star of Beyond the Door, a 1974 Italian horror film about possession… hence the bad Beyond the Door II title)? Why does he fool around with razorblades and cuts up his mom’s panties while she’s in the shower? Is Dora having genuine hallucinations about evil forces or is she just disturbed in her own cranium?

This film has not many characters and is surely not a globe-trotting visual experience. Of course, it adds value to our feelings of claustrophobia, shared with the unfortunate Dora. After the success of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist, the early 70s saw some other works dealing with possession and/or demonic children. Shock follows that route, but with its director’s typical flair. This is without a doubt Daria Nicolodi’s best performance of her entire career, she who had more often than not been a supporting player in other pictures. Here, she carries the whole project on her shoulders, a feat that in the hands of a less capable actress would’ve sink the entire production. Oddly, it would be back to mainly secondary roles in her subsequent parts.

This remains Bava’s last directorial project; he would supply some special effects and photograpy work for a couple of later movies (notably Dario Argento’s Inferno), then pass away in 1980. For Shock, there remains the old master’s magic touch, particularly an effective jump scene at the end that does justice to the film’s title. His son Lamberto Bava also directed many scenes, as the father felt that it was time to pass the torch. Oh, and watch out for that bit when Dora’s hair moves by itself!

Next: They say that beauty is only skin deep… but what if you have no skin? Ask this actress.

In 1845, English author Thomas de Quincey wrote Suspiria de Profundis, which contained a segment called Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow, Levana being the Roman goddess of newborn babies. It’s there that we can meet the Three Mothers: Mater Lachrymarum (Our Lady of Tears), Mater Suspiriorum (Our Lady of Sighs) and Mater Tenebrarum (Our Lady of Darkness) or as de Quincey puts it, the Three Sorrows. These writings inspired a young actress named Daria Nicolodi to write a script for her director husband, Dario Argento. Their collaborative result was 1977’s Suspiria, in my opinion one of the best horror film of all time. The success of that project inspired them for a sequel, 1980’s Inferno. But for many years, the last chapter of the Mothers trilogy was not to be.

At last this year, Argento finally proposed to the world The Third Mother, which reunites him with his past amour Daria in an acting role, alongside their daughter Asia, now an internationally known celebrity in her own right. I think this is the first time that this trio have worked on a project together. My goal here is to identify for you the various comediennes who essayed these sinister roles.

Suspiria - Mater Suspiriorum - uncredited actress
Wow, this starts very well indeed. Let’s meet an unidentified actress rumored to be a ninety-year-old ex-hooker who played the oldest Mother (here called Elena Markos), if we can believe star Jessica Harper’s memory! Lovely. Let’s move on…

Inferno - Mater Tenebrarum - Veronica Lazar
Born in Romania in 1938, Veronica Lazar played the cruelest Mother. She was in no more than 20 movies, but made some very wise choices, like Last Tango in Paris, Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond or Identification of a Woman. She used to be the wife of actor Adolfo Celi, memorably remembered as the villain in Thunderball. Inferno was of course the last film work of legendary Mario Bava, who supervised its fiery finale.

Inferno/The Third Mother - Mater Lachrymarum - Ana Pieroni/Moran Atias
The most beautiful Mother was played in Inferno by Ania Pieroni, who possessed an uncanny, almost supernatural beauty, with amazing pale eyes and generous blond hair. She has also played in another Argento movie, Tenebre, where she meets a very juicy demise. Here she’s a bewitching (in every sense of the word) musical student who suddenly (and too briefly) appears before the story’s hero.

Ania was not the main focus of the movie, however, so for The Third Mother 27 years later, Moran Atias was enrolled for the same role. Born in 1981, in Haifa, Israel, Moran has enjoyed work as a model (starting at the age of 15) and TV presenter. She actually was the hostess of Israel’s version of Deal or No Deal. We’ll soon revisit her for this blog.

The Third Mother had its North American premiere at the Toronto Film Festival. It’s supposed to be widely released sometimes at the beginning of 2008 and the DVD will be handled by the Weinstein Company, so don’t hold your breath for both, I’m afraid… As always for an Argento project, critics had been divided between a triumph and a disaster, as read in the European press.