Director: Lucio Fulci
Cast: Jennifer O’Neill, Marc Porel, Ida Galli, Jenny Tamburi, Gabriele Ferzetti
Screenplay: Lucio Fulci, Roberto Gianviti, Dardano Sacchetti
90 mins. Rated R.

When you watch a Lucio Fulci (The Beyond) horror film, it’s just as important to qualify the type of horror film, be it the earlier, cleaner giallo thrillers or the later excessively gory splatter horrors. Today’s film falls under the former, but no matter what type of Fulci film, you’re still getting the memorable images and dreamy ethereal horrors.

Virginia Ducci (Jennifer O’Neill, Scanners) has had psychic visions all her life, dating back to the death of her mother when Virginia was only a child. She decides to renovate an old mansion that belongs her husband Francesco, and when he goes away on a business trip, she begins having visions of objects and images of the mansion, along with a murdered woman. She quickly discovers a skeleton hidden behind a wall, and Francesco is arrested. Virginia contacts her friend, a psychic researcher named Luca (Marc Porel, Don’t Torture a Duckling) who can help her interpret the visions and solve the murder in order to free Francesco.

The Psychic puts forth a more fascinating premise than I had anticipated. On the surface, it feels familiar and straightforward, but Fulci’s film has more than a few clever twists and turns in place, and while I developed several theories, I was never entirely certain of where it was headed. I’m definitely a fan of screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti (Demons), and his contributions here, along with Fulci and his frequent collaborator Roberto Gianviti, make for an enticing whodunnit that keeps the mystery interesting for a good chunk of the narrative, though it runs out of steam for a bit in the back half of the film as it inches to the conclusion and the pieces start falling into place. That’s where The Psychic struggles; at 90 minutes, it still feels a bit stretched thin in the middle, with an excellent opening and finale. The pieces are there, but it still feels about 10 minutes too long.

Fulci’s direction is so uniquely his own, in that he envisions a very dreamy and ethereal location and time for his mystery. There’s an otherworldliness that infiltrates the movie, likely due to the dreamlike nature of the visions, but it feels like an inescapable place for Virginia as she desperately tries to put pieces in place to solve the crime and free Francesco. There’s truly nightmarish imagery within the frames of The Psychic, beginning with the opening, in which Virginia witnesses her mother’s death even though the two are in completely different countries. Virginia is able to envision her mother’s suicide, watching her leap from the cliffs of Dover, falling with a slow and unusually almost calm pace until her head scrapes alone several rocky protrusions which literally rip chunks of her face off, all for Virginia to see in her mind. That along with the discovery of the body in the walls make this a film with some striking and grotesque moments that have staying power.

The Psychic has a memorable and exciting opening and finale, and while it loses itself a bit in the middle, there’s still enough to this uniquely distinct giallo mystery, even within the catalogue of Lucio Fulci. He restrains some of his more shocking and graphic style in order to make those moments stand out when they happen, and they really hit. The final reveal was maybe teleplayed a bit early, and none of the performances really stayed with me, The Psychic has the gothic and giallo stylings to make for a moody little murder tale.

3/5
-Kyle A. Goethe