Psychedelic nightmares, LSD use and mysterious murders feature in this Italian giallo set in London. A young woman is accused of murdering her hippy neighbour after dreaming it exactly as it happened…

With a score by Ennio Moricone and a trippy atmosphere, this excellent thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat.

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THE PLOT

Set in London, the film follows the daughter of a respected politician, who experiences a series of vivid, psychedelic nightmares consisting of depraved sex orgies and LSD use. In the dream she commits a graphic murder and awakes to a real life criminal investigation into the murder of her neighbour.

REVIEWS

"Seriously seedy, but miles from mere trash A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin makes manifest fears regarding sexual transgression. It’s an imaginatively executed sex and gorefest, a murderous riddle and a psychologically credible portrait of a tormented mind." - LITTLE WHITE LIES

"Fulci's direction lives up to the story's fever-pitch thriller theatrics with a barrage of baroque visual trickery, using everything from split-screens to colorful optical effects to keep the viewer off-kilter." - ALL MOVIE GUIDE

"Fulci's first Giallo is a trippy thriller that excellently captures the laid back style of the swinging sixties and blends it magnificently with the thrilling pace that has gone on to epitomise the Italian thriller." - ROTTEN TOMATOES REVIEWER

PSYCHEDELIC HALLUCINATIONS

Rupert Jones in The Guardian described the film as follows:

"Like many of its peers, Lizard is a queasy, distinctly un-PC mix of bloodshed and sex, laced with retro trappings: outrageous early 1970s Italian fashions and a groovy Ennio Morricone soundtrack. But what sets it apart from the pack are its really wild, hallucinatory visuals - including psychedelic dream sequences, effects mimicking the nightmare world of Francis Bacon's paintings, and an early use of split-screen."

The film is famous for its trippy and hippy feel:

"A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin presents a serpentine script that’s difficult to wrangle as it uncoils false confessions and possible witnesses in the form of a duo of perpetually strung-out and smoked out hippies who also provide a glint of 60s counterculture that was quickly being extinguished at the time." - HORROR REVIEWS

As LITTLE WHITE LIES say:

"It’s wild and utterly unconventional – like a delirious and dangerous trip. There’s the appearance of a maniacal swan, an assault by bats and some sinister hippies." LITTLE WHITE LIES

A SHOCKING 1-MINUTE SEQUENCE: THE DOG SCENE

The film is created scandal, and is partly famous for one dog scene that lasts for about 1 minute. The special effects in that scene were so realistic that the film crew was taken to court for torturing dogs. They had to explain how they had made the special effects to convince the judges they hadn't tortured any dogs for that scene.

As Rupert Jones in The Guardian explains:

"When the film came out in Italy, there was a furore. "Lucio Fulci, director of the film A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, and the owners of the production company and distribution house, have been reported to the judicial authorities for having tortured and killed six dogs during one scene of the film," stormed one Italian newspaper at the time. (…)

The special effects artist Rambaldi and the film's producer, Edmondo Amati, had to testify in four cities that they had not breached Italian law by using real animals. (…) This they did by wheeling the animatronic dogs - which were made out of the skins of coyotes and rubber - into the courtrooms to prove that no animals were actually harmed. All the charges were dropped."

A "GIALLO" FILM

Lizard in a Woman's Skin is categorised as a "giallo" film. What is a Giallo?

Giallo is an Italian 20th-century genre of literature and film, which in Italian indicates crime fiction and mystery. In the English language it refers to a genre similar to the French fantastique genre and includes elements of horror fiction and eroticism. The word "giallo" is Italian for "yellow" and stems from the origin of the genre in Italy as a series of cheap paperback mystery novels which all had trademark yellow covers.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR: LUCIO FULCI

A few facts:

- Lucio Fulci was an Italian director (1927-1996)

- He studied medicine and worked as an art critic before making films

- Several of his movies were censored in America, and prohibited in Europe or were released in heavily cut versions

- He is perhaps best known for his gore films, including Zombi 2 (1979) and The Beyond (1981), although he made films in genres as diverse as giallo, western and comedy

- He is generally known as the "Godfather of Gore"

- Lizard in a Woman's Skin is one of its least gory films, with only a few murders…

- Quentin Tarantino is a big fan of his

+ Euro-Disco DJ in the Bar!

Just because this film is so much fun, and because it's a Friday night, we've decided that we'll be playing some Euro-Disco tunes in the bar after the film! DJ Yaron Golan from Endless Race will be playing some great Italo and Euro Disco tunes in the bar - tunes like this one…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADcygLgARxw

TICKETS

On the door: £5 / £3.50 (conc)

ADVANCE TICKETS ONLINE: £4.50 / £3 (concessions) here: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/209334