Bava's Last Bow

 SHOCK-1977-After leaving a mental hospital, Dora Baldini (Daria Nicolodi), still recovering from the suicide of her first husband returns to their old house with her new husband Bruno (John Steiner) and young son Marco (David Colin Jr.). At night while the couple have sex, Marco wakes up in his room and yells “pigs” several times. He asks mom “What is death?”. His hand turns ghoulish when he touches his sleeping mom. Bruno is a commercial pilot and is away a lot. As the story progresses Dora fears she is beginning to lose her sanity once again. Marco acts very weird and says thing like “I have to kill you,mama” and seems to be possessed by her late husband....or is it just in her mind? It's revealed later that Dora killed her late hubby in a drug fueled fury and Bruno hid the body in a wall. Dora kills Bruno with a pick and then after being attacked by furniture, slits her own throat. Marco has a tea party with his invisible dad.

 (imdb)

This Italian production (it played in the US under the title BEYOND THE DOOR PART 2) was the last film directed by the great Mario Bava with some help from his son Lamberto, who co-wrote the screenplay. Nice little possession/ghost horror movie that looks great (the elder Bava was also the uncredited cinematographer) and manages to tie up everything nicely (well kind of anyway...). Son Lamberto went on to make his own horror films. Lead actress Daria Nicolodi wrote the screenplay for the Dario Argento horror movie SUSPIRIA the same year (they were a couple for many years but never married). Italian horror vet Ivan Rassimov plays Dora's doctor.

Thanks for reading!