I watched #Torso (by #SergioMartino) on #Tubi recently, and if there's one #Giallo #trope that should DIE in a FIRE, and STAY DEAD, it's focusing most of the story on one character, JUST to kill her off.
The #finalgirl in Torso is named Jane, BUT for most of the movie, we're following her friend, Daniela.
Daniela's who we see fighting off a man who won't respect her boundaries. Daniela's who we see in shock after the murder of two friends. Daniela's who we see getting threats by phone.
THEN, at the beginning of the third act, not only is Daniela killed off, she killed off OFFSCREEN, with two of her last three friends.
One moment, the three women are screaming at seeing the dead body of Daniela's stalker, the next moment, Jane wakes up the next morning (she was given painkillers the day before after conveniently falling down stairs and spraining her ankle) and finds all of her friends dead.
Imagine a version of #JohnCarpenter's #Halloween where #LaurieStrode walks into the house next door to check up on Lynda and Bob, gets killed off-screen by #MichaelMyers, and suddenly you're now watching TommyDoyle and Lyndsey run and hide for their lives after Myers breaks into Tommy's house, probably by throwing Lauries body through a window.
THAT'S Torso. And it's all well and good to say "it's a clever subversion," but it still doesn't change that the character we know the most is DEAD.
And YES, I know #DarioArgento did the same thing TWICE in #Inferno.
But Inferno is a schizophrenic #feverdream that ends with an old lady transforming into the #GrimReaper.
Torso is a #thriller about a #serialkiller.
Father Enoch