We began this month with a Dario Argento giallo movie so we’ll end with a Lucio Fulci film. Of course, Lucio Fulci is no stranger to giallo. I think I covered Murder Rock and Don’t Torture a Duckling years ago, but tonight we’ll go for a heavy hitter in the form of 1971’s Lizard in a Woman’s Skin. I will say that Lizard is the best looking Lucio Fulci movie I’ve ever seen with some great shots and moody set pieces centered around early 70s London. Frankly, Lizard is a fantastic example of the genre and lines up with the best of them. 

Carol Hammond (Florinda Bolkan) is a wealthy member of the London elite, daughter of a well-regarded member of parliament, Edmund Brighton (Leo Genn), She’s married to handsome man named Frank Hammond (Jean Sorel) who has a daughter from a previous marriage, Joan. They live in a fancy London flat which would be perfect if not for the raucous happenings of their next door neighbor, Julia Durer (Anita Strindberg). I don’t know if Julia is a wealthy widow or if she got her wealth by some other means, but she hosts wild parties that would make Caligula blush. Her flat is filled with hippies on all sorts of drugs. Wild orgies ensue in the background of ear-shattering acid rock.

Carol becomes obsessed with Julia, dreaming about these wild parties. She runs through the crowded corridors of Julia’s home wearing a fur coat and nothing else. When Carol finagling encounters Julia, she is seduced. During one of these passionate sessions, Carol murders Julia, stabbing her to death. Two green and glazed eyed hippies are grinning at Carol as she makes her way out of the flat. Carol’s therapist ensures that these dreams represent her trying to kill the degenerate side of her personality, nothing more. The only problem is Julia is later found dead having the same wounds Carol described in dream.

The police suspect Carol, but can’t make sense of the fact that she told her therapist about the murder before it had taken place. Other theories start to surface. Perhaps, the actual killer used the details of Carol’s dream in order to kill Julia and pass the suspicion on to an unstable woman. Carol’s sanity seems to be questionable when she sees the two hippies she had seen staring at her in her dream. The girl hippie tells her to meet a friend at an old church. This person will tell her who the murderer is.

As it turns out, the person Carol goes to meet has murderous intentions toward her. Concealing his identity wearing a biker’s helmet, the killer chases her all over. Carol almost gives him the slip, but then triggers the church organ. The blasting music leads the killer right to her. Carol manages to lock herself in an old storeroom, but soon discovers it is a bat’s nest. She screams as dozens of bats fly all around her. She escapes to the roof, but gets her arm sliced by the stranger. Then an old man sees the scene from across his balcony and fires a shot at the biker trying to kill her. He runs off and Carol is saved for now. 

This is a clever thriller, but it’s not without Fulci’s usual macabre touches. One scene features Carol being chased by a giant goose and you can see the animated shadow of the bird engulfing her. Another disturbing scene features Carol stumbling into a room where   a bunch of vivisected dogs are being kept alive by unnatural means. Still, it comes back to who killed Julia. That conclusion may surprise you. 

Jeff Shuster (episode 47, episode 102, episode 124, episode 131, episode284, episode 441, episode 442, episode 443,episode 444, episode 450,episode 477, episode 491, episode 492,episode 493, episode 495, episode 496, episode 545, episode 546, episode 547, episode 548, episode 549, episode 575, episode 596, episode 597, episode 598, episode 599, episode 642, episode 643,episode 644, episode 645, episode 670, episode 686, episode 687,  688, and 689) is an MFA graduate from the University of Central Florida.