I figured I was in for another Lucio Fulci gore/sleaze fest when I started The Psychic (released in Italy as Seven Notes in Black). Sure, anyone can throw a dummy off of a cliff. But it takes a special filmmaker to make sure you see her face bloodily hit the side of the cliff multiple times on the way down. So... good start?
But The Psychic ends up being more of a detective tale in the guise of a horror film. There's a little blood here and there, and feels a little unnecessarily mean at times, but overall it's a pretty interesting (if somewhat convoluted) and well-directed mystery/thriller.
Surprising gore non-withstanding, the afore mentioned cliff suicide doesn't serve any purpose other than showing us that young Virginia is psychic. Despite not being anywhere near the cliff, she has a premonition and screams "Mommy!" just as her mother throws herself into the ocean. Her death is never mentioned again. But now Virginia is an adult (played by Jennifer O'Neill) and is still having visions. One of which leads her to a skeleton walled up behind the bricks in her husband's family home - one he was living in at the time of the crime (about 7 years prior). He maintains his innocence, but the cops take him to jail anyways. Virginia continues to have visions, and begins to see clues that may prove her husband is not guilty. She's helped along the way by her psychologist, who helps interpret her visions, as well as her psychologists' assistant, who may as well just be on the police force (I think she does just about all of the legwork and figures out all of the breaks in the case). But Virginia is playing a dangerous game - all of her prying is stirring up old secrets someone may kill to keep covered up.
The mystery itself in The Psychic is okay. There are some cheats here and there as the filmmakers mess around with the audience's perception of events. And a lot of the forward momentum of the mystery depends on a number of random people coming forward and remembering in great detail events that happened seven years prior. The film doesn't really give you the tools to figure anything out, unless you just guess "it's [so and so]." But the story is told in a way that it remains a pretty engaging film.
The main thing that was intriguing about The Psychic is the style behind the camera. You get lots of flourishes and nicely framed shots/zooms/etc. It borders on being cheesy at time (just how often can you do a hard zoom into someone's eyes?), but there's a little panache here that elevates the film. It's not subtle - I don't think that's an adjective that is often used to describe Fulci's films. It's the kind of film where the filmmaker's presence asserts itself - and I think it works pretty well in this case. The Psychic would likely be pretty bland otherwise. The style of the film also extends to the costumes and sets. There's nothing mind-blowing here, but the story takes place in the upper class of Italian society - and the look of the film reflects that.
Horror/gore-wise? Not much splattery business to be found, but it does have some good tension filled scenes when Virginia is in danger. And a couple of the attacks, while not horrific, do have a little extra touch of brutality to them. So while The Psychic isn't Fulci's goriest film by a long shot, there are still touches of his signature nastiness here and there.
Overall, I had a good time with The Psychic. It's got kind of a classic-mystery feel to it. It's well-shot, has good performances from classy actors, moves along at a decent pace, and never feels too exploitative. But there is enough oomph to some of the violence to keep you off balance.
I would recommend this film.
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