Body Puzzle

March. 20,1992      
Rating:
5.3
Trailer Synopsis Cast

A homicide detective realizes that the brutal murders committed by a mysterious serial killer he's after have something to do with the late husband of a beautiful widow.

Joanna Pacula as  Tracy Grant
Tomas Arana as  Inspector Michele
François Montagut as  Abe
Erika Blanc as  Dr. Corti
Gianni Garko as  Police Chief
Susanna Javicoli as  Mrs. Consorti
Bruno Corazzari as  Prof. Brusco
Giovanni Lombardo Radice as  Morangi
Paolo Baroni as  Milani

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Reviews

Evengyny
1992/03/20

Thanks for the memories!

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BelSports
1992/03/21

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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Bumpy Chip
1992/03/22

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

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Bob
1992/03/23

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

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BA_Harrison
1992/03/24

Body Puzzle is something of an atypical giallo in so far as that the face of the killer is seen from the outset. The rest, as they say, is business as usual, with director Lamberto Bava delivering a convoluted murder mystery with a beautiful woman in peril (Joanna Pacula), a tough cop trying to crack the case (Tomas Arana), and several elaborately staged, mean-spirited murders.Pacula plays widow Tracy, who begins to receive gruesome gifts from a serial killer: body parts from his victims. As the murderer goes about his business, police detective Michele (Arana) tries to figure out the motive for the slayings, thereby leading him to uncover the killer's identity. It all gets a little tough to follow at times, but Bava's stylish direction and the grisly death scenes ensure a good time for giallo fans.Gory highlights include the vicious murder of a pastry store owner (who loses his ear) and the chopping off of a woman's hand in a toilet cubicle, but the most ingenious killing has to be that of a teacher in a classroom full of blind children, the psycho committing his crime as the kids happily listen to a recording of 'Peter and the Wolf'. Fans of italian horror will also get a kick out of seeing genre favourite Giovanni Lombardo Radice as camp stable owner Morangi, who supplies Michele with a vital clue.

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Nick Duguay
1992/03/25

I actually enjoyed this more than i thought i would, this being 90's Lamberto Bava- whom i was never a huge fan of (Delirium aside). Despite an incoherent plot it manages to stay engaging, doubtless aided by the wonderful cinematography of Luigi Kuveiller (A Woman in a Lizard's Skin, Profondo Rosso). The ending is quite charming as well. All around fun , especially for a giallo made in the 90s. Better than most of Argento's output during that decade.

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morrison-dylan-fan
1992/03/26

After being left disappointing,and then being left completely gripped with Bava's first and second films,I decided to watch his last ever "Giallo" with above average expectations of it leaning more on the great A Blade In The Dark side,and less on the muddling Macabre.The plot: Heading to lay flowers by her husbands grave,Tracy is stopped in her tracks by police,who tell her that she cant lay the flowers by her husband,due to a grave robber having tampered with her husbands corpse during the night.Shortly after the grave robbery,murders start increasing rapidly around the city.Investigating the case,Police Detecive Michele notices that the serial killers "signature" seems to be getting hold of peoples recently transplanted organs.Suspecting that time is not on his side,Michele does everything he can,to stop the killer in time,before he gets the final piece of his own puzzle.. View on the film: For his directing,Lamberto scales back the Giallo/Slasher mash- up,which had made A Blade In the Dark so enjoyable,and instead goes for a very near-middle of the road style of directing,with the main stylish moments being the use of a freezer (a call back to his first film,Macabre),some good tracking shots which show the characters in a jig saw puzzle way,and the stand out swimming pool and class room murder scenes,which allows Bava to at last show what he could have done for the whole film.Due to the plot of the film being a great opportunity for a fast moving Giallo-horror,the screenwriters instead decide to make the film into a Giallo drama!,and although the script does contain a nice twist,the rest of the screenplay just feels like it is on auto- pilot,with there being nothing particularly bad with the film,but there also being nothing particularly great,to turn the film into a must see Giallo. Final view on the film:A pleasant enough Giallo dram,which is just about saved from being middle of the road,by the stylish "horror" moments from Bava.

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Scarecrow-88
1992/03/27

A psychopath, who uses a musical score playing when he sets off to methodically kill his victims, torments a "widow" by leaving the removed body parts(from those he kills, with a large, sharp butcher knife) in her home or near her parents' house. Her past, what supposedly occurred to her husband and brother, is a piece to the puzzle as is a certain motorcycle accident caused by the quietly deranged killer(..we see this "accident" take place in the memory flashback of the killer at the very beginning of the film). Detective Michael(Tomas Arana, of Michelle Soavi's "The Church")is the one burdened with trying to find the killer and François Montagut is the killer he's pursuing. Joanna Pacula is Tracy, the female protagonist whose life is possibly endangered by the psycho leaving her the parts.Incredibly convoluted murder mystery(the identity of the killer, for example, yields a few twists)with a rather tasteless premise, stylishly executed by Lamberto Bava. I thought it was professionally made and not overly gory despite the killer's methods of destruction & removal of organs and limbs. There's a particular disturbing sequence where a schoolteacher, for the blind, is killed by the psycho while teaching class(..blood even sprays on a kid's face!). The victims chosen by the killer have something in common..there's a motive behind the killer's madness, so to speak. The theme of identity crisis plays at the heart of the film as to why the killer is committing his grisly deeds.I thought it was kind of cool seeing Joanna Pacula in a giallo type of mystery and felt she was fitting as a book editor paranoid and frightened by what is revolving around her..her husband's body was even removed from his grave to fuel her fear and horror(..although, even that sick event plays within this macabre plot as it plays out). Gianni Garko(..of Lucio Fulci's "Seven Notes in Black), looking quite suave in his tailored suits, has a nice little minor role as Michael's demanding Police Chief wanting the brooding detective to solve the complex case as bodies start to mount. Can not forget Giovanni Lombardo Radice as a flamboyantly gay aristocrat with ties to the killer and Tracy's husband. Erika Blanc portrays the coroner whose expertise come in handy as Michael pursues the killer, trying to piece this delicate puzzle together.

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