Directed by Riccardo Freda, Murder Obsession, also called Murder Syndrome and a host of other names, is a kitchen-sink kind of movie, one that has so much going on that it almost distracts from itself. It is a murder mystery, a horror film, a drama with shades of giallo throughout and everything in between. Freda might have started out with good intentions, but the man seemed to want to throw everything in here and that he did.

The story revolves around a man heading home to visit his mother for the weekend, seeking a break from life, yet not so much that he doesn’t bring his girlfriend and the film crew of his latest movie. It is not the best of homecomings, as it brings back traumatic memories of his time as a child, when he killed his dad. From there, things start to go off the rails as Freda begins to pack in as much as he can before wrapping things up in the conclusion of the final act with more than a few twists and turns.

There is a lot to like in this film, despite its somewhat disjointed content. It captures the attention of its audience because of it, as one never really knows just where it is going. It all starts with a swerve, and from there, continues on a regular enough course until it doesn’t. Mom seems to be a little too infatuated with her son as to border on being incestuous, there is murder and rape and giant spiders, hallucinations and dreams and witches and more than one can shake a stick at. Some of it works well, and some of it does not, but it all blends together to make for a very chaotic spell during the majority of the proceedings. At the very least, the plot, as thin as it was, managed to hold it all together. By the end of the entire affair, when things unfold and are explained, after a couple more twists, one tends to realize that many of those previous events were unnecessary to the telling of the story. Was it really necessary to have the ludicrously large and obviously fake spider appear? Probably not. Did it make the film more enjoyable? It did, and yet that, and many other things like dearest mother learning witchcraft and the whole sabbath thing were simply not needed in the overall scheme of things.

A lot of this also came down to the performances of the players within to really sell what Freda was shilling out, and for the most part, they did a fair job of it. Stefano Patrizi would take the lead with Martine Brochard, John Richardson, Silvia Dionisio and Anita Strindberg bringing up the rear. The movie would even feature Black Emmanuelle herself, Laura Gemser, and it would begin with the starlet stripping down to her birthday suit. If there was one thing Freda would not shy away from in this movie, it was nudity, and there was quite a bit of it throughout, whether it was Gemser, Dionisio or even Strindberg at one point. While none of it was essential to the plot, it did help draw the audience into what was happening. The horror, what there was of it, was more effective when it focused upon the psychological, but there was a decent amount of gore to be had for those who prefer the more visceral side of things. Factoring in the gothic atmosphere of the house and grounds where the majority of the movie takes place helps to sell Freda’s vision, as blurred as it might be.

Murder Obsession starts out interestingly enough, with naked Gemser no less, and with the first twist of many, and it continues on with more good than bad. This was Freda’s last film, and the man went out, maybe not with a bang, but he gave his audience something that only he could give, whether one completely understood it or not. Slightly spooky, a little strange, and just a touch disturbing, this film has something for every potential viewer.

3 out of 5