Roberta (well played by the attractive Marilu Tolo) discovers the corpse of a young woman (lovely blonde Altea De Nicola) while driving down a remote country road late at night. Roberta reports the incident to the police, but the corpse disappears. Is Roberta crazy? Or is someone trying to drive her insane? Director Roberto Pariante, working from an intriguing script script by Luigi Cozzi and Dario Argento (the latter also co-directed this episode sans credit), relates the compelling story at a steady pace and does a sturdy job of creating and maintaining an extremely tense and mysterious atmosphere which becomes more increasingly paranoid and unsettling as the narrative unfolds. The sound acting from a capable cast helps a lot: Tolo's adroit and appealing performance holds the whole show together, plus there are fine supporting contributions by Glauco Onorato as a pragmatic police inspector and Riccardo Salvino as Roberta's husband. Elio Polacchi's dynamic cinematography boasts plenty of speedy zoom-in close-ups and equally snappy whiplash pans. Giorgio Gaslinin's spare shivery score hits the shuddery spot. The big twist revealed at the conclusion is admittedly predictable, yet still thrilling and effective just the same, with a nice touch of irony provided at the very end.
Review of Testimone oculare
