Italian film director Umberto Lenzi is probably best known for his notorious cannibal movies, Man from Deep River, Eaten Alive and Cannibal Ferox. But before these he dabbled in the popular Giallo genre. This one concerns love affairs, rich socialites and double crossing. If your preferred Giallo features an unknown maniac hacking up beautiful young women then this one may not be for you, So Perverse is strictly a mystery thriller as opposed to horror. It takes quite a while for anything remotely nasty to happen and all we get is a death toll of merely two. As is so typical of Italian movies from this period we get excellent cinematography, a very cool soundtrack, nice locations (Paris) and a cast of beautiful people. But sadly I found the plot to be fairly weak, coupled with a rather disappointing end. Despite the title there is nothing really sweet or perverse here, what nudity exists is quite restrained. I am surprised that in the UK this was classified 18, I have seen far more graphic 15 rated movies. The French classic. Les Diaboliques (1955) is often mentioned when discussing the plot of So, however Diabloiques is by far a much better movie. I had been looking forward to watching So for a while and whilst visually the 2K restoration on Blu-ray does look very nice I felt a tad disappointed with the plot. I much preferred Lenzi's "Paranoia" (1970), however So Sweet So Perverse is a great title and comes recommended for fans of Italian thrillers from this period.
Review of So Sweet... So Perverse
