Obsession: A Taste for Fear (1987)

Obsession: A Taste for Fear (1987). 1h 29m | R

“It always amazes me how the 1970u0026#39;s giallo thrillers, which was one of the best Italian genres, could somehow degenerate twenty years later into u0026quot;erotic thrillersu0026quot;, which was one of the worst (and one which the Italians and the Americans really deserve equal credit–or blame–for creating). Part of the problem is that u0026quot;erotic thrillersu0026quot; simply have too much sex in them at the expense of pretty much anything else. The 70u0026#39;s giallo thrillers may have been a salty dish, but the u0026quot;erotic thrillersu0026quot; are basically a big dish of nothing but salt. This movie definitely has a too much sex in it, but thereu0026#39;s an even bigger problem with it: it was made in the 1980u0026#39;s, u0026quot;the decade that taste forgotu0026quot;. The 70u0026#39;s giallo films were very style-conscious, but they had the cool Freudian, u0026quot;popu0026quot; art style to them that was very big in the late 60u0026#39;s and early 70u0026#39;s. This movie, however, takes the very, very lame styles of its own day (c. 1988)–the glossy MTV look, the big hair, the fake boobs, the u0026quot;Miami Viceu0026quot;-style cops (complete with designer stubble)–hell, thereu0026#39;s even u0026quot;futuristicu0026quot; elements (i.e. electric cars, ray guns). Also, while the 70u0026#39;s gialli often had original music by genuinely talented composers, this movie (at least the English-language version)merely borrows several truly awful, sub-MTV American pop songs of the era like u0026quot;Midnight Blueu0026quot; (Youu0026#39;d think in the u0026quot;futureu0026quot; people wouldnu0026#39;t still be listening to bad 80u0026#39;s pop music).u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe plot involves a female fashion photographer whose female models–and lesbian lovers–are being knocked off by a killer. The main suspect is her ex-husband who makes S-and-M videos (and who looks like a younger u0026quot;New Waveu0026quot; version of Christopher Lee). The murders are investigated by a cop (who is basically a swarthy Italian version of Don Johnson). The heroine shamelessly throws herself at the cop (lesbianism and feminism be damned apparently), but he rejects her for some reason. Thereu0026#39;s no shortage of sex though albeit mostly of the lesbian variety (and be warned, one of the heroineu0026#39;s lovers is a second-rate imitation of Grace Jones and another is a musclebound female body-builder with a u0026quot;punku0026quot; hair-do). There is a surprising lack of on-screen violence here, which I found truly unfortunate because everyone in this movie is so unlikeable and annoying that I wanted them all to die in the most horrible, bloody way imaginable.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIf you actually LIKE the 80u0026#39;s though (perhaps youu0026#39;re too young to actually remember them?), you will probably like this better than I did. But if this can be considered a giallo, itu0026#39;s definitely one of the worst of the 150 or so Iu0026#39;ve seen. Itu0026#39;s really more of an u0026quot;erotic thrilleru0026quot; though and pretty typical of that very lame genre–as well as very lame era in which it was made.”