Color, 1977, 97 mins. 23 secs.
Directed by Lucio Fulci
Starring Jennifer O'Neill, Marc Porel, Gabriele Ferzetti, Gianni Garko, Evelyn Stewart
Shameless Screen Entertainment (Blu-ray) (UK RB HD), Scorpion Releasing (Blu-ray) (US RA HD), '84 Entertainment (Blu-ray & DVD) (Germany R0 HD/PAL), Severin (Blu-ray & DVD) (US R0 HD/NTSC), Neo (France R2 PAL) / WS (1.85:1) (16:9)
restrained summation of his thriller career to date while anticipating a few ideas yet to surface in the following decade. The film kicks off with an outrageous suicide reprise of the finale 
from Don't Torture a Duckling as a woman hurls herself from a cliff, her face smashing against the rocks on the way down to the sea. The horrific event is telepathically witnessed by her young daughter, Virginia, who grows into an adult (now played by Jennifer O'Neill) happily and wealthily married to Francesco (Garko). One afternoon while driving through a tunnel, she has another chilling psychic vision involving a dying woman walled up alive, a cigarette, and a magazine cover. When Francesco goes away on business, she decides to surprise him by redecorating his old house -- which frighteningly resembles the murder scene in her vision. With a handy pickax, she whacks away some drywall to expose a long-decomposed cadaver; not surprisingly, the police quickly arrest her husband upon his return. However, Virginia becomes convinced that portions of her vision have yet to pass and enlists the aid of her therapist, Luca (Porel), to uncover the sinister truth. 
and A Lizard in a Woman's Skin will find a few subtle echoes here as well, though the lack of overt sadistic violence 
or sex has often confounded newcomers expecting another black-gloved special. Instead viewers are given surprisingly rich and committed performances by O'Neill and the late Porel, a knockout music score by the triad of Bixio-Frizzi-Tempera (later reprised prominently in the hospital sequence of Kill Bill Vol. 1), a tight and twisty narrative, and a nicely ambiguous resolution. Unfortunately the American ads blatantly gave away the film's big mid-story twist, but it still stands up well even with the key reversal exposed. Many of Fulci's best collaborators are in fine form here, with prolific scribes Dardano Sacchetti and Roberto Gianviti offering a much more coherent and literate script than usual for a late '70s Italian exploitation film and talented cinematographer Sergio Salvati making skillful use of shadows and sparing colored lighting for maximum dramatic effect. 
buyers had to resort to tracking down uncut, widescreen Japanese dupes (under the wonderful title of Murder to the Tune of the Seven Black Notes), and eventually a remastered 
French DVD (under the title L'emmurée vivante) popped up without any English-friendly options. 
indicates some digital chicanery including that recurring Italian transfer bugaboo, scanner noise; it's especially obvious in 
brighter scenes but at least avoids the dreaded splashy watercolor effect that plagued the worst of them like The 10th Victim and House by the Cemetery. (The fact that the film was shot with an insane amount of diffusion and wacky filter effects complicates things even further.) Audio is presented in either German or the original English with removable German subtitles; the English track hasn't really sounded all that great on any video release to date here, and that's still the case with the opening "With You" song sounding particularly rough and unbalanced. (To be fair, it's also damaged and in less than prime condition on the soundtrack CD.) There's also a German-only audio commentary by Marcus Stiglegger. Video extras on the Blu-ray (and first DVD) include the U.S. trailer (identical to the one on the U.S. disc), a newly-created German "trailer" (complete with fake grindhouse-y scratches for some reason), a shorter new promo teaser, and the Italian opening credits (which feature the best title treatment by far) and end title. The third disc, a DVD, features a slew of additional Italian-language extras with German subtitles: "Fabio Frizzi: Die Fruhen Jahre" (a 14-minute interview with the great composer), "Die Entsehung Der Filmmusik" (a 9-minute appraisal of the film's score and placement in the Italian giallo canon), a 13-minute interview with Gianni Garko, a 4-minute "Inside Sette Notte in Nero" video overview, "Stimmen in Schwarz" (a 24-minute scholarly look at the film compiling comments from most of the participants), a 5-minute chat with Fabio Traversari about the camera operations of the opening sequence, a 5-minute chat with the multiple participants about a slated remake, a poster and stills gallery, and a batch of incredibly cool vintage German trailers for Suspiria, Conquest, Witchfinder General, Contamination (under the title Astaron), and Formula for a Murder, all of which make this worth picking up for genre fans all by themselves. The packaging is labeled as Region B and Region 2, but all discs played without issue on Region A-locked players. 
the film's elegant cinematic feel from start to finish. Audio is presented 
in DTS-HD MA English and Italian mono, both of which sound solid, with accurately translated English subtitles for the Italian version. While the English one may be more authentic to the performances and the best way to watch this film the first time around, the Italian one is very valuable as it features a significantly different, spookier mix at times, including a prolonged, eerie wailing that bleeds over into the opening titles that differs from how it plays in the English track. A new audio commentary by Troy Howarth (author of Splintered Visions: Lucio Fulci and His Films) is another excellent addition to this growing roster of gialli chat tracks, presenting the film as a significant transition work from Fulci's thrillers to Gothic horrors and detailing much of the history behind the project including its now almost imperceptible literary origins. He's not a particular fan of O'Neill's performance (this reviewer thinks she's quite effective but tastes may vary), but otherwise his enthusiasm for the film shines through and greatly enhances one's appreciation for this beautifully mounted macabre chamber piece. On the video extras side, "Defeating Fate" (50m14s), an extensive interview with Sacchetti, is interspersed with vintage audio comments from Fulci and explores how this "unlucky" production came together with two writers; he's also extremely candid about Fulci's personality, his resentment of Dario Argento at the time, the odd claim that he and Fulci invented Italian horror in the late 
'70s, and the "light smell of the supernatural" that he loved about this script. A gallery of stills, lobby cards 
and posters gathers today a wealth of material from the U.S., France, and Italy; the theatrical trailer is also included along with bonus ones for The Church, Murderock, Blind Date, Rituals, and The House on Sorority Row. The Blu-ray was first available from Ronin Flix and from Diabolik including a limited edition slipcover (complete with that spoilerific tagline from the American poster) and a 9x11 mini poster with artwork by Wes Benscoter, which sold out fairly quickly. The disc was then given a general retail release in 2021 distributed via Kino Lorber featuring different cover art. 
folks won't think they've started playing the wrong movie. Sound-wise you get two English options for some 
reason, either LPCM or DTS-HD MA English mono. However, the LPCM sounds way better here and comparable to the U.S. disc, while the DTS is tinny and closer to the way it sounded on VHS. So, uh, go that way if you're feeling nostalgic. The Italian track is also included, not sounding too hot but present if you're curious and featuring optional English subtitles. Antonella Fulci appears here for two separate featurettes, "Touching Fate" (21m12s) devoted strictly to this film and "Daddy Dearest" (35m3s) speaking more generally about her father, covering everything from his tastes as a "movie consumer" and his genre-hopping career to the casting and production of this "pessimistic" film including the attempt to make something lavish like the film O'Neill had just made in Italy, Luchino Visconti's The Innocent. In "Escape from Doom" (50m12s), Sacchetti speaks (after a brief 1989 interview excerpt with Fulci) about his complicated relationship with the director and the main points touched on in his earlier chats about this unorthodox "parapsychology" giallo. Finally in "Behind the Wall" (24m27s), the always genial and articulate Fabio Frizzi charts his musical journey to this film from his early music days through his other work with Franco Bixio and Vince Tempera, including the strong presence of pop music in their work starting with Four of the Apocalypse. The disc also includes a short restoration demo (2m31s) covering the process from raw scan to final grading.SHAMELESS (Blu-ray)
SCORPION RELEASING (Blu-ray)
'84 ENTERTAINMENT (Blu-ray)
