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RaroVideo Restores ‘Body Puzzle’ and ‘Murder Obsession’
Hailed by cinephiles for expertly restoring rare films by influential filmmakers and publishing them with compelling extras, Italian DVD label RaroVideo announces two rare horror titles slated for release next Tuesday:
Lambero Bava’s Body Puzzle: “Tells the tragic and increasingly morbid story of the lovely widow Tracy (Gorky Park’s Joanna Pacula). Not only has her famous pianist husband Abe died in an auto accident, but someone keeps breaking into her house and leaving severed body parts lying around. A candy store owner is gutted, a poor woman has her hand lopped off in a public bathroom, a young swimmer is castrated, and so on. The investigating police officer, Michael (The Church’s Tomas Arana), strikes up a hot and heavy romance with her to keep Tracy’s mind off the rapidly accumulating trophies. Michael’s supervising police chief (spaghetti western pro Gianni Garko) tells him to keep his mind on his job; soon Michael concludes that Abe’s protege and probable male lover, unable to cope with the accident, is responsible for the killings. The clincher is the mysterious link between all of the victims.”
Riccardo Freda’s Murder Obsession: “While taking a break from shooting a horror film, actor Michael Stanford (played by Stefano Patrizi) visits his mother (Anita Strindberg) at their old mansion. The only other person on the property is Oliver (played by John Richardson), the eccentric butler. Michael’s girlfriend, Deborah (Silvia Dionisio), and some of their filmmaking friends join Michael at the mansion for a couple of days rest. Michael reveals that he murdered his father (who was a famous orchestra conductor) during a psychotic episode when he was a child. And therefore he is immediately suspected as the murderer when his friends start getting killed.” 
Are you ready to go back?
After a record-breaking box office run and an extended cut re-release, A24 and director Kane Parsons’ Backrooms is heading home to Digital.
Backrooms will be available to rent or buy this Tuesday, July 14.
In the film, Chiwetel Ejiofor stars in Backrooms as the owner of Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, who discovers a strange doorway in the basement of the furniture showroom. He sets out to explore the mysterious, liminal space, walking headfirst into a creepypasta nightmare.
Renate Reinsve (A Different Man) also stars in Backrooms.
Will Soodik wrote the screenplay.
I wrote in my review, “Backrooms is at once complex and sparse, but never repetitive. It might be set in 1990, but it effectively captures modern anxieties and isolation in a way that frequently makes your skin crawl. While the journey ultimately loses steam by its cryptic end, Parsons’ visual representation of the human psyche disturbs like no other.”
YouTube prodigy Kane Parsons makes his feature directorial debut based on his creepypasta-inspired video series, which debuted in 2022 and has amassed over 190 million views to date.