Blue Underground to Release Torso on Blu-ray

Along with Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and Mario Bava, Sergio Martino was one of the most successful Italian filmmakers working in the giallo genre during the 1970s. Among his most acclaimed work were La coda dello scorpione (The Case of the Scorpion’s Tail) and l tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave (Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key), yet perhaps his most overlooked was his 1973 thriller I corpi presentano tracce di violenza carnale (Carnal Violence). More commonly known under its alternative title Torso, the movie is one of Martino’s more explicit features, which included a significant amount of nudity. The film’s climax – in which heroine Suzy Kendall is chased around the house by a masked killer – could be considered an influence on the subsequent slasher cycle.

Torso was first released on DVD by Blue Underground in 2009 with a remastered print, although fans were treated to nothing more than trailers as special features. With the Shameless release that soon followed also being something of a vanilla release, Blue Underground will now be re-issuing the film on DVD, as well as on Blu-ray, with a featurette entitled Murders in Perugia, which will see Martino discussing the making of the movie. Fangoria have revealed the artwork for both the DVD and Blu-ray, which are very similar to their previous release.