This is not your average Lucio Fulci flick. There are no gory set pieces that would dominate his later work nor are there any zombies. Instead, this is a supernatural mystery that moves at a languid pace as the story plays out. I found myself very engaged from a few minutes after the opening credits when a number of clues are given. Throughout the running time, the clues are slowly reintroduced to the story and the puzzle pieces begin to take shape. As I was watching, I kept wondering why this movie is not up there with The Beyond and The Smuggler as Fulci's best known work as it is well-developed and well-directed and deserving of a higher status in his filmography. I sometimes felt more like I was watching an Argento film or one of the better gialli as the plot twisted and turned until it reached an unexpected conclusion.

Jennifer O'Neill (Scanners) stars as Virginia Ducci, a clairvoyant who has a vision when driving through a tunnel one afternoon. The vision includes a number of distinct images including a murdered woman, a magazine, and a limping man. Virginia recovers from the vision and proceeds to visit an old, abandoned house that her husband owns with hopes of restoring it to its former glory. As she is looking around, she finds a room that matches the vision she had which prompts her to break down a wall where she discovers a corpse. This sparks a police investigation that lands her husband in jail and it is up to Virginia to unravel the other clues from her psychic encounter to figure out the identities of both the murderer and the victim. She is joined by a psychiatrist friend (Marc Porel) and together they assemble the clues and arrive at a stunning revelation that changes the mindset of their approach to the mystery considerably. Although this may sound somewhat confusing, it is quite straightforward and leads her on a journey that ends up being more terrifying that she could have imagined.

This movie does not feel like a Fulci film but this is not necessarily a bad thing. It just shows a side of him that I have not seen before and an ability to craft a mystery that has more layers than we are used to. Visually, the film uses some great locations to their best advantage and the slow pace results in a foreboding tone that makes everything (and everyone) seem a little more sinister. There is a great score that repeats throughout the film and reveals itself at all the right moments. I am not used to seeing Fulci focus so much on plot and characters in a movie as it is usually all about the make-up effects. I have a new appreciation for his talent as a serious director. It is too bad that this movie is so underrated as it gives the Godfather of Gore at lot more credibility and should come up more in the arguments about the skill of Fulci versus Argento or Bava.

Exploitation fans will likely be disappointed as there is no nudity and minimal gore. That said, there is a suicide in the opening minutes that consists of a woman jumping off a cliff and repeatedly hitting her head against the side of the cliff on the way down. This a quite graphic but is certainly not an indication of things to come in that department. If you have already seen all the films that made Fulci famous, I would suggest giving The Psychic a try as you will see a great suspense director at work before he traded in his artistic chops to give us a classic run of horror and b-movies that are appreciated in a much different way. (Josh Pasnak, 4/15/09)

Directed By: Lucio Fulci.
Written By: Lucio Fulci, Dardano Sacchetti, Roberto Gianviti.

Starring: Jennifer O'Neill, Gabriele Ferzetti, Marc Porel, Gianni Garko.

aka: Seven Notes in Black, Murder to the Tune of Seven Black Notes.

Picture Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen.

Picture Quality: A nice print that highlights Sergio Salvati's compositions and brings out the colors that were muted in previous releases.

Extras: We get a nifty trailer that features the way cool poster art. There is also a 27-minute featurette entitled "Voices from the Black" that features phone interviews with co-writer Dardano Sacchetti, costume deigner Massimo Lentini, and editor Bruno Micheli. These are subtitled over scenes from the film. Although I would have liked to have seen some on-camera interviews with a couple of the cast members, it offers some insight into the making of the film and Fulci himself. Sacchetti in particular is quite frank with his feelings on both the film and the director.

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