Ballad in Blood (2016)

The Italian film market was in a very interesting place as the 80's gave way to the 90's. Noticeably different from the 70's heyday when the giallo, spaghetti western and poliziotteschi genres were thriving, the late 80's certainly produced genre product, but the market for theatrical Italian horror began to dry up, with many genre veterans including Sergio Martino, Lucio Fulci, Umberto Lenzi and Lamberto Bava making made-for-TV movies and films that went direct-to-video internationally. Lenzi even essentially retired after 1992. Of course Dario Argento outlasted them all in terms of securing wide theatrical distribution, but Ruggero Deotado stuck it out in the theatrical game, closing out the 80's with out of left field films like Phantom of Death (1987) and Dial: Help (1988), his last theatrical film being The Washing Machine (1993). Like the others before him, Deodato then found occasional TV work before working sporadically every few years. It's entirely appropriate then, that 2016 was the perfect year for an established master like Deodato to make a comeback, with one of the biggest trends in horror was lifting from classic Italian horror in the name of “homage”. Deodato's comeback was surprising, even more surprising was the ensuing film, Ballad in Blood, a film that, even in a filmography alongside the likes of Dial: Help and The Washing Machine, stands as a strong contender for the title of Deodato's most curious film.

Still reeling from a night of hard Halloween partying, Lanka, her boyfriend Jacopo and Duke, an American and Jacopo's drug dealer, a group of university students in Italy are mortified upon discovering the dead body of Elizabeth, Lanka's roommate. With no memory of the night before, the three race to piece together the events of the previous night that led to Elizabeth's death, though further drug use and the bad attitudes of all three lead to endless bickering, accusations and shifting allegiances. 

Despite the fact that it had been nearly 30 years since Deotado had made films like Dial: Help and The Washing Machine, Ballad in Blood is a direct descendant of the two, loaded with the sort of quirks that made those films so off-kilter. The central story Elizabeth's death, none-too-subtly inspired by the Amanda Knox case, is straightforward enough, but when the first line of dialogue uttered is “Fuck you, black cat!” it's clear that what's to unfold is going to be anything but normal. Things are skewed from the start, with a sex scene early in the film ending in vomit and Duke showcasing his freestyle rapping talent for no apparent reason within the first half-hour, it's impossible to not get wrapped up in wanting to uncover what happened to Elizabeth, who is actually given a fair amount of characterization through footage on her laptop. Many will no doubt view the film as exaggerated and claim Deodato is out of touch, though eccentric as the film and characters behavior is, it honestly doesn't seem all that far fetched, the nihilism displayed throughout the film being a staple of Deodato's work. The vitriol spewed by nearly every character in the film is on par with Deodato's Waves of Lust (1975) and overall the film seems to have a bleak view of human behavior, not unlike Cannibal Holocaust (1980), and Deodato once again offers no easy to fully root for characters as he did in The House on the Edge of the Park (1980).

Peculiar as Deodato's presentation of the extracurricular activities of college students may be, the film is nevertheless packed with gallows humor. Shocked as they are upon discovering Elizabeth's body, the way the group go about treating the body is rather questionable, though at times Lanka is the sole character that does show some shades of empathy for her recently departed roommate. Most of the humor in the film is born out of just how rotten the characters are, the dialogue getting fairly incendiary at times. Duke also happens to be one of the films biggest sources of entertainment with the best lines, including the aforementioned opening line of the film and his lamenting of Elizabeth's weight while moving the body is golden. Deodato also tosses in other eccentricities on the side like a group of gothic drug addicts with pancake make-up layered on thick looking to get back at Duke and the strange behavior of the groups landlord and his effeminate sidekick. The end of the film even finds Deodato referencing himself with the use of “Sweetly” from The House on the Edge of the Park soundtrack, although the scene in question is liable to leave many baffled. The same could be said for the film as a whole as it certainly wasn't what anyone was expecting when Deodato announced his comeback. Mean, nasty and basically insane, it's great to have Deodato back.