The Psychic

I loved the cover art on this DVD, but to be honest, I can’t figure out what in the world it has to do with the film. Nevertheless, The Psychic is a well-crafted Giallo by Lucio Fulci. It’s not in the top ten Giallos I have seen, but there are several twists and turns that make it worth a viewing.

In The Psychic, Jennifer O’Neill plays a newly married young woman who has just dropped off her husband at the airport for a business trip. On the way home, she is plagued by sudden visions of a woman being murdered. When she finally arrives at her husband's Italian villa, she recognizes the room where the visions took place, and when she breaks into a section of the wall, she discovers a skeleton. Her psychiatrist thinks the only thing to do is help her find the truth about who the person was and to clear her husband’s name, so a-investigating she goes with quite a bit of help from her shrink’s assistant. That girl seems to be able to find just about anything – think Wikipedia in human skin.

Overall this Giallo had no nudity and little gore, unlike most of the genre. However, there are some creepy scenes, including the chase through the old house onto the scaffolding. It’s a nice, clean little mystery that is heavily influenced by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat. It’s not that it isn’t a good film; it’s just that others have been so much better.

Rating: 3 ½ purrs for a nicely crafted mystery and a creepy final 30 minutes