Sette Note in Nero (aka The Psychic, 1977)
Directed by Lucio Fulci
Starring Jennifer O’Neil, Gabriele Ferzetti, Marc Porel, Gianni Garko, Ida Galli, Jenny Tamburi, Fabrizio Jovine, Riccardo Parisio

This film is a perfect example of how one’s own opinion can change over the years, and you as a film fan develops a more of a… shall we say… refined taste? As saying goes that you can’t watch a movie with the same eyes twice, and this title is a perfect example of that. The first time I watched this was when I had just started to get into Lucio Fulci, mainly watching his gore flicks, such as Zombie (1979) and The Beyond (1981), just to name a couple. So when there was very little gore to this one, other than the opening (which I have to say now is one of the worst parts of the film), I found the rest to be a little boring and never gave it a second thought. When an updated release of the film came out on DVD, it had been well over a decade, so I thought it was about time I give it a second viewing to see if anything had changed. And it did. Or should I say, I did.

The film starts off with a young girl psychically witnessing her mother jump off a cliff, smashing her face on the way down. We then jump ahead to the same girl, now an adult and married. After dropping her husband off at the airport, she has another series of visions while driving home. She sees a room with a large hole in the wall, an older woman who’s been murdered, a limping pair of legs, and a few other images, none of which makes any sense to her.

So to get her mind off these images, she wants to surprise her husband by going to his summer house to fix it back up and re-decorate. The house has been closed down for some time, so she has her work cut out for her. Once she gets there, she realizes that one room is the same one from her vision, where something had been buried in the wall. She then starts to tear into the wall.

The problem with the success Fulci had with his later day gore films, that was all he could get hired to do. But before that, he was able to show his talents as a director on different types of films, such as this really good giallo or thriller. With have a nice use of shadows, red herrings galore, and a beautiful use of music that is not only part of the soundtrack, but has an essential part in the film. In fact, the original title translate to Seven Notes in Black, which is a much better title than The Psychic.

Jennifer O’Neil stars as the woman with the troubled visions, desperately trying to figure out what they mean before it is too late. She would later deal with other psychic people in David Cronenberg’s Scanners (1981). Her husband is played by Gianni Garko, who appeared in the exceptional and underrated film La notte dei diavoli (aka Night of the Devils, 1972). Along with the rest of the cast, they all do a great job pointing the viewer in all different directions as far as who the killer might be.

A review of this film can’t be complete without mentioning the incredible score by Fabio Frizzi. The use of his “seven notes” fits so well in the film, giving an eerie yet suspenseful feeling, doing a beautiful job building that tension up. So much so that Tarantino used it in his film Kill Bill (2003). Then again, Tarantino was always good at using parts of other great films in his own.

So if you’re looking to see some talented films that Fulci made before he became known for all the blood and guts, check out this film. It’s really well made and will draw you in, having you trying to figure out the puzzle as our heroine does!