Too Beautiful to Die

Last updated
Too Beautiful to Die
Sotto-il-vestito-niente-2-italian-movie-poster-md.jpg
Film poster
Directed byDario Piana
Screenplay by
Story by
  • Achille Manzotti
  • Dario Piana
Starring
Cinematography Alan Jones [1]
Edited byAlessio Mazzoni [1]
Music byRoberto Cacciapaglia [1]
Production
companies
  • Gruppo Bema
  • Reteitalia [1]
Distributed byArtisti Associati International [1]
Release date
  • 25 November 1988 (1988-11-25)
CountryItaly [2]
LanguageEnglish

Too Beautiful to Die (Italian : Sotto il vestito niente II) is a 1988 Italian thriller film directed by Dario Piana. [3] The film is an in-name only sequel to Nothing Underneath (1985). It is about a group of models and dancers who find that one member of their crew has been raped and then later murdered. The group finds that the killer is taking revenge on anyone involved in the original assault, just as a new person joins their group for a music video-styled project. The film has received negative reviews from Scott Aaron Stine, Roberto Curti and L'Unita who found the film to be all style with no substance.

Contents

Production

Too Beautiful to Die was shot in English and directed by Dario Piana, who mostly worked in making commercials. [4] The film is an in-name-only sequel to Nothing Underneath (1985). [5]

Release

Too Beautiful to Die was released in November 1988 in Italy. [4] [3] It grossed a little under 2 billion Italian lire. [6] Too Beautiful to Die and Nothing Underneath were released on blu-ray by Vinegar Syndrome in October 2021. [7]

Reception

From contemporary reviews, a reviewer in Italy's L'Unita noted a lack of a good script while finding that Piana had a technical expertise comparable to directors like Adrian Lyne and Ridley Scott. [4]

Retrospective reviews from Italian critic Roberto Curti stated the film "looked like a lengthy music video with a barely coherent plot attached to it". [5] Scott Aaron Stine wrote in his book The Gorehound's Guide to Splatter Films of the 1980s that film was "even shallower than [ Nothing Underneath ]" finding that it was "undeniably more stylish (the Italian crew remembered their heritage this time out) but a heck of a lot less engaging than the first film (which is saying something)" and that "the characters are all sleazy and undeserving of anyone's sympathy, and the murders quite rote, to boot." [2]

Related Research Articles

<span title="Italian-language text"><i lang="it">Giallo</i></span> Literature and film genre

In Italian cinema, giallo is a genre of murder mystery fiction that often contains slasher, thriller, psychological horror, psychological thriller, sexploitation, and, less frequently, supernatural horror elements.

Franco Ferrini is an Italian screenwriter. His works often fall into the genres of horror or thriller. He was one of the interviewees represented in the book Spaghetti Nightmares.

<i>Beyond the Darkness</i> (film) 1979 Italian horror film directed by Joe DAmato

Beyond the Darkness is a 1979 Italian exploitation horror film directed by Joe D'Amato. It follows Francesco Koch, an orphaned taxidermist who inherits a house in the woods where he lives with his housekeeper Iris, who is determined to become the new owner. After Iris kills his girlfriend Anna with a voodoo curse, Francesco steals her corpse from the local cemetery. He then commits murders connected to his enduring passion for her. A local undertaker investigates and meets Teodora, Anna's twin sister.

<i>Evil Laugh</i> 1986 American slasher film directed and starring Dominick Brascia

Evil Laugh is a 1986 American slasher film directed and starring Dominick Brascia, Jr. and stars Myles O'Brien, Jerold Pearson, and Kim McKamy. The film is about a group of medical students attacked by a masked killer while repairing a building over the weekend.

<i>Spookies</i> 1986 film

Spookies is a 1986 American independent horror film directed by Brendan Faulkner and Thomas Doran, with additional footage directed by Eugenie Joseph. It stars Felix Ward, Dan Scott, Alec Nemser, and Maria Pechukas, and follows a group of partying adults who find an abandoned mansion and become trapped inside as a warlock tries to sacrifice the group with the intention of using their vitality to keep his wife alive.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Certain Things Are Likely</span> 1987 single by Kissing the Pink

"Certain Things Are Likely" is a song by the English band Kissing the Pink, released as both a 7" and 12" single from their studio album of the same name. Produced by the band and Peter Walsh, "Certain Things Are Likely" was released as the third single from the album, and was the most successful of their three entries on Billboard's Dance Club Songs chart, peaking at No. 1 for three weeks in May 1987. The song also made the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 97 on the 13th of June, 1987.

<i>Nothing Underneath</i> 1985 film by Carlo Vanzina

Nothing Underneath is a 1985 Italian thriller directed by Carlo Vanzina and starring Renée Simonsen, Tom Schanley, and Donald Pleasence. The film follows a Yellowstone National Park ranger in Wyoming who travels to Milan to visit his sister, a fashion model, after having a vision of her being murdered; upon arriving in Italy, however, he finds her missing.

<i>Murder Obsession</i> 1981 film

Murder Obsession, a.k.a. Fear, is a 1981 Italian giallo-horror film directed by Riccardo Freda, and starring Laura Gemser and Anita Strindberg.

<i>The Other Hell</i> 1981 Italian film

The Other Hell is a 1981 Italian horror film written and directed by Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso and starring Franca Stoppi and Carlo De Mejo.

<i>Black Magic Rites</i> 1973 Italian film

Black Magic Rites is a 1973 Italian film directed by Renato Polselli. Produced under the title of La reincarnazione, the film was shot between December 1971 and January 1972 in Italy. It was originally submitted for review for Italian Film censorship board twice in 1972 when it was eventually passed in November 11.

<i>The Spider Labyrinth</i> 1988 Italian film

The Spider Labyrinth is a 1988 Italian horror film directed by Gianfranco Giagni.

<i>The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio</i> 1971 American film

The Jekyll and Hyde Portfolio is a 1971 American sexploitation slasher film produced and directed by Eric Jeffrey Haims. Loosely based on the 1886 novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson, the film's plot concerns an insane killer with dual personalities who stalks and murders victims at a nursing academy. It stars Sebastian Brook, Mady Maguire, Donn Greer, Gray Daniels, John Terry, and Rene Bond.

<i>The Last Fashion Show</i> 2011 Italian film

The Last Fashion Show is a 2011 Italian giallo-thriller film directed by Carlo Vanzina. This film was the third in a gialli trilogy, which included Nothing Underneath (1985) and Too Beautiful to Die (1988).

<i>Delirium</i> (1972 film) 1972 Italian film

Delirium is a 1972 Italian thriller film directed by Renato Polselli.

<i>Devil Story</i> 1986 film

Devil Story, also known as Il était une fois... le diable, is a 1986 French Nazisploitation horror film written and directed by Bernard Launois. It is his seventh and last feature film. An uneven mixture of the slasher and Euro-gothic genres, it was largely condemned by critics for its incoherent script and technical incompetence. It has since gained a cult following because of its reputation as one of the worst films in history.

<i>The Last Slumber Party</i> American film

The Last Slumber Party is a 1988 American slasher film directed by Stephen Tyler and starring Jan Jensen, Nancy Meyer, and Joann Whitley.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Sotto il vestito niente II (1988)" (in Italian). Archivio Del Cinema Italiano. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  2. 1 2 Stine, Scott Aaron (2015) [2003]. The Gorehound's Guide to Splatter Films of the 1980s. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 279. ISBN   978-1-476-61132-7.
  3. 1 2 "Spettacoli a Roma". L'Unita (in Italian). November 29, 1988. p. 20.
  4. 1 2 3 "Sotto il vestito pochissimo". L'Unita (in Italian). November 29, 1988. p. 23.
  5. 1 2 Curti, Roberto (2022). Italian Giallo in Film and Television. McFarland. p. 362. ISBN   978-1-4766-8248-8.
  6. ↑ Curti, Roberto (2019). Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1980-1989. McFarland. p. 175. ISBN   978-1476672434.
  7. ↑ Squires, John (October 1, 2021). "Vinegar Syndrome's October Releases Include a Never-Seen Extended Version of 90s Creature Feature 'Ticks'!". Bloody Disgusting . Retrieved September 27, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.