Macchie solari (1975), or Sun Spots, is a
giallo that has been
variously called Autopsy, The Magician, Sun Spots, Tarot, Tension and The
Victim. The title this time around is Autopsy, which is a heinous bit of
exploitation which, when coupled with a specially edited trailer, would lead
you to believe this is a horror film having to do with re-animated corpses on
a killing spree. While the opening scene features an autopsy and several
suicides, the morgue and what goes on there are only tangential to the plot.
Mimsy Farmer plays an intern in forensic pathology. She's working on a
method to distinguish real suicides from murders made to look like suicides.
She has a busy night, due to a large number of suicides, which reporters try
to blame on increased sun spot activity, hence the original Italian title. She
begins to hallucinate that the corpses are coming back to life.
Definitely time to go home.
In her building she runs into her upstairs neighbor. Imagine her surprise
the next day when the woman turns up at the morgue. Not only that, but she
strongly suspects the neighbor's death to be a murder made to look like
suicide. Together with a flaky father, her father's ex girlfriend, a priest
and her own photographer boyfriend, she tries to unravel the mystery.
Like most gialli, the scriptwriters don't include enough real clues to
allow viewers to solve the mystery, but once the solution to the puzzle has
been revealed, all the pieces fit. The new region one release marks the first
time this film has been available uncut in North America, and there is a lot
of nudity to savor in a very nice transfer, backed by a musical score from the
omnipresent Ennio Morricone. You have a choice of Italian with English
subtitles or dubbed English,
If you are not familiar with our grading system, you need to
read the
explanation, because the grading is not linear. For example, by
our definition, a
C is solid and a C+ is a VERY good movie. There are very few Bs
and As. Based on our descriptive system, this film is a:
C
A solid, competent giallo.
