Andrea, a washed-up, alcoholic journalist, turns detective as he finds that his friends are being bumped off. As he is connected to all of the dead, the police think he may be the killer. He must investigate to clear his name and find the murderer.

Luigi Bazzoni’s film is a masterclass in deft direction, perfect framing and, yes, style! Bazzoni knows a thing or two about scope and aspect ratio. Also, take note of the film’s mood lighting and colour palette. The Fifth Cord would have looked terrible if it had been shown on TV in the 1980s in the dreaded pan-and-scan format. Thank God for modern home cinema systems and huge plasma screen TVs. In fact, the fact that there aren’t retro cinema screenings of fare like this is unforgivable.

But this isn’t an example of style over substance. The actual narrative for the film is excellent and mines just as much into the detective roots of giallo as much as the horror strands.

The Fifth Cord is more psychological horror than gore aplenty. And it manages this horror very well indeed. The tense episodes are handled expertly, with the expert direction and framing helping to capture innovative kills that seem fresh and interesting. There’s interesting imagery here that burns its way into your psyche.

Franco Nero is as excellent as ever as the hard-drinking lead who knows all too well that his life is on the skids but also that his future might be lived from behind bars or snuffed out by the killer if he doesn’t take the reins from that moment on.

An excellent film that I hadn’t heard of before.

4 out of 5 stars