Until Death (1987 film)
| Per Sempre (Until Death) | |
|---|---|
 DVD cover art | |
| Directed by | Lamberto Bava |
| Produced by |
Massimo Manasse Marco Grillo Spina |
| Screenplay by |
Lamberto Bava Dardano Sacchetti |
| Story by |
Dardano Sacchetti Elisa Briganti |
| Starring |
Gioia Scola David Brandon |
| Music by | Simon Boswell |
| Cinematography | Gianlorenzo Battaglia |
| Edited by | Mauro Bonanni |
Production company |
Dania Film Reteitalia |
Release dates | 1987 |
Running time | 93 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language |
Italian English |
Until Death (Italian: Per sempre) is a 1987 Italian made-for-TV horror film directed by Lamberto Bava and written by Dardano Sacchetti. It was the second of four films made for the cable series Brivido giallo (other films include Graveyard Disturbance, Dinner with a Vampire and The Ogre) and was later released on video in many areas as an unofficial sequel to Peter Medak's 1980 haunted house thriller The Changeling, although there was no connection between the two films.
Plot
Linda (Gioia Scola) and her lover Carlo (David Brandon) committed a horrible crime: eight years ago they murdered the woman's husband, while she was pregnant with his son. They hid the corpse and since then they are running a small hotel near a popular fishing lake. One rainy night a drifter named Marco (Urbano Barberini) arrives to the hotel, but he seems to know too many details about Linda's dead husband.
Controversy
This film was responsible for the end of the collaboration of screenwriter Dardano Sacchetti and director Lucio Fulci. Each man's version of how the split came about differs. In the reference book Spaghetti Nightmares, both Fulci and Sacchetti were asked about the reason for the end of the collaboration.
Fulci's version is as follows: "One day I told (Dardano) the story idea of my Evil Comes Back, a sequel on a fantastic note to The Postman Always Rings Twice, and he wrote it up and proposed it several times over to producers with my name on it as director, and then, one day, he registered it with his name on it! [laughs]. I later found out that he'd sold it to a friend of mine – Martino – but, in view of our past friendship, I decided not to sue him, I just broke off all relations with him. He is, indeed, a very good scriptwriter."[1]
Sacchetti's version differs: "When I proposed to Fulci my treatment, which was nothing more than a sequel in fantasy style to The Postman Always Rings Twice in which a dead man returns, he became really enthusiastic and had it read by a producer, who then commissioned me to write the script. Then, for various reasons, problems arose and the film wasn't made. Four years later, [Lamberto] Bava used the script to make Until Death and Fulci, who wasn't working at the time, got angry with me and started hurling these accusations. It's one thing to say that we were supposed to make this film together, but to claim that the story was his and that I stole it from him is pure science fiction."[1]
Release
MYA Communications released Per Sempre for the first time ever on region 1 DVD in 2009 with the Until Death title.[2]
Critical reception
AllMovie called the film "creepy," while Richard Lampe calls it "spectacular." [3]
References
- 1 2 Palmerini, Luca M. (1996). Spaghetti Nightmares. Key West, Florida, United States: Fantasma Books.
- ↑ "Until Death DVD @ DVD Empire". dvdempire.com. Retrieved 31 July 2012.
- ↑ Firsching, Robert. "Until Death - Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast - AllMovie". AllMovie. Retrieved 31 July 2012.