The Killer Reserved Nine Seats (1974)

Terror At The Opera, it's not.

As genre fans can probably guess by the name, "The Killer Reserved Nine Seats" (original title "L'Assassino ha riservato nove poltrone") is an Italian giallo. It has all of the elements that you'd expect from this type of film - mystery, violence, exploitation - but there is something missing from the script that keeps it from greatness.

The film is set almost entirely inside of an old theater. The theater as a set is pretty cool - it's a grand old place in a state of decay. The characters are invited to the theater on the 100th anniversary of a horrible event by a mystery man - and once inside, there is no way out. The leader of the group is Patrick (Cristea Avram) owns the theater and is extremely rich. Everyone else who shows up has been sponging off of his money in one way or another and seems to have a motive to kill him. In the first minutes of the film, indeed someone does try to kill him, but fails.

Pretty quickly, the film devolves into a series of events where each individual character faces an unknown assailant while all of the characters begin fighting among themselves about who has the most motive to commit evil.

Just who is the person trying to kill off the cast? That is the mystery at the core of "The Killer Reserved Nine Seats". Is it the ex-wife of the rich guy? The lesbian sister who would get his money if he died? Could it be the husband of his daughter or maybe even an angry ghost? There are hints going in every direction, but not until the end do we find out for sure.

The film definitely has some good points. There is plenty of sleazy exploitation if you're into that sort of thing (and why would you be watching a giallo if you weren't). Between the brutality, there's cheating spouses, lesbianism, a daughter who seems to like her father just a little too much, and a cast full of females who seem to have a strong urge to take their tops off at every opportunity. The gore, while not super explicit by giallo standards, is good enough. One of the killings, in particular, is brutal and kinky, even if all of the gruesome details aren't shown on screen. The plot keeps you guessing by giving everyone a motive and also adding in an element of the supernatural. The killer could be one of the cast members or maybe a ghost or even someone from outside.

One of the main things that brings this film down, is that the action of the characters doesn't seem believable in many parts. Everyone is trapped in an old theater with a crazed killer, yet somehow they repeatedly find ways to wander around narrow passageways alone, doing who knows what. There are also plot holes that are filled in by a character suddenly remembering something that should have been obvious all along. For example, halfway through the film, Patrick, the main rich guy, suddenly remembers, for no apparent reason, that it is the 100th anniversary of a horrible event in the family's past. There is no explanation for why he suddenly has this revelation, he just proceeds to explain part of the history of the old theater and what has happened there in the past. If he knew that all along, why wait until half way through to suddenly mention it?

There are also some slow moments in the film that could use editing. No doubt it can be scary to see an unsuspecting person being stalked by a masked figure, but if it drags on too long, it just gets boring. You might occasionally find yourself yelling out to the killer, "get on with it!"

The English dubbing is quite good and does not distract from the film, but the score isn't great - and certain music seems innapropriate at times.

In the end, "The Killer Reserved Nine Seats" is an ok giallo, but definitely not a great one. The elements all seem to be in place, but somehow they don't quite come together in the right order. The acting is decent, the sets are creepy, the girls are beautiful, the characters and their relationships are interesting enough, the exploitation and violence elements are all there, but the plot and pacing don't quite hit the mark. Even the ending, which isn't easy to guess, was unsatisfying and didn't make total sense.

While I would recommend this movie to fans of the genre, I would not recommend that you set your expectations too high.