Almost Blue (2000)

Based on a novel by Carlo Lucarelli, which is unusual in the Italian thriller business, this has something of the feel of an Argento movie but with a tighter plot and actual characters. Grazia Negro (Lorenza Indovina), a computer-literate cop, is sent to Bologna to convince their police department that new methods are useful, and instantly makes connections which suggest that the deaths of a series of young men, all students and all found naked with their personal belongings missing, are the work of a hitherto-undetected serial killer. Early on, the murderer is identified as Alessio Crotti (Rolando Ravello), but he remains hard to track down because of his habit of assuming the look and personality of each of his successive victims (a plot device reprised in Taking Lives). Mixed up in the case is Simone (Claudio Santamaria), a blind young man dependent on his mother who has very sharp ears and a collection of audio spying equipment – he follows the progress of the case by eavesdropping on cellphone conversations and zeroes in on the killer (who has a 'green voice') as he is on a computer chat-line setting up a fresh victim.

The murders are handled with Se7en-style impressionist grimness, while the politicking that goes on around the heroine is suggestive of Thomas Harris's novels. The finale is especially unsettling, involving a switch-around of personae as the cop has to replace the blind boy's mother as his caregiver while the institutionalised killer is trapped halfway into Simone's personality after being thwarted in an attempt to kill him. Effective use is made of the title song by Elvis Costello. Directed and co-written by Alex Infascelli.
KIM NEWMAN

First published in this form here.

Visit Kim's Official Website at www.johnnyalucard.com