Director: Luigi Zampa
Screenplay: Sergio Donati
Starring: Johnny Dorelli, Sydne Rome, Renzo Palmer, Yves Beneyton, Enzo Santaniello, Henning Schlüter
Country: Italy
Running Time: 94 minutes
Year: 1977
BBFC Certificate: 18
Il Mostro (1977), or The Monster, is carried by exceptional writing and a commanding lead performance by actor Johnny Dorelli. It’s a biting satire that takes aim at tabloid journalism under the guise of a giallo slasher, a genre famous for faceless murderers and titillating kills. It uses the giallo elements as a framing device to propel the plot forward as the news stories grow ever more sensational and everyone involved looks to further exploit the situation. It’s a political thriller taking down the establishments, in this case the press, police and celebrity culture.
Radiance is releasing a 2K restoration of the film from the original negative after it was worked on in-house at the label. It also includes an uncompressed mono PCM audio track. The label has bolstered the package with a new English subtitle translation, an audio commentary with a pair of giallo experts, a 44-minute interview feature and a video essay/interview with an Italian cinema expert.
The film features a rich grainy image with the warm, earthy tones and a high saturation that is so indicative of the 1970s era. The picture is nothing spectacular but it’s great seeing these lesser-known films in high-definition. The audio is also fairly straightforward with a linear track enhanced with atmospheric score which uses dramatic orchestral music.
The film is helmed by director Luigi Zampa who was seen as one of the proponents of the neorealist movement, but whose name isn’t as well known to this day. He was known for making comedy movies and this one has been handled to perfection with a dark biting tone delivering laughs just about every minute.
Radiance describes the plot as follows: ‘Valerio is a struggling reporter with a failed marriage and withdrawn son. He is angry at the world and strives for more. In the newspaper’s mail he receives the opportunity he’s been waiting for, a serial killer announces and later carries out a series of grisly murders. Valerio remorselessly uses this opportunity to improve his position and standing but will he draw himself too close to the killer?’
Dorelli is a fantastic anti-hero as the jaded embittered Valerio who has been “spewing venom his whole shitty life”. Almost everything he says is just so spiteful and over-the-top, it’s hilarious, making the character supremely likeable. He comes across like an everyman who has been worn down. The lowest of the low at his all-male staffed female-orientated magazine with his desk rather amusingly placed right beside the door to the toilets. You can’t help but sympathise with him as everyone around him is just so awful.
The supporting cast enhance the action, particularly his drip of a son Luca, and American Italian starlet Sydne Rome who plays a singer/model who makes an album based on the killings. This film has real grit and is a fun meta take on the giallo genre.
Film:
Special Features
Audio commentary by giallo experts Rachael Nisbet and Peter Jilmstad (2026): Fantastic track. Nisbet and Jilmstad come armed with heaps of research and provide an analytical commentary which takes a look at just about every angle of the movie imaginable. They have a great rapport with each other, I’d like to see more from the pair.
Head Bent Forward – A documentary on the making of the film with stars Sydne Rome, Renato Scarpa, Enzo Santaniello and makeup artist Pierantonio Mecacci and archival footage of Johnny Dorelli (2022, 44 mins): These are interviews which have been edited together – and I applaud Radiance for taking this approach. Too often bluray labels tend to bulk out their special features with a range of different separate interviews when they could have easily been edited together, making for a far better viewing experience. They’re a great set of interviews where the three of them speak about the key cast and crew members on the project.
Interview with Italian cinema expert Richard Dyer (2026, 34 mins): As always with Dyer, he mines just about every angle he can possibly take in analysing the movie. He speaks about Dorelli, Zampa and the film’s strange mesh of genres, looking at giallo tropes, while naming numerous influences on the film. What’s most interesting is the change in tone of giallo and political thrillers in the late 70s.
Special Features:
Radiance releases The Monster in bluray on 19 October, 2026.