Good example of the 70s Italian ability to mix sex with horror by linking them with believable psychotic behavior. In this case, Oliviero the has-been writer begins a descent into madness with frequent wine-soaked parties and outbursts of violence, the cause being his beloved mother's recent death. His wife Irena bears the brunt of his madness in the kind of domestic violence moments you'll never see in a US film. When one of his girlfriends gets her throat slashed, Oliviero is implicated and becomes paranoid. The pretty black girl who keeps the house running drops dead next, right in the house, so Oliviero gets Irena to help dispose of the body. A complication arrives in the form of his pretty niece, Floriana, a sassy sexpot with few scruples about becoming involved with anything or anyone. As if that isn't enough, Irena has an ongoing feud with Oliviero's preternatural black cat Satan--inherited from his mother. In all, Floriana comes to drive the plot a little too much and a little too recklessly. Director Sergio Martino is juggling a few too many characters and symbols, but does a decent job of keeping the pot boiling, largely with plenty of nudity. The climax cheats the perspective a little, as psycho-sexual thrillers often do, by revealing a hidden relationship even tho we thought we were seeing every relationship. But the literate, Poe-like ending helps smooth things over.
