Torso appears in an aspect ratio of 1.66:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. The film brought a solid Dolby Vision presentation.
Sharpness usually worked fine. Some softness materialized along the way, but the movie generally seemed pretty accurate.
No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects appeared, and I saw no edge haloes. Grain felt natural as well, and outside of a gate hair or two, I saw no source defects.
Torso opted for a palette that usually seemed natural, though it emphasized black and red a lot. The colors came across as well-rendered within those choices, and HDR added impact to the tones.
Blacks felt deep and tight, while shadows were positive. HDR contributed punch to whites and contrast. Overall, I thought this ended up as an appealing presentation.
As for the film’s DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack, it seemed decent and nothing better. Like pretty much all Italian movies of the era, it featured looped dialogue, and that meant the lines could sound less than natural and integrated.
Nonetheless, speech appeared reasonably concise, as the material showed only minor edginess. Effects followed suit and seemed thin but not problematic.
Music fared best, as the score showed adequate range and verve. Nothing here impressed but the mix worked better than many of the movie’s genre/era mates.
The disc provides three separated cuts of Torso. We get the Original Italian Version (1:33:39), a Hybrid English/Italian Version (1:33:00) as well as the English Export Version (1:30:11), released as Carnal Violence.
How do these differ? “Original” and “Hybrid” are really identical, as the 39-second difference simply stems from shorter end credits in “Hybrid”. Actually, the text concludes at the same point, but “Original” allows the song that plays over the credits to finish, whereas “Hybrid” cuts it earlier – and does so clumsily and abruptly.
Obviously we get bigger changes when compared to the shorter “Export”. It alters the order of some scenes and trims a few.
The most significant alteration comes late in the film, as we see more of a potential savior on the way to the estate where the college students reside. I don’t think the absence of this scene harms “Export” but fans will nonetheless want to stick with the “Original”.
Alongside that longer cut of the film, we get an audio commentary from film critic Kat Ellinger. She offers a running look at filmmaker Sergio Martino and other cast/crew, the project's influences, roots and development, genre domains, and aspects of Torso.
I left off the usual “screen-specific” in my description. Though Ellinger occasionally touches on what we see, she mostly chats about different topics.
And that largely seems fine, as Ellinger delivers a fairly engaging take on genre areas and filmmaker careers. I can’t call this a great commentary, but it becomes reasonably positive.
A mix of video programs ensue, most of which were created for Arrow’s 2018 Blu-ray of Torso. All Colors of Terror goes for 34 minutes, one second and offers an interview with writer/director Sergio Martino.
The filmmaker discusses how he came to the project as well as aspects of the project and his career. Martino gives us a good look at the topics.
The Discreet Charm of the Genre spans 34 minutes, 52 seconds. It features actor Luc Merenda.
He chats about his career and his thoughts connected to Torso. While a less tight interview than Martino’s – mainly because it doesn’t devote a ton of time to the film in question - Merenda nonetheless delivers a fairly enjoyable reel.
Next comes Dial S for Suspense. In this 29-minute, 15-second program, we hear from co-writer Ernesto Gastaldi.
“Suspense” examines some parts of his life in movies along with the giallo genre and details about Torso. Like Merenda, Gastaldi doesn’t deliver as much info about the latter film as I might like, but he still brings us some good notes.
Women In Blood involves Martino’s daughter Federica. The featurette lasts 24 minutes, 58 seconds.
The younger Martino covers Torso, its genre, other aspects of her dad’s filmography, her planned remake of the movie and her own career. A few worthwhile notes emerge but this mostly feels like a look at her intended update on Torso.
After this, we go to Saturating the Screen. During this 25-minute, three-second reel, we hear from film historian Mikel J. Koven.
“Screen” looks at genre topics, with a particular focus on the giallo and slasher elements in Torso and other thoughts about it. This winds up as a decent chat but it feels a bit redundant after prior pieces.
With Sergio Martino Live, we find a Q&A from the 2017 Abertoir International Horror Festival. The program runs 46 minutes, 59 seconds.
Martino talks about how his family influenced his career, the impact of other filmmakers, what brought him to giallo, aspects of his movies, and memories of his experiences. We get an informative panel discussion.
In addition to both Italian and English trailers, we finish with Alternate Titles. The reel occupies four minutes, two seconds and shows credits for the American release. These differ a lot from the original and play up exploitation/horror much more.
Apparently an influence on the slasher genre, Torso doesn’t succeed on its own merits. Slow, tedious and trite, the movie lacks thrills. The 4K UHD comes with pretty good picture, passable audio and a nice array of bonus materials. I can’t find much about this sluggish tale to endorse.
