Kidnapped / Shock

KIDNAPPED (L’UOMO E IL BAMBINO, aka RABID DOGS), 2002 (shot 1974), International Media Films, 92 min. Dir. Mario Bava. An experiment in pure, psychological terror, KIDNAPPED follows a trio of ruthless bank robbers as they hurtle around Rome’s super-highways in a stolen car with an old man and a seriously ill child. (In Italian with English subtitles.)

SHOCK (aka BEYOND THE DOOR II), 1979, 92 min. Mario Bava’s last feature film (co-directed with son Lamberto, uncredited) revisits themes first explored in KILL, BABY, KILL and THE WHIP AND THE BODY, as Daria Nicolodi (DEEP RED) and her child are haunted by the ghost of her first husband, a drug addict. Actor Ivan Rassimov (MAN FROM DEEP RIVER), who usually played a villain in 1970s Italian pictures, does a rare good-guy turn here as Nicolodi’s concerned doctor. (English dubbed print.)