A Blade in the Dark

Bruno, a young composer starting to make a name for himself, is hired to write the score for a horror film. To work in the right atmosphere, he moves into an isolated villa that the director has arranged for him. The place, however, comes with a troubling history: it apparently belonged to a mysterious woman who is now being sought by various people, and strangers keep appearing on the grounds. Before long, the violence Bruno is scoring begins to be mirrored around him, as a killer murders the visitors who come to the house.

This Italian horror mystery thriller was directed by Lamberto Bava, the second film in the chronological list of his features after Macabre, and it was made by National Cinematografica and Nuova Dania Cinematografica. Elisa Briganti and Dardano Sacchetti wrote the screenplay, and Mino Loy, Bava and Luciano Martino produced. The cast includes Andrea Occhipinti as Bruno, Anny Papa as the director Sandra, Fabiola Toledo, Valéria Cavalli, Stanko Molnar, and Michele Soavi as Tony Rendina. The film runs 109 minutes.

Its ratings place it in mixed territory: it holds a score of 5.9 out of 10 on IMDb from around 4,500 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 5.7 out of 10 from 131 votes, with both audience scores sitting close together.