My 10th Bava feature that I've seen and also his last effort. First thing that I noticed is this psychological horror lacks the visual flair of Bava's early work. However, it still succeeds in creating an uneasy and creepy atmosphere. Apparently, this is part of _Beyond the Door_ trilogy. Not sure if it's official or not since both films have no connections whatsoever. I thought _Beyond the Door_ was garbage and this film definitely has similar both cheap and camp feel to it, but the difference is this is actually entertaining and packed with some decent scares. It starts off pretty slow and then it decides to keep ramping up to an insanely good ending, making this a great slow burner. Most of the scares are quite disturbing and memorable as well.

Although _Shock_ is not a perfect horror movie, it has great moments, and must have inspired other haunted house/ghost stories - not the least of which is _The Amityville Horror_, yes this came out first. I would also believe that _Insidious_, _The Babadook_, and several Japanese horror movies owe some amount of inspiration to this. The story is very simple: a mother (Dora), son (Marco), and stepfather (Bruno) move back into the house previously occupied by Dora, and her first husband, who died there. There are twists that will come as no surprise to anyone who has ever watched a horror movie. The focal point and real star of the film is Dora (played by Daria Nicolodi) - who is gorgeous and looks fantastic in her '70s clothes - she is marvelous as a woman slowly coming unhinged as the events intensify. Her son, Marco, is an annoying little kid. That's it, what else do you want me to say? Bruno is the typical horror-movie skeptic - someone has to be there to push our heroine or there would be no movie. The overall look and feel of _Shock_ is what one would expect from an Italian horror movie from the era, meaning it's very drab and autumnal. Are there parts of the movie that don't make sense? Yeah, but for the most part it's great. Is the music hit or miss? Yeah, but aside from the theme that sounds like an ice cream truck, another that sounds like psychedelic rock, and one that sounds like a camp counselor playing an acoustic by a campfire, it's pretty good. I'll restate that _Shock_ is not perfect, but this is really a hidden gem. Bava is one of the all-time greats for horror, and I'm surprised this is not mentioned more often when people talk about influential horror movies.

Generally uninspired--& uninspiring--EXORCIST knock-off with not-unentertaining Poe-esque touches.

I saw the title Beyond the Door 3 tue other day and watched to watch it but wanted to see the second one but couldn’t find it. Well here it is Beyond the Door 2 is one of its alternate titles. And it’s a big name directing it. Mario Bava. And it falls somewhere in the middle of Bava’s work in quality. It is mostly effective but doesn’t really excel anywhere and while it does have its moments, it’s not visually on the level of Bava’s best. It’s an good film. But I would have expected a litttle more from Bava.