Considered by many genre fans to be the first ever slasher, it was indexed in Germany in the early 1980s and this week celebrates its unabridged home theater comeback – officially with FSK 18 approval: “Torso – The Devil’s Saw” by Sergio Martino.
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Some say “Thirteen Women” (1932), others “Peeping Tom” (1960) – and still others insist on “Black Christmas” (1974): Yes, the question of the first slasher in film history is not so easy to answer . After all, what makes a horror movie a slasher? Many fans and film scholars have devoted themselves to this question over time – often coming to the conclusion that while there were already numerous pioneers who already had a strong connection with them, in the end “Torso – The Devil’s Saw” from 1973 became the first true slashers.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise at this point that – like many, many other gory horror classics – it struggled particularly hard in Germany. The emphasis is now officially on had. Than The uncut version of “Torso”, which landed on the index in 1983, finally got the blessing of the FSK in 2019 and was finally released for those 18 and older – and it was released in that version on February 24th! Mediabook collectors can look forward to three (!) different editions:
“Torso” Media Book A at Amazon*
All three versions are limited, contain the film completely uncut on DVD and Blu-ray and also include some extras such as alternate scenes, trailer and booklet.
Media Book “Torso” B at Amazon*
The differences between the media books, which have the same content, are purely visual. However, judging by Amazon‘s current sales rankings, Cover A appears to be particularly popular – and is therefore likely to be the first to sell out.
“Torso” Media Book C at Amazon*
“Torso”: Slasher with cult status, which hardly anyone knows
As Paste Magazine, among others, discovered, Torso, made a year before Black Christmas, is the first slasher film that meets all the criteria to be considered a slasher film. Especially important for this: the so-called last girl, who confronts the killer at the end and often survives the fight to be able to tell the story to the audience later.
In particular, the duel between Jane, played by Suzy Kendall (“The Secret of the Black Gloves”), and the killer in the final act of “Torso” underlines his qualification as Slasher – which also counts as giallo, by the way. As so often, the lines between the Italian thriller subgenre and its popular horror counterpart have become blurred.
After 20 years on the index now unabridged with FSK 18: cult from the 90s for Tarantino fans appears completely in German for the first time!
Anyone who is not averse to both niches should consider the director’s most famous work Sergei Martino (“The Silent Killer”, “The Colors of the Night”) must have seen. It is not for nothing that the film enjoys the reputation of a cult classic among genre connoisseurs, even though it never gained too much fame outside the niche boundaries.
That’s what “Torso – The Devil’s Saw” is all about
The University of Perugia is shaken by a series of gruesome murders. A masked killer hunts down art history students, whom he takes turns strangling with a red and black scarf. Afraid of falling into the assassin’s trap, Jane and Dani (Tina Aumont) decide to leave campus and travel for a while. What the young women don’t know, however, is that the killer has long since followed them to continue his bloody work…
Ex-Index-Shocker comes out unabridged with FSK-18 for home cinema: According to Stephen King, this horror classic is one of the most terrifying films out there!
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