The Possessed (La donna del lago)

Celebrate Gialloween with one of the earliest examples of our favorite genre!

THE POSSESSED is a tremendously atmospheric proto-giallo, based on the Alleghe killings — one of Italy’s most notorious crimes. Masterfully combining film noir, mystery and giallo tropes whilst drawing on the formal innovations of Sixties art cinema — particularly the films of Michelangelo Antonioni — THE POSSESSED is a uniquely dreamlike take on true crime.

Bernard, a depressed novelist, sets off in search of his old flame Tilde: a beautiful maid who now works at a remote lakeside hotel. Bernard is warmly greeted by the hotel owner and his daughter, but Tilde has disappeared under suspicious circumstances. Bernard’s investigation plunges him into a disturbing drama of familial secrets, perversion, madness and murder…

Co-directed by Luigi Bazzoni (THE FIFTH CORD – Gialloween III, 2021, LE ORME aka FOOTPRINTS ON THE MOON, Gialloween V, 2023), and co-written by Giulio Questi (DEATH LAID AN EGG – Gialloween III, 2021, ARCANA)!