Trailer
Assistive Technologies

Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key

Runtime
1hr 37mins
Directed by
Sergio Martino
Featuring
Edwige Fenech,
Anita Strindberg,
Luigi Pistilli
Body

Loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's classic tale The Black Cat, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, from director Sergio Martino (Torso), weaves the key motifs from Poe's gothic yarn into one of the most sensual films from the Golden era of giallo. 

Luigi Pistilli (A Bay of Blood) plays writer Oliviero, an abrasive drunk who amuses himself by holding drunken orgies at his grand country manor - much to the displeasure of his long-suffering wife (Anita Strindberg). But this decadence is soon rocked by a series of grisly murders, in which Oliviero finds himself implicated. Notable for giving screen starlet Edwige Fenech her first "bad girl" role, Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, with its many unexpected twists and turns, is just as bewitching as its title would suggest.

ABOUT JANUARY GIALLO

"Every January, we like to pour ourselves a glass of J&B whiskey, sharpen our straight razor and slip on those black gloves to celebrate our favorite horror sub-genre, the Giallo. For those of you who don’t know, a Giallo is Italy’s answer to murder mysteries and thrillers that was kicked off by Mario Bava with The Girl Who Knew Too Much (aka Evil Eye) in the early sixties. While filmmakers like Umberto Lenzi made some excellent Giallos in the late sixties/early seventies such as Orgasmo and Knife of Ice, the sub-genre became popularized by Dario Argento with The Girl with Crystal Plumage . Throughout the seventies, Argento along with Sergio Martino, Lucio Fulci, Luciano Ercoli, Aldo Lado and many more made several visually stunning and viscerally violent cinematic excursions. The word Gialllo means ‘yellow’ in Italian, which was the color of the pulp and crime books that some Giallo took inspiration from. Although stylistically, the Giallo shares DNA with the German Krimi Films, the sub-genre took some wild turns mingling with occult, Gothic horror, Poliziotteschi, and psychedelia elements that created many unique variations." - Cinematic Void

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