The Girl in Room 2A (1973)

Genres - Thriller  |   Sub-Genres - Giallo  |   Run Time - 90 min.  |   Countries - Italy  |   MPAA Rating - R
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Review by Donald Guarisco

This low-budget Italian thriller is one of the less-impressive examples of the 'giallo' genre popularized by directors like Dario Argento. Like his work, The Girl In Room 2A offers a whodunit premise full of twisted suspects and bizarre stalk-and-slash setpieces. However, The Girl In Room 2A falls short of a giallo classic like Deep Red because it lacks the craft and inspiration to reach that film's heights: the script rambles along in a way that defuses any potential suspense, Mario Mancini's harsh, poorly-lit cinematography is too cheap looking to give the film the atmospheric look it needs and the film forsakes thrills in favor of unconvincingly-choreographed torture scenes. The film is further hurt by amateurish performances: Daniela Giordano lacks the chops and charm to make her heroine a compelling figure and Raf Vallone reduces the effectiveness of his villainous character by grimacing and fuming his way through the role in an embarrassingly hammy style. The last nail in the coffin is Ramiro Oliveros' lackluster direction, which is devoid of the stylistic flourishes the genre needs and further hurts the proceedings with a limp sense of pacing. In the end, The Girl In Room 2A is such an uninspired proposition that even hardcore giallo fans might want to think twice about watching it.