A troubled rich woman Carol Hammond played by Florinda Bolkan is suffering from a series of bizarre sexual dreams where she indulges in lesbian activities with her neighbor Julia Durer(Anita Strindberg).Unfortunately one morning after another perverse sex dream culminating in a gory knifing of Julia,Carol is shocked to find that Julia was murdered in her apartment the stormy night before.When all evidence points to Carol being the culprit she must not only investigate the crime but determine what is dream and what is reality."Lizard in a Woman's Skin" is perhaps the most bizarre and puzzling Fulci's giallo.The cinematography by Luigi Kuvellier is splendid with some gorgeous visuals and the dream scenes are appropriately psychedelic.The eviscerated dogs sequence still shocks unprepared viewers drawn into the murder mystery aspect of the film.8 out of 10.

I've tried to like cult director Lucio Fulci's films, I really have. I've seen his 80s gore 'classics' (House By The Cemetery, The Beyond, Zombi 2, City of the Living Dead, The New York Ripper), his later splatter films (Cat In The Brain, Touch of Death) and his one brief foray into crime thriller territory (Contraband); none of them have really impressed me. Now I'm giving his giallos a go; they're supposed to be good, aren't they?

Lizard in a Woman's Skin is a trippy hippy early-70s thriller which sees a woman accused of murdering her promiscuous neighbour. In typical giallo fashion, nothing is quite as it seems, until the final scene when the truth is divulged. Once again I believe that I am destined never to be a Fulci fan, finding the film rather dull and extremely dated.

With only a couple of murders, which take place off-screen. and plenty of scenes depicting boring police procedure, Lizard in a Woman's Skin is yet another disappointment from the Italian 'godfather of gore'.

In true Fulci fashion, the film manages to shock (most notably with a scene featuring several dissected, but still living, dogs; with their bloody organs and guts on display, these whining canines are very effective and are the highlight of the film), but it also bores.

And even when Fulci manages to occasionally impress, his hard work is blown with some truly awful moments. For example, during a chase scene in which a woman is pursued through a church by a knife wielding maniac, the tension so carefully built up by the director is quickly dissipated when the woman reveals her momentary hiding place—by resting on a switch which activates a huge church organ. And not much later she gives herself away again by screaming at the body of a dead bat. Duh!

I'm going to give Lucio one last chance at impressing me with Don't torture A Duckling, another of his giallos. I'm not expecting it to be great though!

An early effort from Italian goremeister Lucio Fulci, this slow-moving giallo has a really odd dream-like atmosphere to commend it. Despite being unintelligible and rather too complex in parts, for the main it's an intriguing murder mystery packed with suspects, red herrings, and a dogged inspector pursuing the case until its very end. Unlike most gialli of the time, there is only one murder here, but every facet of the crime is explored in full detail.

There are plenty of good points in this film's favour. Firstly, the wacky direction from Fulci, which has the camera darting all over the place. Secondly, a rubbery bat attack which comes out of nowhere and rips off a certain Hitchcock classic. Then we also have an imported Stanley Baker lurking about, whistling a little ditty constantly. He's a cross between John Saxon and Donald Pleasence in DEATHLINE - fantastic! The only thing missing in this film is the excess gore we've come to expect from Fulci - apart from the one bloody murder and an arm slashing, this is gore free, although there is a very disturbing moment involving vivisection. The acting is generally very good here, and a lot better than you might expect. Florinda Bolkan is very good as the confused, haunted victim and Leo Genn adds a touch of class to the movie.

Don't be put off by the slow first half, as things soon pick up in the latter segment. Okay, so at times they do get too complex, but there's a wonderfully tense chase which seems to last forever, plus about a billion different people involved in the crime at the end - and the motives are somewhat bizarre, to say the least. This isn't a brilliant film by any means, but I would recommend it to Italian horror/mystery fans as there are a lot of interesting bits.