I'll keep this review short, having just wasted the best part of £15 on this "accomplished Giallo" movie.
Quite simply, the film stinks! This is no more a Giallo, than any of Alfred Hitchcock's films are! IN THE FOLDS OF THE FLESH has been routinely acclaimed and labelled as being a fascinating and innovative mystery drama, in the Gialli-vein. I can assure you, it is not. The premise of the convoluted and inane plot, follows a semi-incestuous family, who may or may not be killing people who may or may not be attempting to blackmail them all. Oh, and one other member of the family may be mentally-challenged/confused! If you love true Gialli, from the likes of Argento, Bava, Fulci, then simply ignore this film, if you are tempted to purchase or rent it. The acting is mediocre at best. The dubbing is reasonable, but clearly little effort's been put into making it fit with any of the cast or their characters' lip-movements. The direction is shoddy, and the photography is full of slap-dash edits/cuts and flashy zoom in's/out's that do the film no justice whatsoever, except to make it "groovy".
Don't be fooled by the text on the back of the disc, that promises lots of seedy and controversial moments. This film is very tame. The decapitations are hammy, and unbelievably fake, that even Herschell G Lewis and Ed Wood, would turn up their noses at them. The incest, is vaguely provocative and contentious, but it goes nowhere fast. And there's almost no gore, no mystery, no tension, nothing of interest to keep you viewing.
This is just a badly made film, made by a bad director, with a cast that really doesn't care or have a clue about the film. Although the 2008 "Severin" Region 1 DVD release is bare-bones, it's still not worth buying. Yes, the film is uncut and uncensored, but to be honest, anyone over the age of 15 is likely to have seen much more appalling, violent or contentious material in your average action-movie. (This makes THE DARK KNIGHT look like DIE HARD in terms of violent or adult material!) The print is relatively nice looking, but there are a couple of moments, when the screen goes black for a second, where the original 35mm print is clearly damaged or faulty. Other negative damage is also noticeable, at the very start of the movie, and through most reel-change points. The end of the movie has about 60 seconds of blank footage remaining, where other credits could be inserted for foreign-language prints. Sadly, on a DVD, this is bad quality control, and "Severin" should be more careful in future for this error.
The only extra, is a whacky trailer, which does the film no favours, but it won't exactly deter you either.
The cod-Freudian psychology is worthless, and whoever made this film, must have taken substantial amounts of LSD, because it's clearly a film that will be enjoyed more by viewers under-the-influence of alternative substances, than anyone who sits through this stone-cold-sober as I did. No amount of talent can save this movie, only because the movie has no clue about what it's trying to be, where it's gone or where it's going. It's an incoherent mess! Bizarre doesn't even come close to how whacked-out this film is.
Ultimately, no one is going to be able to improve this film, so a bare-bones disc is probably all we should be expecting, But to release it as a full-price title, is very cheeky. Only buy this film if you absolutely have to own every Giallo movie ever made! Otherwise, bypass it and look for something with more intelligence, whit and sophistication. There are plenty of worthy titles and directors out there. This, though, is not one of them!