Plot of Fear (1976) | Paolo Cavara’s giallo gets a 4K UHD world premiere

From director Paolo Cavara, best known for the cult 1962 exploitation documentary Mondo Cane, comes the gritty, pervy 1976 Italian giallo Plot of Fear (AKA E tanta paura), which gets a limited-edition 4K UHD and Blu-ray release from Indicator in the UK, alongside a wealth of special extras. (Available now).

A dominatrix strangles an effete client, a middle-aged woman is bludgeoned with a spanner and a prostitute is set on fire, while images from a children’s book (Pierino-Porcospino AKA Struwwelpeter/Shock-Headed Peter) are left at each crime scene. As Inspector Gaspare Lomenzo (Michele Placido) hunts down ‘the cartoon killer’, the body count continues with a shooting on live TV.

When party girl Jeanne (Corinne Cléry) gives him some vital intel that all the murder victims were members of a sex club where an S&M session turned deadly when one of the girls, Rosa, died, Lomenzo turns to security agency head Pietro Riccio (Eli Wallach), who has all the dirt on Milan’s most wealthy and influential citizens, for some leads. While all evidence points to Rosa’s pimp, could the answer to whodunnit be found within Riccio’s ranks?

Written by Bernardino Zapponi, a long-time collaborator with Federico Fellini, who also co-wrote Dario Argento’s Deep Red (1975), Plot of Fear is rather rapey and misogynistic in its portrayal of women, but doesn’t spare its male characters either – they are all privileged white middle-aged lecherous groomers of the Jeffrey Epstein variety. Which is probably what Cavara (whose previous dip into gialli territory was 1971’s Black Belly of the Tarantula) was aiming for.

Visually, it benefits from Franco Di Giacomo’s cinematography and Franco Fumagalli’s production design, which are both gritty (lots of Milan backstreets) and wildly colourful (think camp pink boudoir and red-lacquered Chinese decor). There’s also a clever visual touch in having the wealthy murder victims’ apartments equipped with loud security alarms, which effectively makes them prisoners in their own gilded cages. While the erotic animation by Francesco Maurizio Guido, AKA Gibba, best known for his 1973 adult animation King Dick (AKA Il Nano e la Strega), reminded me of the style used in the 1980s series He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.

Cast-wise, Placido, though looking pretty fit with his kit off, makes for a rather insipid lead, and it’s a big shame that Wallach is dubbed, even on the English soundtrack. Still, his Dr Mabuse-inspired surveillance expert is a highlight. Tom Skerritt, also dubbed, pops up ‘occasionally’ as Lomenzo’s boss, and keep your eye out for French character Jacques Herlin, as Riccio’s right-hand man, Pandolfi.

INDICATOR LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES

• New 4K HDR restoration from the original negative by Powerhouse Films
• 4K (2160p) UHD presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
• Original Italian and English mono soundtracks
• Audio commentary with film historians Eugenio Ercolani and Troy Howarth (2025) – The duo provides extensive detail on the film’s production, Cavara’s career, the score, and a whole lot more.
• Roberto Palmerini: The Fearless – Interview with the first assistant director (2025), who looks back over his career, working on Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now, and with Cavara and the cast and crew.
• Corinne Cléry: The Golden Years – New presentation of a 2013 interview with the actor (2025
• Michele Placido: On the Beat – Newly edited archival interview with the actor (2025)
• Enrico Oldoni: The Third Man – Newly edited archival interview with the screenwriter (2025)
• Pietro Cavara: Family Plot – Newly edited archival interview with the director’s son (2025)
• Eugenio Ercolani: The Wild Eye of Fear – The film historian takes an in-depth look at film’s production (2025)
• Andrea Meroni: Plotting the Cast – Ercolani’s video essay (2025) covers the cast’s backgrounds, including Placido’s southern Italian heritage (and his connection to folk hero Carmine Crocco) and Cléry’s difficulties working in Italian cinema
• Alternative Opening Sequence – recreation of the mute alternative English opener, previously on an obscure Japanese VHS edition
• Original Italian and International trailers
• Image gallery
• New and improved English translation subtitles for the Italian soundtrack, and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English-language soundtrack
• Limited edition 80-page book with a new essay by Adrian J Smith, archival writings/interview and profile on director Paolo Cavara, screenwriter Bernadino Zapponi and animator Gibba.