"The Corruption of Chris Miller" focuses on a woman (Jean Seberg) and her stepdaughter (Marisol) who live in a sprawling house in the mountains of northern Spain. The women decide to take in a charming, handsome British drifter (Barry Stokes) to work for them as a handyman, but become fearful when a series of murders in their small mountain village begin to encircle them.
Probably best-known for featuring the iconoclastic Jean Seberg in an unusual part, this Spanish giallo works the formula better than a lot of its counterparts, largely due to a number of effective plot twists and smart pacing. Visually, the film has a lot in common with something like "Torso" (1973), though it is much less focused on sleaze and deals with a smaller circle of characters.
There are a number of strange nuances here, including a bizarre opening sequence featuring the villain donning a Charlie Chaplin costume, as well as Marisol's character's oblique flashbacks to an apparent sexual assault that is triggered whenever she hears thunderstorms or running water. The film's narrative quirks are left largely unexplored, and the more soap opera-ish tensions in the household are undercut by several harrowing murder sequences, two of which are utterly shocking and brutal (one in particular that predicts countless scenes from slasher films that followed in the subsequent decade).
The finale in particular has a jaw-dropping impact, which is counterbalanced by an offbeat poolside ending that stops short of a proper denouement. In the end, though, "The Corruption of Chris Miller" stands as an effective and odd film that functions adequately as a meditation on female relationships as it does a cold-blooded slasher film. 8/10.
Probably best-known for featuring the iconoclastic Jean Seberg in an unusual part, this Spanish giallo works the formula better than a lot of its counterparts, largely due to a number of effective plot twists and smart pacing. Visually, the film has a lot in common with something like "Torso" (1973), though it is much less focused on sleaze and deals with a smaller circle of characters.
There are a number of strange nuances here, including a bizarre opening sequence featuring the villain donning a Charlie Chaplin costume, as well as Marisol's character's oblique flashbacks to an apparent sexual assault that is triggered whenever she hears thunderstorms or running water. The film's narrative quirks are left largely unexplored, and the more soap opera-ish tensions in the household are undercut by several harrowing murder sequences, two of which are utterly shocking and brutal (one in particular that predicts countless scenes from slasher films that followed in the subsequent decade).
The finale in particular has a jaw-dropping impact, which is counterbalanced by an offbeat poolside ending that stops short of a proper denouement. In the end, though, "The Corruption of Chris Miller" stands as an effective and odd film that functions adequately as a meditation on female relationships as it does a cold-blooded slasher film. 8/10.