Set in and around Venice and heavily mired in the world of Catholicism, The Bloodstained Shadow is a dreary and unfulfilling giallo that brings nothing new to the genre. Director Antonio Bido allows the plot to unravel extremely slowly and often seems more intent on showing us the sights of Venice rather than telling a taut murder mystery tale.

The story revolves around a group of unsavoury characters who are being bumped off one-by-one (in a relatively bloodless fashion) by a lunatic who may be connected to a murder that took place many years before. In between the lacklustre death scenes and the travelogue-style footage of Venice, we get an uninteresting love story (with a gratuitous sex scene) and loads of talking. Even the score, performed by Italian rock group Goblin, failed to impress me.

By the time the identity of the murderer was revealed (and eagle eyed viewers will probably have guessed already),I was struggling to stay awake. The Bloodstained Shadow is one for giallo completists only.

"The Bloodstained Shadow" is Antonio Bido's second giallo in two years' time, and he actually makes the exact same mistakes here as he did with his previous effort "Watch me when I kill". The basic plot is mysterious and intriguing enough, and several of the murders are nicely gory and inventive, but the film contains way too many dull sequences and slow pacing, while the search for the killer's identity isn't involving enough for the viewer. The character drawings remain too vague, characters that are clearly important to the plot are only introduced late into the film and there's too much interval between the different murders in order to keep the story compelling enough. And last but not least, experienced giallo- fanatics will sadly notice that Antonio Bido is often a copycat director who borrows the vast majority of his ideas, whether in terms of plotting or stylistic, from other and more masterful directors like Argento, Fulci, Martino and others. Stressed-out college professor Stefano returns to his hometown, a little island community close to Venice, for a vacation and stays with his brother Paolo who's the town's priest. At night, Paolo witnesses a vicious strangulation from his bedroom window and begins to receive menacing little notes shortly after. More prominent community members are killed off and Stefano investigates the case, along with his new and lovely girlfriend Sandra. The murders lead back to the murder case of a young girl, which occurred many years ago but always remained unsolved. Admittedly the denouement and eventual revelation of the killer's identity are surprising, but not entirely satisfying and – as said – uninvolving. The already slow pacing is too often interrupted with pointless footage, like an awful "we are falling in love" montage (mainly taking place in a speedboat) and a boring sex sequence. It's best to focus on the few good elements instead, like two terrifically gruesome murders (one has to do with a burning fireplace and the other takes place in the canal),relatively good use of the narrow and atmospheric Venetian alleys and the musical score of the always reliable Stelvio Cipriani. But the absolute and undeniable highlight of the film is one particular scene in which a certain character goes berserk and mutilates a poor and defenseless doll. Only during this moment, Antonio Bido reaches the same quality as his aforementioned giallo role-models.

THE BLOODSTAINED SHADOW is an engaging if lesser giallo from director Antonio Bido. The problem with the film is its story, which is all too familiar from movies that came previously, in particular Argento's DEEP RED which is a big influence here. The Venice setting is a decent one but the film can't help but resemble Nic Roeg's DON'T LOOK NOW at times and of course it can't hope to hold a candle to that particular masterpiece.

Otherwise this is a watchable enough piece with a story that resembles a jigsaw puzzle, with the viewer required to put the whole thing together. Some unexplained murders are assailing the main cast members, who are two brothers, a priest and a professor. Historical crimes, romance, mental illness, and a typical gloved murderer are all elements of the story. The cast is generally good, giving solid turns to sometimes clichéd characters, but the real star is Bido, who brings style rather than gore to his movie. The best parts are the atmospheric stalking sequences that precede every murder.