getting carried away during a strangulation scene on the set of his latest movie, actor Michael Stanford (Conversation Piece's Patrizi) 
decides to take a breather and return to his family estate with his girlfriend, Deborah (Terror Express' Dionisio). Of course, that's not quiet as nice as it sounds since he supposedly killed his father as a child, and his mother Glenda (Lizard in a Woman's Skin's Strindberg) is in less than robust shape. Others from the production show up as well (including one of his sexy costars, played by Black Emmanuelle herself, Laura Gemser) to scout from locations in the area, which leads to a string of intense nightmares involving bats and a giant spider, a gruesome murder by a lake, and lots of deadly secrets spilling out of the family closet.
Most American horror fans familiar with this, Freda's last film, first encountered it via Wizard Video's VHS release in 
one of those great oversized boxes under the title Fear. This English-language version was trimmed down by five minutes from the Italian original, including the removal of some of that big fake spider and several snippets of dialogue. Various other VHS editions of varying lengths made the rounds as well including a UK version entitled The Wailing, while the initial English export version was entitled Murder Obsession (a translation of the Italian title, Follia omicida). The uncut version appeared in Italy from Raro Video in a better but still mediocre non-anamorphic transfer featuring the English and Italian audio, with Italian and English subs for the snippets of additional footage. All versions of this film credit the music to composer Franco Mannino along with his arrangements of some classical selections (including some well-placed Bach), but the Italian disc proved to be a revelation in a surprising way; that crazy pounding, electronic score familiar to English-language viewers doesn't seem to be Mannino's work at all. The Italian version has a completely different, piano-driven score that's obviously the actual work of the composer, who also worked on Death in Venice; the entire sound mix is much more sedate and classical in approach, right from the soft tolling bell and moody keyboards in the opening scene instead of those aggressive synths. The English track is a lot 
more fun (with the score rumored to be the work of various composers including Carlo Maria Cordio and Keith Emerson), but it's amazing to compare the two and see the differences in how the film plays with these simple changes. Also included on this disc is a slightly extended snippet of the Gemser bathtub scene sourced from a dupey VHS tape 
(totally disposable since you can barely see anything anyway) along with an interview with special effects guru Sergio Stivaletti (10m5s). This was one of his first films before he went on to glory working with Dario Argento, and he spends time talking about the genesis of his career all the way up to working on his big breakthrough three years later, Phenomena.
the evolution of horror scores for some reason, and liner notes by Chris Alexander. An interesting wrinkle came in 2023 with the German Blu-ray release from Cineploit (in its usual variety of mediabook options), completely English-friendly and 
featuring the Italian version with English or German subs plus an English track for the longer version as well (a first in HD, slugging in audio from the Italian where needed). It looks and sounds solid throughout with better encoding than the earlier Raro disc; extras include the Stivaletti interview, a subtitled assessment by Christian Kessler, an English-language rundown by Mark Thompson Ashworth (from a really weird camera angle), and the usual ornate packaging with Italian poster replica cards and a 28-page illustrated German booklet. U.K. DISC
U.S. DISC
