Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Brisk
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Moderate
- surreal
- eerie
- provocative
- late night horror viewing
- giallo double feature
What critics said
Critics broadly regard Lucio Fulci's film as a stylish, bizarre, and thematically sharp giallo whose surreal set pieces and social satire outweigh its more conventional mystery mechanics.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
Carol's nightmare about stabbing Julia mirrors the real murder investigation, making psychological experience and external evidence difficult to separate.
The Hammond family's legal and political respectability contrasts with affairs, drug-fueled parties, orgies, and concealed fantasies.
The film foregrounds extravagant nightmare sequences, sexually charged spaces, and bizarre visual moments within its murder mystery.
Julia's drug-and-orgy milieu and the elite Hammond circle are both presented as hypocritical forms of social corruption.
Films like A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, and why
Deep Red
shared giallo whodunit structure, psychedelic imagery, sexual transgression, and unstable psychological perspective
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage
shared italian mystery thriller conventions, erotic menace, murder investigation, and ornate visual stylization
The New York Ripper
shared dream logic, bourgeois hypocrisy, surreal violence, and uncertainty between fantasy and reality
The Tenant
shared psychological ambiguity, Freudian anxiety, sexualized nightmare imagery, and unreliable-seeming perception
Movie Details
- Director
- Lucio Fulci
- Release Date
- 1971-02-18
- Runtime
- 104 min
- Rating
- 6.5 / 10 (190)
Cast
- Florinda Bolkan
- Stanley Baker
- Jean Sorel
- Silvia Monti
- Alberto de Mendoza
- Penny Brown
- Mike Kennedy
- Ely Galleani
- George Rigaud
- Ezio Marano
Common questions
- What is A Lizard in a Woman's Skin about?
- A bourgeois London socialite becomes the center of a lurid giallo investigation when a nightmare of murder appears to anticipate her neighbor’s death.
- What is A Lizard in a Woman's Skin like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of A Lizard in a Woman's Skin as brisk, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is A Lizard in a Woman's Skin violent?
- Somewhat. Ember rates the violence in A Lizard in a Woman's Skin as moderate.
- What did critics think of A Lizard in a Woman's Skin?
- Critics broadly regard Lucio Fulci's film as a stylish, bizarre, and thematically sharp giallo whose surreal set pieces and social satire outweigh its more conventional mystery mechanics.
- Which films are like A Lizard in a Woman's Skin?
- Films with a similar feel include Deep Red, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, The New York Ripper, and The Tenant.
- How long is A Lizard in a Woman's Skin?
- A Lizard in a Woman's Skin runs 104 minutes.
