Lucio Fulci’s much-celebrated trippy giallo (known in Italy as “Una Lucertola Con La Pelle Di Donna” and released in the U.S. theatrically by AIP mainly as SCHIZOID) gets a deluxe Region free Blu-ray release (as “The Venom of Fear”) by the French company Le Chat Qui Fume, which also includes a standard DVD and a CD soundtrack.

In a rather swinging early 1970s London, troubled rich girl Carol Hammond (Florinda Bolkan, INVESTIGATION OF A WOMAN ABOVE SUSPICION) is suffering from a series of bizarre sexual fever dreams where she indulges in sapphic delights with her wild hippie next-door-neighbor Julia Durer (Anita Strindberg, WHO SAW HER DIE?). However, one morning after another perverse sex dream culminating in a gory knifing of Julia, Carol awakens to find that Julia was murdered in her apartment the stormy night before. When all evidence points to Carol being the culprit, she must not only investigate the crime but determine what is dream and what is reality.

After Lucio Fulci entered the giallo genre with 1969's ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER, the former sex comedy director found himself becoming more and more fascinated with the popular horror/thriller genre which was tearing up the box office. After the success of Dario Argento's THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, Fulci attempted a daring psychosexual thriller with A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN, another giallo with an animal in the title (it would not be the last animal title for Fulci or the genre). Making up the cast is a treasure trove of Eurocult faces. The most familiar is, of course, Florinda Bolkan, who would work with Fulci again in DON'T TORTURE THE DUCKLING the following year. Bolkan always turned in brave performances in her films, and this is one of her defining roles. ONE ON TOP OF THE OTHER's Jean Sorel plays another philandering husband who may or may not be a suspect himself. Sorel phones in his performance here, but the same year he would contribute a superb performance in Aldo Lado's SHORT NIGHT OF THE GLASS DOLLS. Appearing as Carol's stepdaughter Joan is adorable Ely Galleani, the blonde pixie from Bava's FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON whose career was sidetracked by drug use, like so many other Eurocult starlets. Leo Genn (THE BLOODY JUDGE) and Stanley Baker (ZULU), superb British actors who spent the last years of their careers in several great European trash classics, are Carol's politician father and the police investigator, respectively, and give dedicated performances in a film which is a cut above the usual flicks they were appearing in at this time. As the hippies, German-born Los Bravos lead singer Mike Kennedy (whose vocals on the top-ten "Black is Black" would rock the 1960s hard) and Texas-born musical theater star Penny Brown (CHAPPAQUA) are given little to do but play menacing very well. Umberto Lenzi fans will recognize Carol's psychiatrist as Georges Rigaud, the suspicious reverend in the cheesy delight EYEBALL, and as a police sergeant, Alberto De Mendoza will be familiar as the mad monk from HORROR EXPRESS.

A co-production between Italy, France and Spain which was shot largely on location in the U.K., this is one of Fulci's most unique films for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, the several uses of split-screen are not typical of Fulci's visual style and were most probably influenced by the use of the technique in 1970's WOODSTOCK to tie-in with the counterculture theme of the film. Cameraman Luigi Kuveiller (TWITCH OF THE DEATH NERVE, NEW YORK RIPPER) creates eerie tableaus even when shooting on the less-than-foreboding streets of London. One inventive shot opens with the reflection of police inspectors on the eyeball of Bolkan before zooming back to reveal her entire face. A very bizarre scene has Galleani being shocked by the hippie girl (Brown) throwing paint-covered knives at a white wall behind her. The effect is like seeing a knife pierce the wall and its subsequent gory bleeding. Just another gorgeous visual touch by Fulci. Fulci's most frequent editor, Vincenzo Tomassi, has a field day with the trippy dream sequences and establishes many of the most suspenseful moments by frantically cutting from shot to shot to heighten the tension. And of course the superb soundtrack by frequent Argento/Leone collaborator Ennio Morricone is almost more well-known than the film itself. It bears a striking similarity to his later work for CAT O'NINE TAILS and supplies a pulsing beat to the nail-biting scenarios Fulci presents on-screen. Surprisingly, in stark contrast to most of Fulci's films, the most memorable setpieces in the film are not graphic murders of the characters. Instead, censors created a furor over the nauseating viscerated dogs sequence (as created by the film’s masterful effects artist Carlo Rambaldi) which still shocks unprepared viewers drawn into the murder mystery aspect of the film. Also noteworthy is the realistic bat attack sequence which left Bolkan quivering with fear in real life! The bat attack occurs in the middle of one of the most intense chases in horror cinema, with sadistic hippie boy (Kennedy) following Carol through dark tunnels, an abandoned church and violently stabbing her in the arm before she bolts herself behind another door. Of the Golden Age of gialli, this is not only one of Fulci's shining moments as a director, but one of the best examples of the genre.

A LIZARD IN A WOMAN’S SKIN has a had a sorted DVD history. In the U.S., Shriek Show/Media Blasters had released it twice (in 2005 and 2007) and in Italy, the film showed up on DVD (in the Italian language version only) by Federal Video in 2006 and in 2010, Optimum released a PAL DVD in the U.K. Using a new uncut (of the international version) Studiocanal HD transfer, Le Chat Qui Fume has released the film on Blu-ray for the first time anywhere (Mondo Macabro is reported to be releasing their own domestic Blu-ray of the film in the near future) and have made it Region free so it’s compatible on all players. The gorgeous 1080p transfer presents the film in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, with bold and robust colors which really stand out, while the detail is nicely defined, and any grain on display is well maintained. Facial images and fleshtones have great detail, while black levels remain solid. In fact, the image looks splendid, never showing its age with dirt, debris or any other off-putting blemishes. Three audio tracks are supplied: English, Italian and French all in mono DTS-HD, all having clear dialogue and strongly offering Morricone’s score. The English version is actually preferred, as it was shot in English and later post-dubbed (Baker and Genn synced their own voices in post production). Optional French subtitles (for the English and Italian audio) as well as optional English subtitles (for the Italian audio) are included. The standard definition DVD (Region free but PAL, so it's not NTSC compatible) offers the English, Italian and French soundtracks mono, with optional French subtitles for the Italian and English audio and optional English subtitles for the Italian audio.

Speaking in French with optional English subtitles, Anita Strindberg is interviewed (13:08), as she talks about various films in her career, her time as a model, why she changed her name, and touches upon doing this film for Fulci (“He was so sweet”) and her nude scene opposite Bolkan. Also including English subtitles is the interview with film scholar Lionel Grenier (21:31) who extensively and passionately discusses Fulci’s cinematic art and this film in particular. The interviews with actor Jean Sorel, journalist Olivier Père, Jean-François Rauger (French Cinematheque), Alain Schlockoff (L'Ecran Fantastique) and film director Christophe Gans (BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF) are all in French with no English subtitle option, as is the case with a number of French-language featurettes. A comparison of how different versions of the film vary (3:29) also has French narration, but is more or less self-explanatory due the visual comparisons. A brief scene (1:07) transitioning between the wild party and Carol’s calm dinner is included as an extra (it wasn’t incorporated into the feature due to the lack of HD elements for it). Other extras include the American (AIP) title and end credit sequences, the Italian opening credits, the entire French VHS version of the film, a lengthy still gallery, the U.S. trailer and the French trailer.