Brazil
Review: JA Kerswell
THE SIGN OF SCORPIO (aka O SIGNO DE ESCORPIÃO) is a wild 1974 Giallo-influenced Brazilian psychothriller that blends astrology, satanism, and even a little sci-fi. It features a computer that prints out deadly horoscopes and a jet-setting group invited to the book launch of an eccentric professor's new tome at his remote island estate, who are bumped off one by one, according to their star signs, by a mystery killer.
Professor Alex (Rodolfo Mayer) has gathered nine glamorous friends and associates to celebrate his latest and final book on astrology, including a soap star, Eduardo (Carlos Lyra), and fashion model Sátiko (Elza Tsugawa). Arriving by boat, they are shown the professor’s new supercomputer—which looks like a giant, flashing blue scarab beetle mounted on the living room wall—that supposedly calculates astrological forecasts and predicts the future. He has handpicked them because each guest has a different astrological sign, with the professor, his maid Marta (Wanda Cosmo), and his landscape gardener Samuel (Sandro Polônio) completing the twelve signs.
As the evening progresses, easy-listening music fills the humid night air, and cocktails flow freely as the guests dance and some of them begin to strip off, the promise of debauchery ahead. However, when one of the women is rebuffed by another guest, she goes for a midnight skinny-dip down by the shore, only to later, inexplicably, gatecrash the party as a corpse. The guests soon find that the only radio has been smashed and the boat linking them to the mainland disabled; they suspect there is an intruder on the island. Deciding to lock themselves in their rooms overnight, come morning they find the dead woman gruesomely posed at a piano and another guest murdered in her bed, a dagger with scales of justice attached, corresponding to her Libra star sign, sticking out of her chest.
After investigating, they find no footprints that would suggest an intruder on the island, leading them to conclude that one of them is the killer. Soon, the supercomputer is printing out cryptic astrological notes predicting who is next for the chopping block …
Given how popular some Italian Gialli were across Europe and even in the United States, it is not too much of a stretch to think their influence reached the shores of Brazil, too. THE SIGN OF SCORPIO is, of course, another variation of Agatha Christie’s 1939 island-set murder mystery novel AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, in both its setup and its conclusion. However, another seemingly obvious influence is Mario Bava’s tendsetting FIVE DOLLS FOR AN AUGUST MOON (1970), especially the collection and storage of the accumulating corpses (though not in a freezer, but in the professor’s taxidermy workshop). Perhaps surprisingly for a mid-70s Brazilian horror thriller, the exploitation elements are relatively mild, with occasional light female nudity and most of the death scenes occurring off-screen, with the bodies discovered later. However, fans of the Giallo will certainly get a kick out of the sheer ludicrousness of the murder methods (one victim is found impaled on a giant anchor on the beach, and another is discovered castrated). The sci-fi element is ultimately shown as something of a MacGuffin, but it seemingly tips its hat to Dario Argento’s fascination with future technology that peppered some of his earlier Gialli. The killer is mostly kept off-screen until the end, when we glimpse their beige suede gloves and brown cape. The central mystery of their identity—although somewhat derivative—is nicely handled, and the script does drop in clues along the way to a surprisingly eco-friendly conclusion.
The film also shares some of the genre's glorious eccentricities, with most of the female characters switching to a glamorous new outfit for every scene, even when the group is down to what you could count on one hand. Add to that two of the guests enjoying a romantic roll in the surf (real-life couple Lyra and American actress Kate Lyra) near the end of the movie, despite the bodies accumulating around them. The script is also almost comically single-minded in how the characters are painted, with the female photojournalist Gilda (Maria Della Costa) constantly clicking away on her camera, artist Roberto (Paulo Hesse) never without a sketchbook, and motocross star Kiko (Alan Fontaine) driving around in endless circles on his motorbike (resulting in a regrettable scene where he runs over a live crab)—all well into the murder spree.
Director Carlos Coimbra was a fan of Alfred Hitchcock and suspense films, and THE SIGN OF SCORPIO was reportedly a passion project for him. He enlisted the famous Brazilian astrologer and self-described psychic Omar Cardoso as a consultant for the film (who wrongly predicted that World War III would break out the same year the film was shot). However, it was presumably little seen outside of Brazil, as it was a commercial flop on its release there (selling only 23,000 tickets there).
Still, for fans of the genre and for those curious to see what the Brazilians would do with the Giallo, THE SIGN OF SCORPIO is a whole lot of Technicolor fun, whose entertaining eccentricities come with a sting in its tail. Apparently, Cinemateca Brasileira completed a 2024 4K remaster for the exhibition ‘1974 - 50 years later’, so hopefully a decent copy will emerge soon.
BODY COUNT 9:
Female 4 / Male 5
THE SIGN OF SCORPIO aka O SIGNO DE ESCORPIÃO (1974) Trailer
