The Corruption of Chris Miller

One of the best but more neglected films from the earlier stages [of ’70s Spanish horror] is The Corruption of Chris Miller, a very effective mixture of potboiler, giallo, and proto slasher that stands proudly alongside other gems like A Bell from Hell, A Candle for the Devil, and The House That Screamed.

1973’s The Corruption of Chris Miller is filled with illness, representing director Juan Antonio Bardem’s creative odyssey into the world of giallo, cooking up (with screenwriter Santiago Moncada) a murder mystery where everyone could conceivably commit crimes. While it’s positioned as a whodunit, The Corruption of Chris Miller is more satisfying as a study of moral disintegration and isolation, with Bardem pulling terrific performances out of his cast while bathing the production in style and unease, getting the project to the right level of distress. … The Corruption of Chris Miller isn’t unstoppable like some gialli, but Bardem generates plenty of mood here, backed by impressive technical achievements. It’s slow-burn for sure, but it actually manages to reach a point of earned fury, with bookend sequences of murderous appetites providing quite the introduction and payoff to this semi-sicko exploration of dark seduction.