Color, 1980, 89 mins. 34 secs.
Directed by Silvio Amadio
Starring Guido Mannari, Sherry Buchanan, Martine Brochard, Stefano Mastrogirolamo, Philippe Leroy
Treasured Films (Blu-ray) (UK RB HD), Raro Video (Blu-ray) (US RA HD) / WS (1.85:1) (16:9)
By the start of the ‘80s, 
Italian horror was pushing into increasingly gruesome territory with extreme offerings like Cannibal Holocaust, 
City of the Living Dead, Anthropophagus, and Hell of the Living Dead. Bucking that trend with a restrained approach more akin to ‘40s ghost stories is The Medium (Il medium), the penultimate film directed by reliable gun for hire Silvio Amadio, known for a string of Gloria Guida sex comedies, efficient adventure epics, and two particularly sexy gialli with Rosalba Neri, Amuck and Smile Before Death. The result rivals A Whisper in the Dark as one of the most subdued Italian supernatural films, and the film paid the price by sinking immediately at the local box office and lingering in oblivion for decades until it was revived and restored for multiple Blu-ray editions between 2025 and 2026.
Influenced by Amadio’s own influence in the uncanny spurred on by fellow director and spiritualist Demofilio Fidani and featuring early script contributions from the beloved team of Claudio Fragasso and Rossella Drudi, the film takes place almost entirely within the grounds of a villa where composer Paul Robbins (Mannari, the ill-fated Macro from Caligula) has just moved in with his son Alan (Mastrogirolamo) and in-home tutor Laura (Buchanan). Soon uncanny events are taking place, from Paul being attacked in the middle of the night by a dog that leaves no marks to Alan acting aggressively, 
saying he keeps seeing a mystery 
woman with long dark hair, and scampering after strangers during afternoon sightseeing trips. Prompted by a macabre painting in the house, Paul also starts seeing the spooky woman in white and has visions of her perishing in a burning car, prompting him to seek the aid of a parapsychology expert, Professor Power (Leroy), when consultation with a psychiatrist isn’t enough. With an array of technological equipment installed within its walls and a powerful psychic named Daniela (Brochard) brought into conduct a seance, the house soon begins to give up its dark secrets…
Both languid and atmospheric, this one definitely won't be to anyone's taste as a quick glance at online reactions will attest. Apart from a brief shock moment involving a dog and one gunshot, the violence level here is extremely low with more of an emphasis on how the inexplicable can be approached with then-modern tech. The multi-twist ending ultimately opens up a lot more logic questions than it answers, but the combination of vengeful ghost and possessed kid stories is an interesting one more or less in the same ballpark as Mario Bava's Shock. Mannari, who tragically died very young, is actually pretty effective here in a rare leading role, with pros Leroy and Brochard bringing some welcome gravitas in what amount to guest star roles.
The first Blu-ray out of the gate came from Raro Video in the U.S. in 2025 featuring Italian DTS-HD MA 2.0 mono audio with English subtitles, plus an audio commentary by Adrian Smith and Rod Barnett who do a fine job of covering the 
director, interview remarks over the years about the production, Mannari's sad fate after this came 
out, and related genre films. In 2026, Treasured Films in the U.K. released a greatly expanded special edition on Blu-ray, taken from the same new HD master from the negative and looking and sounding identical in nice quality. Direct sales from them also comes with a "Mirror" magnet and a reversible fold-out poster. Here the commentary honors are by Jonathan Rigby and Kevin Lyons, fine company as always as they talk about the meager production, connections to movies like The Innocents, the state of Italian horror at the time, and more.
On the video extras side, "Among the Spirits" (24m37s) with Buchanan is an engaging chat about how she decided to head to Rome from America to work as an actress and model, the transformation of her real name into her screen one, and her memories of key films from the era and this one in particular including her first meeting with the director. “Chosen by the Dead” (20m4s), Fragasso looks back at the start of his career, his work as an assistant editor that put him in the company of numerous directors and producers, and his path to contributing to this film including strange experiences with Fidani. In “A Sinister Set” (7m6s), Brochard details the unnerving nature of shooting a séance scene and her good rapport with Leroy, as well as her general affinity for making horror films. “Medium But Not Average” (24m17s) with Eugenio Ercolani surveys Amadio’s trademarks as a filmmaker and this film’s arrival at a bumpy and transitional period in Italian cinema with one guard making way for the next. Finally “Songs in the Key of Death” (16m39s) with Darrell Buxton chronicles the colorful and wide-ranging history of composers in horror including The Abominable Dr. Phibes, The Shout, Phantom of the Paradise, The Changeling, and of course The Phantom of the Opera. A 2m26s image gallery is also included, and an illustrated booklet features essays by Rachael Nisbet (Between the Screen and the Séance: Demofilio Fidani and Il Medium) and Alex Bakshaev (“Restrained Terror: Revisiting Amadio’s Il Medium”) covering the real-life spiritual investigations tied to the film, the suspension here between horror film and documentary, tonally related films like Zeder and Arcana, and more.
TREASURED FILMS
RARO VIDEO
Reviewed on April 4, 2026
