Originally titled La Casa Con la Scala nel Buio, Blade in the Dark was directed by the son of legendary horrormeister Mario Bava. Movie composer Andrea Occhipinti is hired to score a horror picture. Andrea is invited to watch the shooting by director Anny Papa. She arrives at the location, which turns out to be a haunted villa. It seems that the previous owner, also a woman, harbored a horrible secret related to a series of mysterious disappearances. When two of Andrea's friends vanish, she assumes that the villa's former owner was responsible. From this point forward, the film becomes an extended homage (or ripoff) of Hitchcock's Pscyho. Filmed in 1983, Blade in the Dark didn't make it to the US until 1986.