The Bloodstained Shadow (1978)

Italy / 1978 - Directed by Antonio Bido - Starring Lino Capolicchio, Stefania Casini, Craig Hill - Color / 109 Minutes

Mathematics professor Stefano D'Arcangelo (The House With Laughing Windows' Lino Capolicchio) takes a leave of absence from his teaching job in Rome to visit his childhood home on an island near Venice. For years he has been bothered by anxiety attacks seemingly rooted in a childhood trauma. These attacks have gotten worse recently, persuading him to take a break from his work. On the train trip south he meets a beautiful antiques dealer named Sandra (Suspiria's Stefania Casini), who is traveling to the same island. Stefano is attracted to her and she doesn't seem to mind his attention. Once on the island he takes up residence with his older brother Paolo (Craig Hill), the town's Catholic priest. When Stefano remarks on an odd woman he sees in a restaurant, Paolo explains that she is the local medium. With very little prodding Paolo (like a gossiping old woman) relates the salacious nature of several of her client's backgrounds, including a doctor suspected of murdering his first wife, a midwife believed to perform abortions, and a wealthy child molester. On the first night of Stefano's return home the medium is strangled to death outside the church. Paolo witnesses the murder but can't see clearly enough through the rain and shadows to identify the killer. Running outside, Paolo and Stefano can't find the body. They decide to keep quiet. But next morning, when a threatening typewritten note is slipped under Paolo's door, they realize something did happen.

After the police find the medium's body, Stefano begins to try to unravel the murder urged along by the steady string of notes to Paolo threatening him to stay silent. The priest is distraught since he has no idea who the killer is and is unsure of what to do. Within days after the medium's death her prominent clients begin turning up murdered as well. It seems sure that Paolo will be next. Stefano's anxiety attacks continue as he divides his time between romancing Sandra and following clues. He begins to think that there might be a connection between the fragmentary memories from his childhood, the killing of a young girl years before, and the murders happening around him now.

From: http://www.eccentric-cinema.com/cult_movies/bloodstained_shadow.htm