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Laura Ventura is one of the two main antagonists of the 1971 Italian slasher film Twitch of the Death Nerve (also known as A Bay of Blood, Ecologia del delitto, Blood Bath and Reazione a catena). The other antagonist being her husband and co-worker, Frank Ventura.
She is portrayed by Anna Rosati.
Biography[]
In the film's opening scene, a depressed, but wealthy woman named Countess Frederica Donati is killed in her home by her husband, Filippo Donati, who makes it look like a suicide. After he kills her, Filippo himself is brutally knifed to death by an unseen killer. Filippo's death goes undiscovered by police, as the second killer takes his body.
Laura and Frank are seen conversing about their new business opportunity. It is revealed that Frederica owned a very attractive bay, and has been visited by dozens of businessmen and real estate agents, including Frank and Laura. They all have pleaded with her to buy the bay from her, but she refused to sell because the land is important to her, and she intends to give it to her son, Simon.
It becomes apparent that during their visit, Laura stole Frederica's diary, and discovered that she was praying for death to take her. Frank and Laura conspired with Filippo to kill the Countess and use her diary entries as suicide notes. This way, Filippo would become the legal owner of the bay, sell it to Frank and Laura, and they could open a resort on it and be rich.
However, because Filippo was murdered, he fails to report back to Frank and Laura. The two go to the bay to investigate, because without Filippo, their plan won't work. They meet Simon, Frederica's son, and Filippo's step-son, as well as Renata, Frederica and Filippo's daughter, and Simon's step-sister. They also meet Albert, Renata's husband.
Later, four teenagers (Denise, Robert, Hilda, and Duke) hear about the "suicide" and break into Frederica's house. Hilda leaves to go swimming, and finds Filippo's body. Terrified, she runs back to the house, but is murdered by the killer. Robert dies next, and Duke and Denise get skewered with a spear.
Laura and Frank ask Frederica's neighbors, Paolo and his wife Anna, if they have seen Filippo, which they decline. Laura deduces that Simon was in fact the person who killed Filippo and the teens. He killed Filippo because he was abusive and killed his mother; and the teens to keep them from reporting his crimes to the police.
Frank convinces Simon, who will be the legal owner of the bay after they get rid of Renata, to sign the ownership of the bay to he and Laura, in exchange for some fake identification and some money to leave the country, since he will soon be wanted for multiple counts of murder. Frank then goes to kill Renata with an ax, but she stabs him with scissors out of self-defense and escapes.
Anna and Paolo are killed by Renata and Albert for being witnesses to the killing spree occurring at the house. Meanwhile, Simon realizes that Frank and Laura were behind the plot to kill his mother, and that everyone is dead because of them. He confronts Laura and she attempts to lead him to believe that it was all Frank's idea and she had nothing to do with it. Aware that she is lying, Simon chokes her to death to avenge his mother's murder. Shortly afterward, Simon and Frank are killed by Albert, and he and Renata celebrate their inheritance the following morning. However, Simon and Renata are accidentally shot and killed by their children immediately after.