Nine Guests for a Crime

Nine Guests for a Crime

Year: 1977

Runtime: 91 mins

Language: Italian

Director: Ferdinando Baldi

CrimeMysteryThrillerHorror

Nine members of a wealthy, hostile family gather for a reunion on a remote secluded Mediterranean island. From the moment they arrive, long‑standing grudges, resentments and dark past deeds surface. Their boat is sabotaged, cutting off any link to the mainland, and as they become trapped, a killer among them ensures the old wounds never heal, with bodies beginning to accumulate, and the mystery deepens.

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Nine Guests for a Crime (1977) – Full Plot Summary & Ending Explained

Read the complete plot breakdown of Nine Guests for a Crime (1977), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.

Twenty years after Charlie’s death on a windswept beach, the wealthy villa owner Ubaldo invites his family back to the island for a guided visit to the spot where the crime took place. The group includes Lorenzo, Michele, and Patrizia, along with their spouses Greta, Carla, and Walter. Also present are Elisabetta, Ubaldo’s sister and the deceased Charlie’s former lover, and Giulia, Ubaldo’s new young wife. Once ashore, a mysterious assassin murders the sailors who ferried them to the island, and suddenly the group finds themselves cut off from help as danger closes in.

From there, the killings come one after another, each target chosen with chilling precision. The atmosphere tightens with mistrust, and the villa’s guests are picked off in increasingly brutal fashion, leaving only a handful of survivors by dawn. In the midst of the terror, the former lovers, siblings, and in-laws circle one another, trying to discern who among them has become Charlie’s quiet, relentless avenger.

The truth emerges only after a long and brutal stretch of suspicion: Charlie’s daughter is the killer, intent on avenging her father’s death years earlier. The revelation explodes with shocking clarity as it shatters the family’s dynamics. The killer is Carla, Michele’s wife, whose survival had long gone unspoken. She had counted on Elisabetta’s complicity to keep the plot hidden, a fact Lorenzo admits he suspected all along since her body was never recovered.

As the sun climbs higher, the chase reaches the water. Carla leads Lorenzo to the location where the final confrontation will unfold. Elisabetta, knowing the truth, tries to manipulate events, but Lorenzo resists her influence, aiming to end the nightmare. In a desperate sequence, Lorenzo shoots Elisabetta and presses on toward Carla, taking the crucial spark plugs in the struggle. Elisabetta, mortally wounded, dumps gasoline into the boat, sealing their fates. When Lorenzo attempts to start the engine, the boat detonates into flames, trapping him in a blazing finale. Carla, wounded and cornered on the rocks, perishes as the craft erupts, leaving the island silent except for the crackle of the fire and the distant, unresolved echoes of a family torn apart by revenge.

Last Updated: October 07, 2025 at 09:18

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Trapped whodunit mysteries like Nine Guests for a Crime

A group of suspects is isolated with a killer, forcing paranoia and suspicion.If you enjoyed the isolated setting and mounting paranoia of Nine Guests for a Crime, you'll find similar tension in these movies. This section features murder mysteries where characters are physically trapped, forcing a deadly game of suspicion and survival, much like classic whodunits and giallo thrillers.

claustrophobicsuspensefulparanoidmistrustfuldeadlyoppressivetense

Narrative Summary

The narrative typically begins with a group of people with shared history or conflicts being brought together in a confined space. An external event or act of sabotage cuts off escape, trapping them. The plot then unfolds as a series of murders, with each death raising the stakes and deepening the characters' paranoia, leading to a final confrontation and the revelation of the killer's motive, often rooted in a dark past.

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Movies in this thread are grouped by their core setup: a closed-circle mystery. They share a high-intensity, tense tone driven by the immediate physical threat and the psychological dread of being confined with a hidden enemy. The fast pacing and straightforward 'whodunit' structure create a consistently suspenseful and engaging experience.

Bleak family revenge stories like Nine Guests for a Crime

Dark secrets and long-held grudges lead to a family's violent destruction.For viewers who appreciated the dark family dynamics and vengeful plot of Nine Guests for a Crime, this section collects movies about family annihilation. These stories explore bitter resentments, betrayal, and secrets that erupt into brutal violence, delivering a heavy emotional weight and a ultimately bleak outlook.

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Narrative Summary

The story revolves around a wealthy or powerful family with a history of wrongdoing. A reunion or gathering acts as a catalyst, bringing hidden hatreds and a specific past transgression to the surface. The plot is driven by a methodical act of revenge, often from an unexpected source within or connected to the family, leading to a series of murders that systematically dismantle the family unit, culminating in a fiery or otherwise catastrophic finale.

Why These Movies?

These films are united by their central theme of revenge against a corrupt family unit. They share a dark, brutal mood and a heavy emotional weight, dealing with themes of betrayal and long-buried trauma. The tone is consistently tense and oppressive, leading to an unambiguously bleak ending where the cycle of violence concludes with total devastation.

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