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Released by: Mondo Macabro
Released on: 1/15/2005
Director: Luigi Cozzi
Cast: George Hilton
Year: 1975
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The Movie:
I've seen a few of Luigi Cozzi's films and never been all that impressed with his work. Sure, Starcrash is fun for all the wrong reasons but films like Contamination and the dreadful Paganini Horror left me very, very cold. I knew of his association with Giallo maestro Dario Argento but was a little trepadatious when Mondo Macabro announced they'd be releasing (for the first time on home video in North America even!) the director's early entry into the Italian thriller genre, despite the fact that it has a pretty decent reputation.
The story begins when a man named Mainardi (Sergio Martino regular George Hilton of All The Colors Of The Dark) completely by chances comes across a murderer (Michel Antoine of The Beyond) as he is literally in the process of dumping his victim's body into the river. Mainardi figures he can use this to his advantage and he decides to blackmail the killer taking care of some rather nasty business he needs completed - he wants him to kill his wife (Teresa Velazquez) and get rid of the body. Mainardi offers to pay the killer $20,000 and seeing as he really doesn't have much a choice, he agrees to the proposition.
The killer gets into the couples' apartment and offs Mrs. Mainardi reasonably easily without running into any serious snags. The problem arises when he dumps the body into the trunk of the car, goes back into the house, then comes out to find that a young couple, Laura (Cristina Galbo of Let Sleeping Corpses Lie and What Have You Done To Solange?) and Luca (Alessio Orano of Lisa And The Devil) of stolen his wheels and headed to the coast. The killer arranges an alternate form of transportation and heads off in search of the couple to get the body back and make sure there are no witnesses. He tracks them to a house on the side of the ocean and lets himself in. Meanwhile, Mainardi is being talked to by the police who suspect more than he knows about the circumstances surrounding his wife's demise.
So after spending almost ninety minutes in front of the TV, I came away with the conclusion that The Killer Must Strike Again is a very well directed film. Considering my previously noted reaction to Cozzi's other films, I was quite surprised, but there you have it. The camera movements are slick and professional looking and make the cinematography makes great use of shadow to create atmosphere and heighten tension, giving an almost claustrophobic look to a few of the darker interior scenes. The script has a couple of nice twists and is atypical in the sense that it's not really a whodunnit (we know who the killer is two minutes into the movie) so much as it is a howtheygonnadoit. This convention leads to a great, ironic ending that turns the table on the two central characters and allows for some nicely handled murder set pieces as well.
Surprisingly intense compared to some of the director's other works, The Killer Must Strike Again also features as interesting rape scene that is shown in cuts as the camera shows in succession a series of shots from a forced rape contrasted against a consensual sex act happening not too far away at the same moment in time. Without spoiling the film for those who haven't seen it, this sequence really goes a long way towards showing the true character of a couple of key players in the film and Cozzi handles this scene very well given the context of the acts and the explicitness of the material.
Performances are decent all the way around. Hilton plays his usual slick self, always the dashing playboy as demonstrated by the way he's entertaining people at a cocktail party, telling amusing stories knowing full well that his wife is being murdered only a few blocks away. Femi Benussi (of Strip Nude For Your Killer) and Teresa Velazquez provide some nice Eurobabe eye candy and Cristina Galbo is adorable and sympathetic in her part of Laura. The real star of the show however is Antoine Saint-John (credited here as Michel Antoine), who looks every bit the part of a homicidal killer with his unusual facial features and long, gaunt appearance. When he stabs his victims towards the end of the movie he does so with a cold precision that is almost believable.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The Killer Must Strike Again receives a stunning 2.35.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer taken from the film's original negative. Aside from some really minor print damage that pops up in the form of the odd speck here and there, and the very occasional scratch, this transfer looks gorgeous. The black levels are rich and deep, the colors are bright and well defined and never bleed into each other at all. Flesh tones are lifelike and natural looking and edge enhancement and mpeg compression artifacts are almost completely non-existent. There's plenty of detail evident in the image from start to finish and this fully restored uncut version of the film is very, very nice to look at.
Audio options come in your choice of an English Dolby Digital Mono track or and Italian language track with optional English subtitles available. There are a few scenes on the English track that have some noticeable hiss in the background, but thankfully it's never overpowering and the dialogue and background music levels are balanced nicely. The Italian track sounds a little bit cleaner but both are of comparable quality. There aren't any problems hearing or following along with the dialogue and the English subtitles are easy to read and free of any typographical errors.
Mondo Macabro man on the scene Pete Tombs moderates a brisk, informative and amusing full length running commentary with director Luigi Cozzi. They cover all manner of topics related to the movie and to Cozzi's career as well, and the director comes across as a very jovial man who just loves movies. He talks about how the Giallo genre differs from the straight horror genre as well as some of the similarities the two share, in addition to some anecdotes about cast members. He also gives details on how certain specific shots were set up, an interesting example of this being the story behind the house that the two young people end up in and how the exterior is a different building than the one used for the interior shots. There's virtually no dead air at all on this track - Cozzi likes to talk and Tombs does an admirable job of keeping the discussion on track and interesting.
Up next is a video interview with the director that runs for approximately twenty minutes entitled Road To The Killer. Situated behind his desk Cozzi gives some general background information on making the film and on his career in cinema. It serves as an interesting look back on his work from his point of view and in his own words. There are plenty of great photographs used throughout to illustrate the piece and it is quite an interesting little biographical segment.
A second video interview entitled Initials D.A. runs for fifteen minutes and gives Cozzi a chance to reminisce about his working relationship with famed Italian horror/giallo director Dario Argento. Cozzi has worked on such Argento films as Four Flies On Grey Velvet, Phenomena, and Two Evil Eyes and the two have a good relationship, as can be evidenced by the fact that Cozzi know runs the Profondo Rosso shop for Argento in Rome.
The Giallo Genre (seen previously on Mondo Macabro's from the Death Walks At Midnight DVD released in the UK) is a documentary running roughly seventeen minutes that gives a nice overview of the genre. Narrated by Adrian Smith, who scribed Blood And Black Lace: The Definitive Guide To Italian Sex And Horror Movies, it's an entertaining look at the films, punctuated with some nice promotional art. While seasoned Giallo viewers aren't likely to glean too much new information from the piece, it still serves as a very nice summary of the genre and is very much worth watching.
Mondo Macabro has also supplied the alternate opening credits sequence for the film under the title Il Raggio (The Spider) DOUBLE CHECK THE SPELLING ON THIS and they have likewise included the films original theatrical trailer is supplied, using the alternate title of The Dark Is Death's Friend.
Rounding out the extra features are biographies for the key cast and crew members, three still galleries for the film, some interesting production notes written by Pete Tombs giving some background information the film and those who made it, and a trailer reel for other Mondo Macabro releases.
The Final Word:
This early Luigi Cozzi film gets the deluxe treatment with tons of great extras and a gorgeous new transfer from Mondo Macabro. The Killer Must Kill Again is a solid giallo with a nice twist ending and this disc is very much worth your time and hard earned money.