SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

ferbs54 I am happy to report that Spanish-born actress Cristina Galbo is now a very solid 3 for 3 with me. She was excellent as the doomed student in the 1971 giallo "What Have You Done To Solange?" and ever so appealing in the 1974 zombie gut-muncher "Let Sleeping Corpses Lie." And now, here she is again in "The Killer Must Kill Again," giving another fine performance in this 1975 Italian suspense thriller. This film tells a simple story, really. A husband (played by hunky giallo regular George Hilton) hires a homicidal maniac to do away with his wife. The deed accomplished, the killer (played by the creepy-looking Michel Antoine) stuffs the body into the trunk of his car, only to have it stolen by a pair of teenaged joyriders (one of whom is our Cristina). This, of course, sends the dumbfounded madman off in hot pursuit.... Anyway, although this picture offers no real surprises (unlike most gialli, we already know the killer's identity, as well as his motivations), there is a great deal of suspense generated somehow, as we suspect that when Antoine eventually does catch up with Galbo and her beau, the spam really will hit the fan. And it does indeed, in spades! The film features competent but fairly undistinguished direction by Luigi Cozzi (flashy only in a couple of sex/rape scenes) and ominous music by Nando de Luca. It is a very straightforward little film, actually, that gives the viewer precisely what is expected. Even Hilton's fate is kind of foreseeable. Still, I did enjoy watching the film go through its paces, and Cristina Galbo's exquisite presence makes it go down all the easier. I think I'm ready now to sign up for her modern-day flamenco classes in California!

christopher-underwood I really only need to repeat my video review and wonder if it doesn't deserve that extra point - maybe when I've listened to the commentary track! 'Excellent sleazy giallo with fairly original plot line. Simple (thank goodness) tale which although it involves someone getting someone else to kill their wife, is complicated by the fact that the killer's car gets stolen and the body with it. Great sleaze scene in the middle when boy and girl break off from sex ('cause she's peckish!) and he picks up a fast blonde. Whilst killer/rapist takes his girl's virginity, he's humping the blonde and both scenes are intercut accompanied by sounds of pain and pleasure, all nicely confused.'

MARIO GAUCI Though I had long been intrigued by the fact that Mondo Macabro released this as a "Special Edition", I wasn't sure what to expect of it - having only watched the director's juvenile mythological romp HERCULES (1983) - but now I have to say that I totally agree with the blurb found on the DVD front cover, proclaiming it as "a lost giallo classic"! Suspenseful and atmospheric, this is surely among the most Hitchcockian gialli ever made and one of the least conventional - never really going where the audience expects it to by piling up surprise upon surprise till the very end! Cozzi's professional debut, in hindsight, has also been recognized as his best work; he had earlier collaborated on the script of Dario Argento's FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET (1971) and even helmed an episode, called "The Neighbor", in Argento's four-part TV series DOOR INTO DARKNESS (1973). Actually, the director himself admits that the feature - which was filmed during this same year but not released till '75! - was basically an expansion of that short (particularly the sea-side set-piece which occupies most of the second half), done on a more elaborate if still modest scale (given that Cozzi had no art director assigned to the production and the props were mostly borrowed from various crew members!) and also a lot more graphic.Nando De Luca's score - a vital element in any giallo - is quite serviceable, considering that he was more or less foisted upon the director! The film features some expert cross-cutting (particularly between the initial murder and a society party, and later during two parallel sex scenes - one of them Cristina Galbo's rape at the hands of the ambiguous and peculiar-looking killer, played by Michel Antoine). The rest of the cast is also well chosen: nominal star George Hilton, actually, is absent for moments on end but he plays his part to the hilt {sic}; Eduardo Fajardo, too, has one of his best roles as the wily Police Inspector on the killer/kidnapper's trail; Alessio Orano as the male member of a young couple who get more than they bargained for when a car they steal turns out to hold incriminating evidence. Apart from the lovely Galbo (whose performance is far above the norm for the genre), here we have two more, if elder, beauties in Teresa Velasquez (proposed by the Spanish co-producers after Pamela Tiffin turned Cozzi down!) and frequent "Euro-Cult" starlet Femi Benussi (in a role intended for the much younger Gloria Guida, still an unknown at the time) - all of whom are asked to shed their clothes during the course of the picture! The film was originally called THE SPIDER (and, in fact, its Italian equivalent - IL RAGNO - heralds the end titles on the print utilized here), which is a subtle allusion to the cat-and-mouse games played throughout between the various characters. The DVD extras are exemplary and Cozzi's ubiquitous (and obviously passionate) contribution is highly engaging, imparting a lot of interesting anecdotes such as the fact that, at one point, cameraman Riccardo Pallottini had to leave the production because of previous commitments to another - and was eventually replaced by FOUR FLIES ON GREY VELVET's Franco Di Giacomo, who happened to be his own daughter's husband! He also recalls his aborted collaboration with legendary composer Ennio Morricone, master of the giallo score; other information, such as the in-joke involving the initials on Antoine's lighter, was easy enough to catch for discerning viewers.Distressingly, though, the music on the DVD main menu plays out at a defeaning level - while there's severe overscan during the various text supplements (though not so that one can't grasp the gist of it, thankfully)! Besides, this really should have been a 2-Disc Set with Cozzi's rare and amateurish debut, THE TUNNEL UNDER THE WORLD (1969; referenced quite a bit in the feature itself) included on a second DVD - as No Shame did with HIS DAY OF GLORY (1969) on the PARTNER (1968) SE and THE RIP-OFF (1978) on the as-yet-unreleased Double-Disc Set of COLT 38 SPECIAL SQUAD (1976)...

Bjorn (ODDBear) Luigi Cozzi, close friend and collaborator to Dario Argento, took director's chair for this mediocre giallo, not getting even close to Argento's well constructed giallo's.The story is fairly juicy. Frustrated husband Hilton catches a killer at work, disposing of a woman he had just murdered. He makes a deal with the killer to dispose of his wife so he can get wealthy. The killer does his job, but after loading his trunk with her body the car gets stolen by a couple of horny teenagers and he has to track them down to complete his job.As said, fairly interesting story but Cozzi handles matters terribly, resulting in a rather boring and downright unjustifiably long-winded film. Plus, he continually disrupts the few tension filled moments with a boring segment involving an incredibly stupid blond. I mean, you get the point, with those cuts between a rape and actual love making, but that music in the background and...ahhh, it just kills the mood entirely.It could have been good, I mean, Cozzi is rather sleazy here and a few fleeting moments are satisfying to the seasoned giallo fan, but it's far from being great.