Director: Guiliano Carnimeo (as Anthony Ascott)
Year: 1972
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: Perché quelle strane gocce di sangue sul corpo di Jennifer?, What Are Those Strange Drops of Blood Doing on Jennifer's Body?, Erotic Blue,
Genre: Giallo
Plot:
Moving into a new apartment building, a pair of models find themselves becoming the object of a strange killer searching the tenants of the building and as the rampage continues they find themselves at the center of the killers' target and must try to stop him before they kill again.
Review:
This was quite an intriguing and enjoyable enough giallo. Like the majority of the films in the genre, this one really gets quite a lot to like here from the opening half which definitely starts off with the typical introduction of the suspects for the case. As much of the opening act is concerned with the strained relationship with the ex-husband detailing flashbacks to their kinky sex-life with orgies and free-love galore modeled around the few select stalking scenes within the apartment and the concurrent investigation that brings the girls into the building makes for a great set-up in this particular genre. Due to the different photography sessions and the murders usually conducted in the bathrooms the nudity present as well certainly helps move this one along rather nicely with these more traditional elements introduced in the police officer investigating the crimes on the outskirts of their lives.
Those are just as much fun with the different strikes coming off incredibly well, with the opening murder in the elevator being effective and startling at the beginning of the film, an attack in a victim's darkened apartment knowing there's somebody in there with them is quite effective while the stand-out sequence of an attack in the middle of a crowded shopping center while passersby are so wrapped up in their own lives they fail to notice the death in the first place is a real show-stopper. Later scenes of the stalking in the cars' junkyard which turns into the big battle in the abandoned factory that's really enjoyable, while the main confrontation at the end which uses the twist-ending and brawl with the killer that's rather nice and enjoyable, ending this one a fine note.
Finally, the cast here does decently for this type of effort. With Edwige Fenech in a somewhat subdued role as Jennifer Lansbury, the model being tormented by the killer it doesn't really give her much to do. Already known as a capable and qualified lead, this one resorts to having her strip off and just break down into hysterics thinking someone was after her which isn't as impressive a role but keeps her still solidly on the audiences side. Her friend Marilyn Ricci, played by Paola Quattrini, is a stereotypically ditzy model that looks to keep her friend sane but doesn't do much. George Hilton as Andrea Barto the real estate developer handles a nice role he could perform in his sleep where he's painted as such a guilty party it's quite obvious he's not the real victim. As well, the comedic intrusions by the investigating officers gives this a solid break from the rest of the dreary pace. While these make for a nice enough giallo, it does have a few flaws to it.
The main issue is the fact that the film decides to pile on a series of red-herrings into the plot that it really doesn't make much sense at all. Simply trying to get as many plot-points as this one maneuvers through into action manages to downplay the action into a crawl for a long stretch of time trying to get everything out to set-up it's red herrings moving the story along. It really doesn't generate the kind of proper structure here maintaining all these obscure characters and useless tangents looking at the other features that manage to hold the middle section into a veritable loop of rather bland moments which really slows it down, quite the opposite of what's really needed at that point in the film. Likewise, the other facet of this manifests itself in the fact that the killer is quite easy to guess and really doesn't come as that much of a surprise when it's revealed, leading to a slightly unimpressive finale because all the time has been spent on these other areas that it just feels quite lackluster. These here are the film's issues.
Overview: ***1/2/5
As it features a lot of enjoyably elements in the genre and a few minor flaws that pop up occasionally along the way, this one comes off as a solid if slightly underwhelming genre effort. Give this a shot if you're a giallo fan or Eurohorror aficionado of any degree or are curious about this one, while those that aren't should give the more higher-profile genre entries a chance before eventually coming around to this one.
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