Director: Mario Bava
Year: 1964
Country: Italy/France/Monaco/West Germany
Alternate Titles: 6 donne per l'assassino; Six Models for the Killer
Genre: Giallo
Plot:
Following a string of savage murders, the police investigation into the victims' connection to a seemingly reputable fashion house that features incredibly shady dealings that are exposed with each strike and force them to find the one clue needed to solve the case and stop the killings.
Plot:
This here is one of the more impressive horror efforts in the entire genre. Among the many notable elements present in this one is the fact that there's quite a healthy amount of influences here to tie this film into the slasher and giallo genres. With this one really concentrating full bore on the murder scenes to a degree unseen before with the various murders being committed being showcased as over-killings in their brutality yet still remaining beautiful to look at, especially as the victims are often left in a deliberately stylish posh establishing a fashion-spread-from-hell aesthetic that carries on the theme of the destruction of beauty established early on with the target being the glamorous world of a fashion house.
The seductive staging and use of bright-red coloring throughout here gives these scenes a sensual yet unsettling quality at the same time, and lets the powerhouse sequences of the stalking and slashing take center-stage throughout here from the opening stalking scene in the park with the driving rain followed by the surprise shock of the killer appearing, a spectacular stalking in a neon-and-fluorescent lit house where they become aware of the killer and must maneuver through the darkened house without being seen and the model's encounter in her home where she gets beaten around and abducted only to later be burned alive on a red-hot stove being the real showstoppers here. Other fun attacks, from the stalking in the models' apartment or the thrilling sequence in the main fashion hall come off as grand, lush and decadent in addition to their brutality.
This is certainly helped along by the killer's appearance, which is basically a rough draft for slasher films later on with the black trench-coat, black gloves, black hat and white handkerchief obscuring the face making for quite the effective disguise and setting the usage of the masked killer in motion for years to come afterward by focusing on the notion of a rampaging killer going around with an obscurity in their disguise. These attributes altogether make this one of the most influential set-ups in the style, and given a wide- berth to play with here with the infusion of more traditional Gothic stereotypes here in it's settings and locations of their grand, luxurious houses and the main fashion house itself that these older chill-laden trappings are placed nicely with the elements which are to be found in more modern standings.
Along with the strong storyline with the need for the diary and the killers' quest for keeping his duplicitous dealings secret which manages to coincide with several others who have motives that would place blame on them and offering enough twists and turns to keep it interesting, there's very little about it that doesn't work. The fact that it's not such a traditional giallo in many senses with it failing in several key areas that are standards of the genre doesn't strike as one that really holds much against it due to the film setting the genre in motion so there isn't any standards to follow through on, but it's the one main issue in this one.
Overview: *****/5
Not only one of the greatest efforts in the genre but also a genuinely enjoyable effort on it's own merits, there's not much to dislike with the film as a whole. This is essential and required viewing for anyone remotely interested in Eurohorror or Giallo as a whole, while those looking for a brutal and enjoyable old-school horror effort should look into this one as well.
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