Director: Sergio Martino
Year: 1971
Country: Italy/Spain/Austria
Alternate Titles: Lo strano vizio della signora Wardh; Blade of the Ripper; Next!; Next Victim
Genre: Giallo
Plot:
Trying to get away from a past relationship, a woman ends up meeting a suave playboy which not only brings back her past partner into her life but also causes them to get mixed up with a knife-wielding killer roaming the city and must find out who's behind it all to stop the rampage.
Review:
This was quite the effective and wholly enjoyable Giallo. One of the more entertaining aspects of this one is the fact that so much of the film comes off combining the different exploits of the genre. Initially set-up like a traditional psychological torture effort with the woman's past coming back to traumatize her as the threatening notes and the blackmail that come with the territory in such films while mixing in the standard style of the body-count style, this has plenty of great points to come from this setup. Their past relationship with the sadomasochistic touches comes off really well as the various flashbacks of them cutting each other before engaging in lovemaking gives them a mixture of sleazy thrills alongside a darker edge with the strange fetish being shown in detail, and with all the other fine nudity here from the topless party scenes, nude sunbathing and showering that goes on throughout here as well as the sex scenes give this an enjoyable touch as they do not wear out their welcome within this one.
When this one moves away from this fine starting point to get to the more explosive stalking scenes here, this one gains quite an impressive air here with a lot of truly memorable set-pieces, from the startling opening murder with the victim slashed up in the car to the apartment ambush that features a truly enjoyable attack in the shower and another savage ambush on a victim in their darkened apartment gives this some highly enjoyable and creepy action. The big centerpiece attacks, where a victim meets up with the killer in the middle of a maze in the public park, a tense encounter with the killer in a darkened underground parking lot that has her barely get away, and a glorious freak-out in the villa in front of the other locals where she believes the killer is coming after her makes for a truly enjoyable series of scenes that all add nicely to the films' main storyline.
The fine finale, with the ambush in the house as well as the trap laid to kill her gives this a great and explosively tense finish that gives this one quite an enjoyable finish. Played up with a fantastic pace and plenty of duplicitous actions, these here really give this one many enjoyable elements while only really having one minor point here holding this one back. While the investigation into the murders is rather nicely handled, there's not a whole lot of intrigue given into the finale's rationale about why the plan comes together and is found out, which makes the ending twist come off rather confusing. It's all that really holds this one back as otherwise, this is a stellar overall Giallo.
Overview: *****/5
A fantastically entertaining genre effort that features quite a lot to like about it, this is one of the finest gialli around and offers up quite a lot to like about it. Give this a look if you're a fan of the genre, the creative crew, or this kind of stylistic approach to the giallo while those that don't like any of these factors might want to heed caution here.
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