Director: Umberto Lenzi
Year: 1975
Country: Italy/Spain
Alternative Titles: Gatti rossi in un labirinto di vetro; The Devil's Eye; Secret Killer; Wide-Eyed in the Dark
Genre: Giallo
Plot:
On a sightseeing trip in Barcelona, an eclectic group of tourists finds themselves being stalked by a maniac looking for a particular member of the group who knows the secret about their past criminal life and must find a way to stop the rampage before they're all killed.
Review:
This was quite the fun and overall enjoyable Giallo. One of the strongest efforts within this one is the fact that there's so much to really like here, with the cheesy setting and location of the overall effort. The fact that this one plays with the idea of the tourist group on a trip through the city when they get caught up in the mystery of the killer striking against them sets this off on a solid note, and the scenes of the group on the streets enjoying the city or being chased thinking they've gotten the killer allows for a nice bit of cheese to be offered here. Once they get further along the investigation the engaging mystery takes over the fun cheese on display as the stalking scenes are quite good, from the opening murder in the streets of the town, a shocking ambush inside a carnival ride where the body is discovered upon arriving back at the station and the great stalking down at the farm featuring the killer tossing the body into the pig-pen.
The later ambush on the unsuspecting victim in the bathroom waiting for her partner to come in and then later meeting the killer trying to escape, makes for a nice scene, and with the follow-up attack on the witness in the hospital that gets interrupted, allows for some solid work here chasing them through the room before making the nice escape that keeps his identity a secret. Coupled with the fine nudity and one of the finer uses of a tragic accident to spur the murders onward here as the motivation for the killings, these allow this one to have some rather fine positives to hold over the few minor negatives.
Among the worst flaws here is the fact that the central investigation doesn't make much sense in the way it unfurls, since it feels like the least successful investigation in one of the genre's efforts. There's never a great deal of uncovering clues to lead to the next one that brings about the killers' eventual identity, and when we are stuck with the police inspectors they don't do much of anything to investigate the clues left behind which are there for it does come off with a solid mystery at its heart involving why the tour group is specifically targeted.
However, the investigation into the missing passenger and the photographic evidence left behind doesn't really play into the film all that much, and it strikes as quite a weak overall investigation, which is part and parcel of the genre. That also leaves the film to stumble at times with a slightly lower body count than would be expected for these kinds of films also comes into play in making the second half feel somewhat weaker than the first half, as it opens strongly but seems to fizzle out once they know the killers' stalking them. While it's not enough to really lower this, they do knock it down slightly.
Overview: ***.5/5
A weak mystery but still rather fun Giallo, this becomes rather likable enough as it goes along, despite lacking some of the genre's key elements. Give it a look if you're a fan of the genre, Eurohorror overall, or the creative crew, while those who aren't fans of the style would want to need caution here.
This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site:
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