Director: Antonio Margheriti
Year: 1968
Country: Italy/France
Alternate Titles: Nude... si muore; The Young, the Evil and the Savage; Seven Virgins for the Devil; School Girl Killer; Cry Nightmare; The Miniskirt Murders
Genre: Giallo
Plot:
Arriving at a posh women’s school, a new teacher is immersed in the various aspects of life at the college when a series of murders strikes the students staying there one of the girls starts to investigate what’s going on, as the police try to stop what’s going on from continuing.
Review:
This was an all right if otherwise middling middle-tier giallo. Among the better elements featured here is the somewhat intriguing setup that provides the film with a solid series of interactions and red herrings throughout here. Being dropped into the lifestyle of the school and the various faculty and students who work there, from the long-standing teachers who are genuinely trying to help others to those looking for easy sexual conquests and the iron-fisted authorities in place watching over everyone while we see the students there ranging from the naive to the sexually adventurous, it all has a solid background to build-up a series of genuine intriguing suspects. As that continues with the revelation that a killer is striking the school and the others are disappearing, this series of early interactions allows for some fun moments to come about, trying to avoid suspicion of throwing it on others as they try to solve the identity of the killer.
That goes along nicely with the solid enough series of interactions featuring the women and other victims coming across the killer or being chased around the campus. The first ambush on the victim in the bathtub works as a fine opening to get this going on a strong note, while the sequence involving a character trapped in a darkened basement, unsure if someone else is there or is playing tricks on her, is a solid suspense scene, with the unknown nature of what's going on making it all the better. Other scenes include the attack in the shower room witnessed by one of the spying faculty members, which becomes the setup for their own ambush moments later, and a fun encounter at the swimming pool that gets carried out even with an interruption to alert others to the incident. This type of setup brings about a generally strong mystery about the killer and their identity and motivation for doing everything, as these all make for a solid enough outing.
There are some big issues here that hold this one down. The main issue with the film is the bizarre tempo and pace featured here, which is immensely troubling for this type of genre. There’s a lighthearted tone to this one that comes about with the various interactions with the girls at the school who are constantly trying to make waves with the other faculty members, and it creates a distorted sense of pacing, trying to bring about this type of comedy at the expense of the story. These interactions are based on the type of silly features and comments that are built into this kind of plot, which feels somewhat overbearing for the slashing, which is kept quite lacking in the first half, so that it can focus on these other areas. It also means the somewhat lame finale, where it’s immensely underwhelming how useless most of the plot really is once the full reveal comes out, involving who the killer is and why they started the rampage. Overall, these are what manage to hold this one down.
Overview: ***.5/5
A likable and generally solid enough giallo, there’s enough going on here that manages to make for a likable time while having just a few small issues that keep it from going higher in the genre. Those with an appreciation for this kind of genre fare, who enjoy this era of European films, or who are fans of the creative crew, will have a lot to like, while most others out there should heed caution.
This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site:
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