If I ask horror or giallo geeks out there have you ever seen a Turkish horror most of them will say no, and if they do it's always the Dabbe franchise. Turkey isn't the country known for horror flicks but if you search really hard then you could find this one here. And I mean, it's really a hard search to find this hidden gem. As far as I know this isn't available on DVD only to find on VHS and what makes it harder to catch, never released outside Turkey so which means if you find it, it doesn't have English overdub or subtitles.
Is it a problem if you watch it without foreign subs. Not really, because the story is easy to pick up. Even as I didn't understood one word I watched it without one boring moment. First of all I was surprised that such kind of flick could be made in Turkey back in early seventies. Face it, girls are walking around with short skirts, the Nancy Sinatra kind of white boots just under the knees. There's even a bit of nudity and some girls when being raped are in their underwear. A normal issue in US or UK flicks made back then.
There's no blood to catch here but it's the way it was shot that makes it worth picking up. Ertem Göreç, the director surely did knew his stuff. Zooming in on faces, the killer with black gloves and only showing the gloves. And the child with it's creepy eyes, yes, this surely is worth picking up if you find it.
Maybe you can say that it is a rip-off of so many examples back then especially the Italian giallo scene but still then you have to make the flick. The only moment I had a laugh was the use of 'The Harmonica Man' by Morricone used in Once Upon A Time In The West (1968). Not the original score but still...
On part of the acting some things are exaggerated like scary faces or reactions. But overall, i did enjoy watching it and it only shows that even an extreme regime , coup by memorandum, that started in 1971 couldn't stop this kind of cinema.
Still searched by the freaky collectors, like myself, and it only shows how hard it is to catch it as this is the first review made 45 years after the release.
