L'assassino è costretto ad uccidere ancora

Luigi Cozzi was assistant director on Dario Argento's Four Flies on Grey Velvet, so he had a bit of experience working on a thriller. The Killer Must Kill Again is the first time he got a chance to direct one for himself.

The story begins with a man witnessing a mysterious killer disposing of a body by a river. Instead of reporting him to the police, he blackmails him into murdering his wife so that he can cash in the insurance. All goes to plan until a couple of joy riders steal the car where the wife's body is stashed. The killer then pursues these unfortunate delinquents who know nothing of the hidden body.

This one benefits from a good cast. Giallo regular George Hilton plays the husband and he is once again convincing as a very shady character. Alessio Orano (Lisa and the Devil) impresses as one of the joy riders. But best of all is Antoine Saint-John as 'the killer'. He is very intense and is impressively creepy in this role. The very fact that, unlike regular gialli, the killer's identity is known from the start is an active advantage here as Saint-John's sinister look could not have been exploited if the murderer was a mystery presence. In fairness, the very fact that there is no mystery in this film at all makes me question if it truly is a giallo in the first place. My feeling is that it isn't, although it shares many of the conventions of the genre such as a cast of unsympathetic characters, brutal violence - including a somewhat unpleasant rape scene - and a stylish look - check out Hilton's yellow pad.

Because of the lack of a mystery this one has to depend on other things to keep it interesting. It isn't always successful though and the story does lack a bit of excitement at times. There is a decent set up developed at the beginning and there is some effective tension towards the end but it does meander a bit in the middle. Still, it's well made and acted and is certainly a solid film overall.

A tense and thrilling Giallo co-produced by Italy/Spain/France including ordinary grisly killings with a lot of twists and turns. This ' Gialli' getting certain success , being compellingly shot, including well staged crimes with full of enjoyable visual content , twists and turns . This is the usual Gialli where intrigue , tension , suspense , stabbing and chases show up lurking and threatening through apartment, seaside house, cars and grim interiors. The film combines atmospheric blending of thrills , chills , nudism and suspenseful final. Giorgio (George Hilton) is an ambitious adulterer who makes a deal with a serial killer to dispose of his wealthy wife, Nora (Tere Velazquez) . Unfortunately, a thrill-seeking young couple (Beatriz Galbó, Alessio Orano) become involved into a twisted criminal plot when they rob the killer's (Antoine Saint-John) car with Nora's corpse in the trunk , ending up at a run-down seaside house. Slowly some people are found dead and while an obstinate police inspector (Eduardo Fajardo) investigates the strange missing wife with numerous suspects

The film packs suspense, terror, effective aesthetic, plot twists , intrigue and being a very exciting terror-thriller. The rather perplexing tale weavers so many red herrings when ultimately the murderer is caught . The movie is made up of a series of Giallo horror set pieces that are shot in eye-poping style and ordinarily getting hints to solve the crimes until a surprising final twist. Director builds intrigue, suspense and tension beautifully with rich atmosphere and driving attractive musical score. Stars George Hilton who gives an acceptable acting as the greedy husband . Hilton starred a lot of Spaghetti/Chorizo Westerns, such as: ¨I Due Figli Di Ringo¨, ¨Un poker Di Pistole¨, ¨The gold professionals¨, ¨Sartana¨ , "Professionals for a Massacre" and many others ; though also performed a great number of Giallos as ¨All the Colors of dark¨ , ¨The perverse Mrs Ward¨ and ¨Scorpion tale¨. While Tere Velazquez performs his beautiful wife, being accompanied by a fine support cast. But is Antoine Saint-John or Michel Antoine who steals the show as the creepy and heinous serial killer. Here stands out the affectionate appearances from charming Eurotrash goddesses , such as : Femi Benussi , Cristina Galbó, Carla Mancini and brief acting by Sydne Rome as first victim. And being a Italian/Spanish/French coproduction , appearing here and there Italian actors : Femi Benussi, Alessio Orano and Spanish : Beatriz Galbó, Eduardo Fajardo, Tere Velázquez ; and French : Antoine Saint-John.

Nice ambiance and evocative settings, enhanced by the well photographed in Icet de Paolis, Milano, Lombardo, Italy , carried out by a good cameraman, Riccardo Pallottini. As well as intriguing and suspenseful musical score by Nando De Luca. The motion picture was decently directed by Luigi Cozzi or Lewis Coates providing startling visual content and tension enough. This Italian filmmaker is a craftsman who has directed some flicks with penchant for Sci-Fi, Horror , Giallo , adventure and fantasy, such as : ¨Hercules¨,¨The adventures of Hercules II¨ , ¨Escape from Galaxy 3¨, ¨Sinbad of the Seven Seas¨, ¨Nosferatu in Venice¨, ¨Paganini Horror¨, ¨Tunnel under the World¨, ¨The killer must strike again¨. His biggest hit was Star Crash¨ and he was attached to direct ¨Lifeforce¨ at one stage . Rating : 6/10 .

Mr. Mainardi (Euro fave, George Hilton) accidentally witnesses a man (Michel Antoine) dumping a body. Rather than report the crime to the police, Mainardi blackmails him into murdering his wealthy wife, Norma. Things go smoothly, but before the killer can dispose of Norma's body, a delinquent couple steals the car which has the corpse stashed in the trunk. The maniac begins tracking them down as the two are completely oblivious to what they've gotten themselves into.

Before I bought and watched "The Killer Must Kill Again", Luigi Cozzi wasn't a director I had been particularly fond of. Being the sucker for gialli that I am, I decided to take a chance on this one when the DVD hit. While this isn't in the upper tier of Italian horror, it did prove to me that Cozzi is quite capable of doing something above substandard sleaze and cheese.

This is actually a quality film, though I fail to see how it has found itself classified as a giallo. We know who the killer if from the get-go, though he is never named. There is no mystery here unless you wonder what led to his initial murder which Mainardi stumbles upon. I have to say that it reminded me of Hitchcock's classic suspense pictures more than it did any giallo. "Dial M for Murder" definitely came to mind at first, but then it went off in it's own direction. On the other hand, as is usually the case in the giallo sub-genre, virtually none of the characters are totally innocent. The protagonists steal a car and $150, plus they lie constantly. I also thought it was amusing how Luca is romancing this girl, only to help another girl on the side of a road and then do her in the stolen car. Sometimes you just have to get any wherever you can! My main issue with the film is that after the car is stolen, it gets bogged down and doesn't really pick up again until the killer finds the couple. This portion could have been spiced up a bit.

The killer himself is actually a pretty intimidating fellow, what with Michel Antoine's reptilian facial features and large build, but he definitely has a lot of hell in this movie. Things just never seem to go right for him. As the greedy blackmailer, George Hilton is convincingly suave, even with the weird sideburns. These two make for a fine pair of villains.

Cozzi's direction is solid, and there are only a few small doses of the cheese that would dominate many of his later films. He employs some nifty camera tricks that he surely picked up from Argento. I also liked how he had the two very different sex scenes playing out seamlessly at the same time. In fact, that mean-spirited rape is the only real bit of nastiness on display here. Again, not the norm for a giallo, but the lack of it certainly doesn't hurt the film any.

Overall, this is a fine piece of work from a man who I originally had pegged as another Bruno Mattei. Any fan of the gialli sub-genre should be pleased, even if it isn't a giallo in the truest sense of the word. While the pacing goes off the rails at one point and the climax feels a tad anti-climatic, it's not enough to ruin things.

Not only does George Hilton live in the most yellow house ever witnessed within the 'yellow' genre, he's also playing one of the most heartless and snidey characters ever to appear in a giallo. You see, George is married to one of them dames who has a very rich father, and she's ruining George's life by not giving him enough pocket money and complaining about George spending all his cash on mistresses. What's a (kind of) young playboy to do?

Well, it's lucky for George that he spots a cadaver-like serial killer (played by Antoine St John of The Beyond and Fistful of Dynamite) dumping a car containing a woman's corpse into a river. George makes his presence known, takes the killer's monogrammed lighter, and tells him he's got a proposition to make. They both head off to watch some figure skating while they talk business: George wants the killer to bump off his wife and in return, not only will George forget what he's seen, he'll also throw in some cash to sweeten the deal too...

George sets up his alibi while the killer gets down to business, but what neither of them predict is that shortly after the killer throws George's wife's body in the boot of the car, two kids come along and steal the car while he's clearing the house up. Unwisely stealing a car and alerting all the neighbours to his presence, the killer takes up the pursuit while George returns home to find police everywhere. The kids of course have no idea they have a body in the trunk while they drive across the country...

You'll see from the description that Luigi Cozzi's approaching things from a different angle here, which is refreshing. You've got a kind of three way story going as George sweats it out in the presence of the cops, not having a clue what's going on, while the killer tracks the corpse car and tries to clean up the mess the kids leave in their wake, plus Cozzi keeps things interesting with the two youngsters by making Cristina Galbo a frigid virgin who makes her boyfriend jump through hoops to get her pants off, including stealing the car in the first place. For the record Galbo in 1975 was twenty-five years old, but never seems to look any older than eighteen.

There's not a lot of violence in this one mind you, so gore hounds will be let down by lack of splatter and the absence of a high body count, but the whole novel approach of the plot kept me interested, as did Cozzi's visual flair.

The Killer must Kill again sounds like a title suited for your typical giallo.And it does start out as one. Soon it becomes clear that even cold blooded killers can have bad days. There are numerous moments that play out like you would see in comedies.The straight faced kind, which makes it even hilarious at times.I personally was not expecting this and found it refreshing.But the director made sure not to sympathize with the culprit too much since he continually shows evil when he feels when it is needed. This provides an unique way in building suspense since you never really know when the killer shows that nasty side and when he remains professional.Antoine Saint-John (as the killer) looks like Death personified.Easily the best character in the movie next to Alessio Orano's character named Luca who has to be the most laid back and patient of guys in movie history. He is trying to have sex with his girl and she keeps putting him off and delaying it to the point that she convinces him to fetch food.Luca doesn't mind and goes on his way. How laid back the guy is we get to witness in the scenes after with a sexy blonde in some sleazy scenes (full frontal nudity).The contrast between those scenes and the ones with Laura (Luca's girl) which I won't describe was quite disturbing and shocking even. It's this mix of moments that keeps you glued to the screen. Very different from most giallo's but in a good way.