Eglima sto Kavouri

Greek director Costas Karagiannis obviously thought it was about time to cash in on the popular Italian Giallo exports back in 1974 - and this sleazy little thriller is the result! In fact, he did such a good job of imitating Italian Gods such as Lucio Fulci, Sergio Martino and Dario Argento that if it wasn't for the fact that I know this film is Greek - I'd never have guessed it wasn't Italian! The film doesn't appear to take influence from any Giallo in particular (or at least not from ones that I've seen), and the plot line allows for gratuitous sleaze, as well as a twisted and effective murder story to rival the best of the actual Giallo's. The plot focuses on a married couple. The man enjoys his wife's money, but isn't so keen on his wife and so has seen fit to take a mistress. His mistress wants him to leave his wife, but he can't live without the money. There has been some raping and killing going on in the local area and, luckily, our man happens to know this rape killer! Naturally, he then devises a plot to have his wife killed by the local murderer, but doesn't count on everything not quite going to plan...

The plot has more than enough about it to keep the audience entertained throughout, and this is very much to Death Kiss' credit. There are plenty of twists and turns and all the central performances are good enough to allow for the audience to believe that all this stuff is really going on. The film isn't all that 'nasty' (especially considering that it's alternate title is 'The Rape Killer'), but director Costas Karagiannis more than makes up for this with the atmosphere, which is completely dirty and provides a more than adequate background for a story of this nature. The film is very short, and not a lot of time is wasted on padding, which is nice. However, on the flip side of this – Death Kiss does end very abruptly, and not everything gets wrapped in the way that it should have been. However, it's not all that much of a flaw as the running time that we do have is well used and the film entertains in such a way that anyone who considers themselves a fan of Giallo is likely to be pleased. Death Kiss is rather obscure, but it does have a budget R1 release, and I recommend checking it out!

This is certainly a novel plot, man disposes of his wealthy wife so he can marry his mistress by blaming her murder on a serial killer, but the latter's reaction when he spills the beans to her in advance is, well, maybe the scriptwriter should have put a bit more emotion into it.

The plan involves his accomplice shooting and beating him too, there are also complications, not least being that the lead detective has a hunch about the case, and that the two partners-in-crime go way back.

Apart from the wooden script there are other objections that might be made about this film, but if you like silly sound effects when a victim or suspect is slapped, and a bit of gratuitous nudity, you might find "Death Kiss" mildly interesting.

Jim Prestonreceives a yacht as an anniversary present from his wealthy wife Ellen.He plans to kill her for the entire fortune.To carry out the murder plan,he makes a contact with Mike,a crazed rape killer,who has been terrorizing the city.Mike agrees to be the assassin for the large quantity of heroin.However he suspects that Preston will kill him as soon as his assignment is complete,so he finds a woman who looks exactly like Ellen and kills her instead..."The Rape Killer" is an extremely obscure Greek horror/mystery that offers a healthy dose of nudity and sleaze.The acting is pretty good,the women are beautiful and there are some nice twists and turns.Greek exploitation films are very rare,so if you get a chance watch this one.8 out of 10.

This film essentially begins in a secluded forest on the outskirts of a large city with a serial rapist by the name of "Mike" (Vagelis Seilinos) carefully creeping up on a parked car where a young couple are embracing one another. After quickly dispatching the young man with his pistol, he then proceeds to viciously rape the woman before strangling her to death. Not long afterward, the police discover the body and begin their investigation. The scene then shifts to another young man named "Larry Preston" (Lakis Komninos) celebrating his new yacht given to him by his extremely wealthy wife "Ellen Preston" (Dorothy Moore). Yet even though she loves him very much, he doesn't feel the same way about her and is having an affair with another young woman by the name of "Laura" (Jane Paterson) instead. To that effect, he arranges a meeting with Mike to have him kill Ellen so that he can not only marry Laura but also inherit all of his wife's money in the process. The problem, however, is that Mike doesn't trust Larry very much and, in order to protect himself, decides to deviate from the agreed upon plan--just in case. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an interesting Greek giallo that features a number of scenes containing both nudity and violence. So, parental discretion is advised. It also features a rather novel twist at the end as well. Admittedly, it suffers to a certain extent by rather basic acting but, even so, I suppose it passed the time fairly well, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.