Le Manoir aux filles

I won't argue that it's a lot more appealing to mention a naked dead girl in the title of a horror movie but, in all honesty, a far more accurate description would be: "Fully Dressed Guy Killed in an Amusement Park Ride"… The plot of this ultra-obscure Italian giallo merely revolves on this rich bloke who's found murdered on a theme ride, only moments after he completed a million dollar life-insurance deal! Instead of paying the amount right away, the company puts one of their best investigators on the case and he infiltrates in the victim's family by seducing the youngest daughter. There naturally is a naked girl found killed in the park, only that comes after a whole lot of family-intrigues and character introductions. The discovery of the naked girl in the park (anyone notice how I LOVE repeat the title all the time?) does herald the beginning of a series of inventive murders, insane plot twists and effective red herrings, so it isn't such a misleading title after all. The story of this film is more or less textbook giallo-material, but it's rather slow-paced and the visual style isn't all that impressive. The murders sequences are pretty tame (no original modus operandi here) and the movie doesn't feature any truly memorable suspense sequences. All this probably clarifies why "Naked Girl Killed in the Park" is still very unknown and incredibly hard to find out there in DVD-land. Also, the cast doesn't contain any famous names and director Alfonso Brescia isn't such a prominent giallo-deity as, say, Sergio Martino or Dario Argento. Still, there's plenty of stuff to recommend to well-trained giallo fans, like a fair amount of sleaze, good music and quite a demented climax…. And a downright fantastic title, of course.