Il gatto dagli occhi di giada

I am subdued by the realistic darkness of this film. Giallos as a whole may have scenes of disturbing violence, including rape or murder, or other forms of torture and exploitation - but often it's presented in such a manner that it's not realistic. Giallos are either too stunningly beautiful to be scary (my personal favorites), and when they aren't stylish and fashionable or lavishly atmospheric, there's so much sex and silliness that the sub-set of giallo films are obvious predecessors to American popcorn slashers.

Not so with Watch Me When I Kill, despite the absurd title, I avoided this giallo for months because I suspected that it was one of the slapstick exploitation proto-slashers that aren't really my preferred gialli, just because of the awful stupid English title. In fact, everything about English translation is why this film only gets a 7 and not an 8 or even a 9. The dialogue is too clunky and quaint, and I would really love to find an Italian-language version of this flick. The Cat with the Jade Eyes is the literal Italian title, and that's just the tip of the iceberg in how American marketing borderline destroys some of these old Italian sleeper hits.

Unlike most giallo directors, Antonio Bido loved middle aged women. Middle aged women make appearances as real solid characters in both Il gatto dagli occhi di giada and Solamente Nero, and except for one youthful main character every other woman in this film is over 50 except the opera singer who might be 35-40ish at youngest. Bido shows their faces, shows these "invisible women" as people watching and waiting and being worthy of being part of his film.

But that's not what makes Watch Me When I Kill so extraordinary. This movie is scary. The noises on the tape in the beginning of the film are truly disturbing, some scenes are mind-bendingly surreal but are more reminiscent of Bava or even Roman Polanski than Argento, and the end is so, so, so, so dark.

A young woman Mara(Paola Tedesco) accidentally stumbles into a murder in progress of a pharmacist in his store, she then finds that she is now being sought be the killer. Instead of notifying the police, she intrusts the services of an old cigar chomping friend Lukas (Corrado Pani, Secrets of a Call Girl, Gambling City ) to help investigate the killing and prevent the killer from killing her. Lukas investigation gets progressively more confusing and frustrating as people he looks to for information turn up dead or are none to helpful.

Bido of The Bloodstained Shadow fame, has a reputation for approaching his films differently and here again the film hides its dark secret until the finale of the film. The film suffers a little as the print available is very dark and grainy, a fact that might lead some to believe the film has no merit, but it does and it also has a message that the past comes back to haunt everyone. There are also some gruesome killings to keep the gorehounds happy. Pani puts in a fine performance, despite some dodgy dubbing and the score by Trans Europa Express is powerful and memorable and much in the vein of a Goblin opus.

Purely by coincidence, I found an old & dusty videotape in the horror closet of an acquaintance of mine and the cover displayed the bizarre title (in Dutch) "Revenge of the Cat". I had to perform a search on the actors' names in order to find out that it actually was "Watch me when I Kill" (a.k.a. "The Cat's Victims", a.k.a "The Cat with the Jade Eyes") and initially that was a pleasant surprise, since this Italian late 70's giallo has been on my purchase list for quite some time now! After seeing it, I'm even more glad that I didn't spend money on a fancy DVD-version, as it is quite a disappointing and overly confusing horror effort. Surely not the worst film of its kind, but pretty bleak compared to the works of Sergio Martino or, of course, Dario Argento. The main problem with Antonio Bido's film is that it makes absolutely no attempts to involve the viewer in the search for the maniacal killer. Someone, who stays off screen all the time and deforms his voice whenever he leaves messages to his next victims, is seemly randomly killing people and it nearly takes half of the movie before we get informed that all the victims sat in the same jury committee during a lawsuit against a criminal who recently escaped from prison. That still doesn't reveal the killer's identity, but at least you can guess along from this point. Due to the lack of background during the beginning, "Watch me when I Kill" often feels a bit slow and dull. There's not much atmosphere and ever fewer tension, and the private detective character isn't the least bit amiable. The murders, on the other hand, are lusciously gore, with a close-up slit throat, a woman suffocated in a dish of food and the must brutal strangulation I ever saw. The cinematography sadly is too dark, although that might have been due to poor videotape quality, but the score is terrific (probably the best thing about the entire film) and the climax is fairly surprising.

A series of brutal and bizarre killings takes place.When Mara witnesses one of the murders the black-gloved killer starts terrorizing her-she turns to her boyfriend Lukas for assistance.But will he be able to uncover the culprit before his girlfriend becomes the next victim?Antonio Bido's "Watch Me When I Kill" is an enjoyable giallo,albeit heavily influenced by Dario Argento's works,especially "Deep Red".The film is an above-average effort filled with enough suspense and shocks to satisfy fans of Italian horror.Surprisingly effective murder scenes are another reason to check this film out-in particular,the muder of Fernando Cerulli in a bathtub,set to opera music,would make Dario Argento proud.The performances are pretty good and it's nice to see Fulci's veteran Paolo Malco in one of the main roles.8 out of 10.

Watch Me When I Kill really, desperately wants to be Deep Red. It is not. Still, few films are and Watch Me When I Kill has enough going for it to make it worth a watch. What other giallo film can claim that the killer's motivation involves their family being killed by Nazis. That's not a bad reason for a murder spree if you ask me. It does leave the film on a sour, somber note, but there's still some fun to be had before the big climax. It's never as suspenseful or brutal as some of its giallo brothers and sisters, but it tries so hard you want to give it point for trying.

One thing that does work - the score by Trans Europa Express. It has a distinct Goblin-esque feel to it that works incredibly well.