A thrilling and bizarre film in which a two-fisted Ottawa police captain (Stuart Whitman) , -helped by a Sergeant (John Saxon)- searches for the person who poisoned his sister , who was attending the university in Montreal, Canada . So desperate is he for vendetta , as he starts using his own violent methods to discover the murderer . There are various suspicious people , as a doctor (Martin Landau) , a teacher (Gayle Hunnicut) ...who's the killer ? Soon he finds out that not everything is what he thought it was . Walk with her if you dare...for every step will bring you closer, closer, closer to the meaning of fear! Enter at your own risk ... for there is no such thing as a truly empty room
Poliziesco/Giallo movie with decent production design as well as budget enough , it contains intriguing events , breathtaking scenes , noisy action , vicious killers , and spectacular car pursuits with subsequent crashes . It is a passable actioner with some moving scenes , a straightforward story with lots of shootouts , robbing , fights , twists and turns . The film benefits itself of an interesting issue and disconcerting premise , the strange murder at an University boarding house of a girl who results to be sister of the starring , a tough policeman , and the latter then searching for a merciless revenge by discovering a real series killer . Displaying a great number of red herrings , thrills , plot twists , and suspenseful events . In spite of some flaws and gaps , action keeps breathless, thanks to tension and intrigue . Notable widescreen scenes , which will suffer on TV small screen and including some zooms , as usual . It belongs to Poliziesco subgenre adding some Giallo elements . As a subgenre, the poliziesco (literally, "tough cop") has its beginnings in the late 1960s with films such as Lizzani's Bandiits in Milan (1968), but finds its greatest influence in the American policemen of the early 1970s in the Dirty Harry films (from 71 to 88), William Friedkin's French Connection (1971) or Sidney Lumet's Serpico (1973). Here stars Stuart Whitman as a tough Ottawa police inspector who seeks the killer who poisoned his sister and giving a notable acting . He's well accompanied by a nice cast , such as John Saxon , Martin Landau , Mia's sister : Tisa Farrow , Carole Laure , Jean LeClerc and Gayle Hunnicutt.
It has a tense and attractive musical score by Armando Trovajoli. As well as atmospheric cinematography by cameraman , later famous director, Joe D'Amato , in Technicolor Techniscope , though a perfect remastering being absolutely necessary. The motion picture titled Una magnum Special per Tony Saitta (Italy) or Strange Shadows in an Empty Room or Spécial magnum or Blazing Magnums was professionally directed by Alberto De Martino, though with a sense of disunity between cast and filmmaking , having some shortfalls and failures. This Italian filmmaker was a good artisan who wrote and directed a lot of films of all kinds of genres and exploitation movies , as well as various straight Rip-offs with less attention to plot detail . He usually shot films to cash in on other hugely boxoffice successes as The "Exorcist" Martino made "Anti Christ" and " The Omen" he filmed this " Holocaust 2000" . As Alberto De Martino shot Peplum or Sword and Sandals genre : ¨Spartan Gladiators¨ , ¨Invincible Gladiator¨ , ¨Seven Spartans¨, ¨Valley of Stone Men¨, ¨Secret Seven¨ . Spaghetti Western sub-genre : ¨Django shoots first¨, ¨Providence¨ , ¨Charge of Seven Cavalry¨ . Europe Spy subgenre : ¨OK Connery¨ , ¨Operation Lady Chaplin¨ and Terror : ¨The AntiChrist¨, ¨Miami Golem¨, ¨Horror¨ , ¨Holocaust 2000¨ and several others .
