Le sadique de la treizième heure

Hum-drum and fairly routine murder mystery set in an all-girls school, with a mysterious killer eradicating them one by one. It is fairly stylish and keeps the gore to a minimum; as a result it works as an interesting mystery, nicely resolved, but with a few exceptions the characters are poorly and dully acted and it's not a very provocative story, and there's a bizarre coda at the end involving a sudden James Bondian character who shows up as one of the girls' dads, which obtrusive and unnecessary). Much of the film's storyline and many of its set-pieces are things we've seen before many times. It's a straightforwardly depicted murder mystery but devoid of almost any elements of the usual giallo trappings (graphic gore and unabashed nudity), as such it's kind of a "giallo light" – enjoyable but without the visceral punch that the cinematic ilk has come to be known for. Perhaps the biggest drawback of the film, like many thrillers, is that the characters constantly perform completely unnaturally, speaking and acting and behaving in a manner which is completely unrealistic, unnatural, and often illogical; what they do moves the plot forward but they never really make the story, its setting, or its characters fully realistic and convincing.Michael Rennie guest stars (dubbed into Italian by somebody else) as the police investigator. English actress Sally Smith is delightful as one of the spunkier students with a knack at investigating herself; she is very energetic and expressive and lots of fun to watch; unfortunately she didn't do much after this. Eleanora Brown is also very memorable as the redhead student who becomes the primary target for the killer; she was in a couple giallos prior to this but appeared in no more films afterward. The rest of the cast, including the vastly overrated Italostar Mark Damon, are pretty much uninteresting. Antonio Margheriti's direction is solid and effective, though, and the film is well shot and nicely edited. A moderately pleasing Carlo Savina score provides an enjoyable musical backdrop, as does the rousing 007-ish main title song, "Nightmare."

This is interesting giallo-style Italian thriller similar to the later horror masterpiece Suspiria but without the supernatural elements, and the schoolgirl giallo What Have You Done to Solange? but with less sleaze (in fact, it seemed like the edited version shown in the US didn't even have any nudity in it). It's very hard to find these days, but worth finding. It's a very seminal film if nothing else. The first bathtub murder was borrowed verbatim for the murder of the Cristine Galbo character in Solange. I'm pretty sure the morbid joke of the killer keeping the first body around right under the nose of the later victims inspired Black Christmas, which in turn inspired Halloween, and after that the deluge. (In fact, much of the later US slasher subgenre could easily be traced to two Italian films--this one and Mario Bava's Twitch of the Death Nerve). And certainly no one can deny the influence on Suspiria. While it probably wasn't the first horror movie/thriller to be set in a girl's school or girl's dormitory, it might have been the first to fully the exploit the psycho-killer and "Ten Little Indians" possibilities of this creepy setting. If you like this movie(and you speak Spanish), also check out the contemporary Spanish horror/thriller, La Residencia which is very similar.

Creepy Italian horror mystery very much like an early Dario Argento film with mad killer stalking a girls posh school. Well photographed and very atmospheric. Killer is a surprise (but follow the clues!) Never released on VHS or DVD. I saw this as a kid in 1968, never saw it again but it vividly stuck in my mind.

There are artists (like Argento)and there are hacks (like Bruno Mattei) and inbetween there are pros like Antonio Margheriti. He could turn out quite competent movies which, although lacking in originality, have a certain verve. This one develops more along the lines of an Agatha Christie effort than anything else, eschewing as it does the supernatural elements of the ostensibly similar SUSPIRIA.

I wouldn't bother with the cut version as it has been trimmed of almost all the nudity and violence, which are pretty much what one watches these things for. What remains are the performances: Michael Rennie fans should beware as he is barely in it, but there is a great (dubbed) turn from Lorenza Guerrieri as Jill, a hyper-imaginative pupil.

For Margheriti fans, I would place this among his dreary late-60s efforts - nowhere near the Gothic elegance of DANSE MACABRE or VIRGIN OF NUREMBERG, and neither coming close to the simple joie de vivre of his 80s movies with David Warbeck.

Margherriti directs a pedestrian giallo in a highly styli-zed way that results in a watchable film that's entirely predictable. Plus, despite the title, there's no nudity and a lot of the murders are stranglings! That's almost as bad as that slasher I watched once where someone was killed by carbon monoxide poisoning!

Following a murder at the start of the film, with the corpse getting dumped into a fancy suitcase, we find ourselves at the Gary Glitter Boarding School for Horny Teenagers, where our group of teenage girls are all into Mark Damon (and he's into them! Ah, young love), or into the new swimming teacher (that's a plot point), or avoiding the attentions of the headmistress, who is into them. Hmm.

Basically, this is about as average as you can get, plot wise, for a giallo. You've got your black gloved killer, the red herrings (especially Luciano Pigozzi as a peeping tom), the sexism, but also great colour schemes, set design, and costume design. I even managed to guess the killer and their motives, which is unusual for me as I'm a dumbass.

Despite all the odds, it's still worth a watch, because Margherriti's no fool when it comes to making film, or you could just wait and watch Seven Death's In The Cats Eye, which has a gorilla as a suspect! You heard me.