L'assassino è ancora tra noi

It's notoriously difficult to get your hands on an English language version of this late Giallo, and while I did manage to get one; my copy is very dark which did perhaps mean I didn't get the best out of this film as a lot of it takes place at night. Even so, it's clear that The Killer Is Still Among Us is not among the best of the genre. Its reputation suggests it to be nasty, which it is; but despite a promising beginning and the odd interesting moment, this is a sadly misguided and lacklustre effort. The film begins with a scene that sees a couple in a car butchered by an unseen assailant. The action then switches to a girl named Cristina who is studying criminology. With all these murders going on right under her nose, she naturally decides to use them for her thesis and begins looking into the murders by way of the victims. This soon turns out to be a big mistake as Cristina begins receiving threatening phone calls and then her acquaintances begin getting picked off by the same killer she is investigating.

The film often gets compared to the likes of The New York Ripper and Giallo a Venezia as it's along the same lines in terms of nastiness. This film is probably more violent than the latter two titles; but it's not done with as much style and while the violence is good (if you like that sort of thing), it's not enough to lift the film sufficiently. It's clear that director Camillo Teti was not the most sensitive man to ever live, as an interesting fact about this film is that there actually was a killer on the loose around the Florentine area at the time this was made! The story is really not all that interesting; the first half flows well and lead me to believe that it might develop into something noteworthy but unfortunately it never does; which is quite surprising considering that the screenplay was written by Giallo luminary Ernesto Gastaldi. It all boils down to a very odd conclusion that takes place in a cinema and doesn't make a whole lot of sense, though it does lead to the film's most shocking sequence. Overall, The Killer is Still Among Us is not of the Giallo greats and is actually one of the worst that I've seen.

Very effective, brutal, gory and sexy thriller in the giallo mould. Mariangela D'Abbraccio is lovely as the leading lady as a criminal student getting involved in an ongoing and terrible series of sex killings of young couples making out in the backs of cars (and one tent).

Not quite as creepy as it might be but not short on sleaze and as for the bar where voyeurs hang out before setting off to spy on such young lovers - unbelievable! Some great moments and some of the most extreme sequences of sexual violence I have seen.

I prefer the alternative title, 'The Killer Is still Among Us' which is much more fitting when it comes to the astonishing cinema ending.

A criminology major (Mariangela D'Abbraccio), doing thesis research on a series of lover's lane sex murders, plunges into a dangerous world of perverts and voyeurs but the killer may be much closer to home...

Seasoned Eurotrash screenwriter Ernesto Gastaldi turned the still unsolved "Monster Of Florence" murders into a pretty good giallo full of suspense, paranoia, and graphic set-piece slaying. The grisly mutilations and jump scares that make late gialli like GIALLO A VENEZIA and THE NEW YORK RIPPER such sleazy fun are here as well and there's even a bit of the supernatural going on with a séance medium seeing a double murder as it happens. Something kept nagging at me, tho- when "Son of Sam" terrorized the NYC area in the summer of '77, we wouldn't be caught dead in a lover's lane but in this movie it's a popular extra- curricular activity at the college regardless of the fact there's a killer loose. But what are you gonna do, the young like it hot, I suppose, and the real Il Mostro (who sliced off female body parts and mailed them to the police like Jack The Ripper) killed 8 couples which means 7 of 'em courted disaster by paying no mind to what was happening in the world around them. The end credits said the film was made "to warn young people" and maybe it was but the movie obviously pandered to gore-hounds, as well. And did a good job of it, too.

Along with "Giallo a Venezia"(1979,Mario Landi)and "The New York Ripper"(1982,Lucio Fulci)this is possibly the nastiest Italian giallo ever made.It is based on the still unsolved series of murders in Florence and that lack of closure makes its over-the-top sexual violence all the more unsettling.A criminology student named Christina Marelli decides to write her thesis about a mysterious serial killer terrorizing couples in lover's lane.As she starts searching around she gets obscene phone calls.Is the killer her boyfriend Alex or maybe someone else?This forgotten Italian giallo is truly shocking.The scenes of sexual violence and mutilations are extremely well-done(brilliant special effects by Roberto Pace)and disturbing.A young couple is murdered in a tent.The boy has his throat cut open,while the girl is shot several times.The killer then slowly slices off her right nipple and cuts apart her vagina in close-up.This sequence is so graphic and sick that I almost threw up during it.The film is also suspenseful and bizarre in some scenes(check out the Devil's Bar moments)."The Killer Is Still Among Us" is certainly not for everybody,but if you like extreme cinema give this one a look.Highly recommended.

If you thought that GIALLO A VENEZIA took the giallo genre to its logical conclusion of violence, this one wins hands down. It was made pretty late for a giallo (late 80s) and I guess that is reflected by the outrageous bloodshed that presumably was tacked on to get some kind of financial return on this one...

Stylistically, this is reasonably effective. It has a bit of a "TV movie" look that I really don't like. The atmosphere that my favourite gialli (such as DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING or EYE OF THE LABYRINTH) manage to conjure up is simply not present here. Still, the plot seems pretty neat if a little too straightforward for a film of this nature (then again I'm a sucker for the contrived and complex!).

Once again, the sexual violence is the focus of this film. The scene in the tent is really very nasty and explores the farthest reaches of sexual exploitation, only dabbled with previously by the likes of THE BEAST IN HEAT and DELIRIUM...

Still, it's worth a look I guess. I'd still rather watch a well-crafted but less excessive giallo any day of the week.