Like many Italian films of the time, this one begins in New York with some grizzly imagery of a mental patient's recurring nightmares about dismemberment and past trauma. However, George is making progress in his treatments at the institution, so he's given some leeway.

Of course, on his first night out, he prowls the streets of NY, and that can only lead him to one place: a sex shop/strip joint. Naturally, his issues are sexual in nature, and this can never end well to a man of this type.


I was watching a "restored" print, but it was still quite grainy. You could see the lines down the screen, the black spots, and the redness of the aged film. Normally, these are considered detrimental qualities for film, but not for this type of movie. 70s and 80s exploitation looks marvelous in this light, and so does that acryllic red blood they always used, and those close-ups of gratuitous gore.


This movie is bastard offspring of Halloween '78 and The Amityville Horror '79. After fleeing New York, our unstable antagonist finds himself in a coastal town in North Carolina, where he fixates on a family a single mother and her three kids. She's quite convincing as the irritable housewife who'd rather be banging this Chong looking guy who goes as far as telling her to "mellow out" after her son plays a sick prank.

This kid reminds me of Billy, the kid in the wraparound segment of Creepshow (which came out a year later). He's the creepy kid who cries wolf, and somehow, he becomes our protagonist. Hmm...

So not only does the Chong guy also resemble George Lutz of Amityville, but he's also banging these kids mom. Some of the babysitting plots are heavily inspired by Halloween, from the curtain shots, to the phone calls, to the entire climax. Someone telling you to "Get out" of the house? Check. The guy's doctor heading on a road trip to find this guy before he does any more damage? Check. Hell, the house even looks like the Myers in ways, and like in Halloween 2 (same year), they show the ambulances out front as they wheel out a body.

Now I know I'm pointing out a few parallels, but they're all regarding films that I like quite a bit. The film also has a lot of Maniac (1980) flare to it, with the psycho in New York, on the beach, fighting his compulsions to chop up attractive women, etc.

Like Amityville, this film is measured in days. It counts down the days, culminating in an interesting, albeit uninspired showdown in which the killer is incapacitated before any true suspense can unravel.

Nonetheless, this film has some good retro gore imagery and a delightful old school aesthetic. The narrative isn't strong, but the performances are adequate, and all the weird little things seem to work for this movie. In true Italian fashion, it even has a somewhat bizarre twist that I didn't see coming, nor do I fully comprehend.

Why didn't I watch this sooner?