Cubussoli
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Bob
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
moonspinner55
Italian director Umberto Lenzi dispatches with his usual decadence and debauchery for an Agatha Christie-styled whodunit set in the Spanish countryside. Carroll Baker (in her fourth teaming with Lenzi) plays a terrified woman--rendered mute since childhood after witnessing the death of her parents--who may be the next target of a sex maniac/devil worshiper stalking the area. Suspects include a snippy maid, a creepy chauffeur, an uncle who collects books on the occult, and a bachelor doctor with a cheerless manner. Well-made if derivative and poorly-dubbed thriller shows a hike in budget for Lenzi, who also co-authored the screenplay. Though the picture offers no let-up from the standard woman-in-distress clichés (footsteps in the fog, thunder and rain causing a power outage), at least it provides Baker with a fairly chaste role. The once-acclaimed actress had fallen on hard times in the 1970s, and appearing in Lenzi's twisted sex-fantasies provided a financial life raft. Here, Baker is demurely-attired, and it must have been a relief for her to stay covered-up throughout. With very few lines of dialogue, she does the only real acting in the film. *1/2 from ****
hwg1957-102-265704
Apart from good photography in nice locations this is rather dull. It has the usual giallo touches but halfway through it was easy to work who was the killer. Having the leading player not able to speak because of a childhood trauma does get wearing after a while though that's no fault of Carroll Baker, looking gorgeous as usual. The murders are tame and the music score by Marcello Giombini is forgettable.Near the climax there is a bit where a Donald Duck toy is kicked down some stairs. It is a toy that moves on its own and it tumbles down the stairs, lands upright and carries on moving and I thought, I wonder how many takes that took to get it right? So basically the film wasn't engaging one in the right way even so near the denouement. Umberto Lenzi directed all kinds of films, some good, some bad, some indifferent, some striking. This one's passable.
EVOL666
Despite the fact that KNIFE OF ICE was very tame in the sex and sleaze departments (virtually no bloodshed and no nudity whatsoever...) I found this one to be a decent enough entry in the genre. Martha is a mute who became that way after a train accident killed her parents 15 years earlier. Her cousin comes to stay with her and her father, and ends up murdered. This of course leads to all the typical giallo-style investigations and 'red herrings' that most fans crave...I will say that I was disappointed in the lack of gore and nudity in this entry (especially coming from Lenzi who helmed such sleaze 'classics' as CANNIBAL FEROX and EATEN ALIVE) -but of the several giallo-films that I've seen lately-I was thankful that the pace was relatively quick, and the storyline pretty straight-forward. I tend to like gialli overall, but I find that many get caught up in such convoluted plots that they tend to weigh the film down. I will say that for me at least, I guessed the killer pretty much right off the bat- but that's not to say that the film is exactly 'predictable'. Overall a decent entry that I'd recommend to fans of the genre. 7/10
christopher-underwood
Nowhere near good enough.This is well enough shot and has some good use of the widescreen and suspenseful moments. There is at one point an interesting storyline developing but gradually the poor dialogue forces you to accept that this is going nowhere.For all the twists and turns with the blank expressions from everybody at each death (bloodless I might say!) this becomes all too tiresome. If I could be bothered to work it back I would probably discover that this is so silly because the stupidity of the denouement has to be allowed for.
