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The Killer Must Kill Again. Italy 1975. Directed by Luigi Cozzi

A cheater husband hires an assassin to kill his nagging - but very rich! - wife. The plan goes rather well, until the young couple steals the car where the killer has hidden the body of victim.

Luigi Cozzi (who directed a fun sci-fi/horror romp The Contamination, 1980) went to movie business with a little help from his friend Dario Argento, when Cozzi was a journalist. He was first one who was at least interested of Argento's career and after a while, Cozzi found himself writing Four Flies on Grey Velvet (4 mosche di velluto grigio, 1971). The directorial debut of Luigi Cozzi was experimental science fiction film Tunnel Under the World (Il Tunnel sotto il mondo, 1969). The next one he directed, showed the audience more of giallo. The film was L'Assassino è costretto ad uccidere ancora, The Killer Must Kill Again

Mondo Macabro has released the first official DVD version of this rare piece of giallo. But right in the beginning, it is clear that this won't be a perfect example of the genre - we can see the killer's face right away, so there are no masked killers here. Cozzi finds a different point of view, developing clever and surprising twists that finally create an interesting web, where the killer and the cheating husband tangle themselves. And this is how the film got it's original title : Il Ragno - the spider.

The dubbed dialog is out lip-sync, but this can be seen also when selecting the original Italian audio channel from DVD. If you are familiar with Italian movies, then you can live with the fact - but for others: don't let it ruin your viewing pleasure. After all, it's the style that counts! The quality of acting differs highly, with different actors and actresses. It is sometimes confusing to follow as stylish thriller as this is, when there are over-dramatic, over-acted and rather embarrassing "erotic" scenes with Teresa Velázquez and Femi Benussi. On the other hand, we have spagetti western- regular George Hilton here and charismatic Antoine Saint-John, who resembles of Bob Geldof in Pink Floyd the Wall or David Bowie in his skinniest days. Fine actress Cristina Galbó delivers the most strongest moments in near end.

The Killer Must Kill Again (aka L'Assassino è costretto ad uccidere ancora, Killer Must Strike Again, Dark is Death's Friend) is surprisingly mature film, especially when comparing it to other Cozzi's later efforts. The rhythm and pace is peaceful and for most of the time it is rewarding for the viewer. The fans of giallo genre will notice the fun references to the genre and the one particular director. Of course, there are also regular giallo imagery with close-up shots of flashing knifes and horrified female eyes. Luigi Cozzi shows with The Killer Must Kill Again what can be done with simple use of beautiful colours, lights and shadows. The musical score has some campy tunes in it, but dig that one particular seventies' electric guitar sound with lots of fuzz is perfectly mean.

Without doubt, this is the best directorial work of Luigi Cozzi even though it won't be nominated in Top 5 of giallo genre. Despite that, The Killer Must Kill Again is highly stylish and appealing thriller that really deserves the great release by Mondo Macabro. The picture quality is near perfect (2.35:1) with vivid colours - remember, this is 30-year old film. The audio channel is original mono, that could've been mastered better but works in it's own league. The extra material lives up to its expectations: I particularly enjoyed Luigi Cozzi's interview which is full of trivial information. There is also the interview of Adrian Smith, the author of the book Blood & Black Lace. Luigi Cozzi and Pete Tombs (of books Mondo Macabro and Immoral Tales) provide also highly interesting audio commentary channel.