Night Killer — Night Killer(Blu Ray)
Night Killer( aka Non aprite quella porta 3) appeared in 1990- and was an Italian production, and was co-directed by Claudio Fragasso( writer of the likes of Troll 2, Zombie 3 & 4, Rats: Night Of Terror, Monster Dog) & B-movie hack Bruno Mattei. And like a lot of trashy Italian genre films of the time, this is somewhat of a rip-off/ cash-in on more know/ popular- and that main focus is of course Nightmare On Elm Street, as we have a clawed/ deformed masked killer, and the title suggests dream stalking- through oddly hardly any of the film (stalking or otherwise) happens at night.
The film begins in great 80’s/ 90’s cheese fashion- with a group of dances doing a work-out/ rehearsing in lycra- one of the dancers turns up late, she is chastised by the show's director- and rushes off to get change- cue blatantly & leering nudity. Then appears our lurching killer- who's dressed in black leather, has a bold-head demon mask with big ruby teeth, and one long-nailed demon hand- he stabs her, then pushes his hand straight through her middle. The director comes looking for her, and gets slashed across the throat- then stagers back to the theatre, often forgetting to cover up her clearly uncut throat before badly fallen over the balcony- and so the gloriously badness of Night Killer begins. As we move into the film- we get big hair and dumb heroine, amusing meant to chilling phone calls, characters with silly dumb voice who can barely get there lines out, too close for comfort beret-wearing psychiatrist, truly wacky plotting- that often feels like it’s been made up as it goes along, sleazed-yet-silly tired to bed action, and a truly jaw-dropping ending. The films mystery/ edge is created by one of the killer's victim who he raped instead of craved-up, and she can’t recall his face. All in all it's really one hell of a lot of chessed euro fun- which will keep bad film fans both amused and often aghast.
The new print looks very nice clear, bright, and bold- really amping up the late 80’s/ early 90’s fashions & big hair- the sound also great too, pumping up the chesse-bound soundtrack that moves between big beat & dramatic synth scaping, smooth jazz, and the odd sailing 80’s guitar line. On the extras front we get two stand-alone on-camera interviews- the first is the longest coming in around twenty-four minute mark, and it’s with Claudio Fragasso- here he discusses his original intention to make a arty European thriller, the film's location in smalltown Virginia, Bruno Mattei filmed scenes & the arguments they caused, and the films two main leads who apparently hated each other- all in all it’s a fascinating, amusing & worthy interview. The second interview is with the film's screenwriter Rossella Drudin- which sees her discussing how she got involved in the project, and what facet of the film's script she was responsible for- this interview runs for around fourteen minutes. You also get the film's trailer, and you can choose to watch the film in either English or Italian.
If you enjoy so-bad-it’s- great film, then you really need to do yourself a favour & pick up Night Killer- as it stands as one of the more memorable, crazed, and unpredictable slices of euro trash I’ve seen in some time.