Assault (aka In The Devils Garden, The Creepers, Satan's Playthings, Molested) was released in 1971.It was directed by fairly prolific Scotsman Sidney Hayers – who started his career in the late 1950’s directing British crime drama,  before in the 60’s/ 70’s he moving onto both horror & thrillers, then spending the rest of his career in the US directing TV- working on shows like The Fall Guy, Magnum Pi, TJ Hooker, Dragnet, and Baywatch. In all, he has nearing seventy directorial credits to his name.

Assault is set in & around an exclusive girl’s day school- which is situated on the edge of some woods. One day one of the teenage girls decides to take a shortcut through the woods, she is chased, then raped- which leaves her catatonic, under the care of local Dr Greg Lomac(James Laurenson). Relatively soon another teenage girl disobeys the school ban on going through the woods, and she lands up both raped & dead.  Then in true Giallo fashion, we are presented with a selection of possible people who could be the black-gloved rapist/ murder- could it be Dr Lomac, or maybe shifty local reporter( Freddy Jones), twitchy & sleazy husband of the principle Leslie Standford(Tony Beckley), or someone else?.

The film unfolds at a fairly rapid pace, and it certainly never gets dull over its hour & half runtime- as the viewer switches from first one suspect to the next. The tone & feel of the film is very English in its reserved, prim & proper, and frankly prudish approach to the films key themes of sex & violence. The rapes & murders are fairly short & blood-less, and bizarrely enough when each victim is chased, then attacked- it’s done to the soundtrack of a fairly bombastic & dramatic big band backing which feels more fitted to a car chase, than unsettling stalking of teen girls.

The woodland setting is used to great often eerier effect, as we get POV shots of the teens been stalked. Creepy pre-dusk  & Night-time footage of vehicles going through the forest tracks. And central in both the woodland and the plot is a huge electricity pylon- which when it appears gets it’s own very effective simmering & brooding drone score. So really the positives here are the atmosphere, the films pace, and the eventful unrevealing/ dramatic demise of the killer.

Moving onto this new reissue- and the HD transfer looks good, crisp & balanced- though oddly the film looks more from like it’s from 60’s than the 1970’s. There are no real extras on the disc aside from the original trailer, and image gallery- through the full release features a booklet with writing from both  Laura Mayne and Adrian Smith- I’m not able to comment on this, as we were just sent a screener for review.

In conclusion, if you're looking for more a moody & fairly involving giallo I’d say give Assault a go. But if you're after a giallo full with lots of gore, sleaze, and craziness- it’s best to look elsewhere.