Coventry A giallo from Greece is about as rare as a Pauly Shore comedy that is actually funny, so if you come across one that enjoys a moderately positive cult status, never hesitate! The makers of "The Rape Killer" – a.k.a. "Death Kiss" – observed their contemporary colleagues from Italy quite well, as they delivered a thriller that can compete with most of the Italian titles in terms of narrative style, perversity, sleazy and misogynic violence. The basic concept of the film is very familiar. The handsome but excessively greedy ladies man Dimitris, a former sea captain, wants to get rid of his wealthy older wife in order to inherit her fortune. He might as well just stick with her, as she's quite good looking for her age and she even gives him a luxurious yacht (!) for his birthday. But you know how it goes … his younger, blonder and hotter mistress nevertheless still demands to be the only woman in poor Dimitris' life. This is where the plot of "The Rape Killer" becomes slightly more extravagant than your average late-night TV-thriller, as Dimitris doesn't just hire an inconspicuous and professional hit man, but instead approaches a deranged and perverted serial rapist/strangler who has been terrorizing the city for weeks. Dimitris knows this sick individual, named Mike, since they smuggled heroin together on a cruise ship. My mother always taught me that it's important in life to have a lot of connections, so there you go. But Mike is an intelligent psychopath and righteously doesn't trust his deal with Dimitris, so he slaughters a look-alike but keeps the real wife captive as insurance.The plot is far-fetched and highly implausible, but that's in fact a good and typical trademark for a Giallo! What matters most is that "The Rape Killer" remains compelling and entertaining throughout the entire (short) running time. We're served two of Mike's extended murders that are unrelated to the story, but nevertheless effective and useful enough to illustrate what a horrible person he is, and his scheme to mislead both Dimitris and the police is very ingenious and suspenseful. There isn't a lot of graphic gore on display, but the rape and strangulation sequences are nonetheless extremely brutal and grisly. Unfortunately good old Mike is a night prowler, so prepare to stare at a black screen a lot whilst hearing the poor damsels in distress shout and cry for help. Minor defaults further include an incredibly over long and tedious dancing scene inside a club and the absence of a memorable soundtrack (also defining for a great Giallo). The version I watched was a bootleg and apparently an incomplete one, because during the climax sequences the English dubbing swifts to original Greek language. I don't speak Greek so I missed the dialog between Dimitris and the heroic character, but I assume they were discussing feta cheese, Demis Roussos and various other patriotic topics. Interesting trivia: director Kostas Karagiannis must have been an insomniac or something, as he directed 146 films between 1960 and 1991. That's an average of nearly five movies per year! No wonder he dropped dead at the age of 60… Practically all of his movies are unknown and long forgotten, with one notable exception, namely the terrible dull "Land of the Minotaur" starring Donald Pleasance and Peter Cushing. It looks like it was Karagiannis one and only foreign adventure, but it was a complete failure. It's a film about a Greek mythological monster that shoots fire from its nostrils and yet it manages to be dreadfully boring!

dbborroughs Greek sourced lurid (and then some) tale about the husband of a rich woman who plans on using a serial rapist and murderer to kill his wife so he can inherit his wife's fortune. As sick and as trashy as they come this film is surprisingly entertaining in a grindhouse sort of way. Its rare that any film would drift into material as nasty as this. It isn't graphic as such, rather the idea of what we are seeing is what horrifies not the violence. In its way its actually a pretty good little thriller that perhaps may have unfairly fallen through the cracks.(Then again I would seriously wonder about anyone who put this high on their list of favorite films)

The_Void Greek director Costas Karagiannis obviously thought it was about time to cash in on the popular Italian Giallo exports back in 1974 - and this sleazy little thriller is the result! In fact, he did such a good job of imitating Italian Gods such as Lucio Fulci, Sergio Martino and Dario Argento that if it wasn't for the fact that I know this film is Greek - I'd never have guessed it wasn't Italian! The film doesn't appear to take influence from any Giallo in particular (or at least not from ones that I've seen), and the plot line allows for gratuitous sleaze, as well as a twisted and effective murder story to rival the best of the actual Giallo's. The plot focuses on a married couple. The man enjoys his wife's money, but isn't so keen on his wife and so has seen fit to take a mistress. His mistress wants him to leave his wife, but he can't live without the money. There has been some raping and killing going on in the local area and, luckily, our man happens to know this rape killer! Naturally, he then devises a plot to have his wife killed by the local murderer, but doesn't count on everything not quite going to plan...The plot has more than enough about it to keep the audience entertained throughout, and this is very much to Death Kiss' credit. There are plenty of twists and turns and all the central performances are good enough to allow for the audience to believe that all this stuff is really going on. The film isn't all that 'nasty' (especially considering that it's alternate title is 'The Rape Killer'), but director Costas Karagiannis more than makes up for this with the atmosphere, which is completely dirty and provides a more than adequate background for a story of this nature. The film is very short, and not a lot of time is wasted on padding, which is nice. However, on the flip side of this – Death Kiss does end very abruptly, and not everything gets wrapped in the way that it should have been. However, it's not all that much of a flaw as the running time that we do have is well used and the film entertains in such a way that anyone who considers themselves a fan of Giallo is likely to be pleased. Death Kiss is rather obscure, but it does have a budget R1 release, and I recommend checking it out!

HumanoidOfFlesh Jim Prestonreceives a yacht as an anniversary present from his wealthy wife Ellen.He plans to kill her for the entire fortune.To carry out the murder plan,he makes a contact with Mike,a crazed rape killer,who has been terrorizing the city.Mike agrees to be the assassin for the large quantity of heroin.However he suspects that Preston will kill him as soon as his assignment is complete,so he finds a woman who looks exactly like Ellen and kills her instead..."The Rape Killer" is an extremely obscure Greek horror/mystery that offers a healthy dose of nudity and sleaze.The acting is pretty good,the women are beautiful and there are some nice twists and turns.Greek exploitation films are very rare,so if you get a chance watch this one.8 out of 10.