Coventry Umberto Lenzi was a more than prolific giallo director during the late sixties/early seventies and he undoubtedly delivered great contributions to this wondrous sub-genre, with legendary titles like "Paranoia", "Orgasmo", "So Sweet, So Perverse", "Oasis of Fear", "Eyeball" and "Spasmo". His finest giallo accomplishment – in my humble opinion, at least – was "Seven Blood-stained Orchids" in 1972, and in that same glorious year he also made the lesser known but definitely worthwhile "Knife of Ice". This film describes itself pretty much as a textbook giallo, meaning it features a typical heroine in distress (Lenzi regular Caroll Baker), a few vicious knife murders (although less than usual), several conspicuous male suspects, misleading clues and red herrings all around and a far- fetched twist ending that is simultaneously preposterous and ingenious. When she was only a young teenager, Martha Caldwell lost both her parents in a disastrous train accident and witnessing this tragedy caused her to be mute ever since. She's now a gorgeous woman in her mid-twenties living with her uncle Ralph and awaiting the arrival of her successful niece Jenny, who coming over to visit her. On her first night already, though, Jenny is murdered in the garage. The police discover the lair of a satanic cult in the area, so maybe the killer is a devil worshiper, but also Martha's creepy chauffeur Marcos behaves increasingly suspicious. When the housemaid Annie also gets murdered in the area, it becomes clear that the killer is targeting Martha as the next victim. "Knife of Ice", which is – by the way – a fairly irrelevant title taken from a quote by Edgar Allen Poe, benefices from a steady pacing and a solidly written screenplay with a few bright ideas. The lead actress being mute isn't exactly new, but it provides an additional dimension for suspense, since she can't scream for help or testify to the police. The satanic cult aspect is relatively new for a giallo-thriller, which to me proves all the more that Lenzi is one of the principal founders of the sub genre. The low body count and the quasi gore- free depiction of the murders are rather disappointing, especially since we all know that Lenzi made several of the goriest Italian horror films in history. The most gruesome and shocking footage is actually during the opening credits, which is set in Spanish bull- fighting arena. Animal rights activists should probably fast-forward the opening credits, since the fate of the poor bull is illustrated quite graphically and mercilessly.

Red-Barracuda Knife of Ice is quite a strange movie in some respects. Released in 1972 at the tail end of the giallo craze, it could be expected that this would be an entry in the sub-genre that emphasised the sex and violence like most other entries from that year. When you also consider that its director is Umberto Lenzi who was responsible for several highly exploitative movies and who is to subtlety what Mr T is to Shakespearean acting, you would be forgiven for thinking Knife of Ice would be a classic style bloody and sleazy murder mystery. Well, as anyone who has seen this film can confirm that simply is not the case. This is a giallo in the late 60's style. All of the murders are committed off screen and there is no nudity whatsoever. The only bit of outrage is the opening credit sequence which shows a fairly graphic bull fight, so Umberto did at least incorporate one of his more notorious traits – animal slaughter - into this one at least.The film seems to be a reworking of the 1946 chiller The Spiral Staircase. It has a fairly similar basic plot-line. The central character is a mute woman who lives in a large affluent family home. There is a serial killer on the loose and a cast of red herrings to complicate matters. Caroll Baker (So Sweet, So Perverse) stars as the mute, while Evelyn Stewart (The Case of the Scorpion's Tail) appears too in a role that sadly has little screen-time. It's certainly a professional enough effort with some suspenseful moments but on the whole it is a little too restrained for its own good and it pales in comparison with other gialli released around the same time.

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.