Luigi Cozzi is well thought of around these parts for his less down to the planet Earth fare like Hercules, Star Crash and Alien Contamination. However, his giallo experience exists, as he was the writer of Argento’s Four Flies on Grey Velvet. He contributed to other Argento projects throughout his career, like the special effects for Phenomena and second unit direction for The Stendhal Syndrome. He even co-owned and managed Argento’s memorabilia store, Profondo Rosso (Deep Red). Here, he brings us the tale of an adulterous man who uses a murderer to solve all of his life’s problems.

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George Hilton (Sartana’s Here… Trade Your Pistol for a Coffin, The Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh) plays a man who wants to take care of his wealthy wife. He ends up meeting an unnamed killer who is disposing of his latest murder (he’s played by Antoine Saint-John, who played Schweick, the artist who starts the events of The Beyond). They strike a deal where the killer will erase the wife and make it look like a kidnapped. That said — nothing is ever that easy.

As he’s loading Nora’s body in the trunk, Luca and Laura (Christina Galbo, The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue, What Have You Done to Solange?) steal the car and head to the beach. The killer gives chase as they take up at an abandoned seaside house, as Luca plans on taking her virginity. She keeps putting him off, sending him out to get food while the killer sneaks in.

As the killer makes his way closer to Laura, Luca is making time with a stranded and sexed up motorist played by Femi Benussi from Strip Nude for Your Killer and Hatchet for the Honeymoon. This is an absolutely bonkers segment, as the killer attacks our heroine to somber music while a happy ditty plays as her boyfriend cheats on her, unaware what horrors are going on inside that beach house.

Every man in this movie is either a moron or a complete villain. The same can be said for most of the women, except they’re victims, too. Luckily, Laura finds it within herself to stop this cycle of madness.

This film doesn’t really follow all of the giallo conventions, but that’s just fine. It keeps moving and by the end, I was gripped as the many webs of the store all drew together. Indeed, it has an alternate title of The Spider (I saw it as The Dark is Death’s Friend). Cozzi does a nice job of building the suspense and presenting Laura as less of a faceless victim and more of a proto final girl that you want to see survive.