So this is a giallo from 1972, but it’s not really doing what I expected it to do. It starts off in this kind of genre-movie world where a vicious killer commits a hyper-gruesome killing, of which illicit lovers floating by on a boat catch a glimpse. So it seems like it’s setting up a slashery film, and to some extent it is, as a handful of other people get murdered. But really, it’s setting up a murder mystery thriller.

Because the real core of the movie is the protagonist (and the cops) working to find out who’s behind the killing, and what the killer’s motivation is; and they need to catch the killer before the killer strikes ag— okay, oops, too slow, well, before they strike a third time anyway.

And so on the one hand, this is doing a lot of sexploitation stuff — among other things, there’s a shower scene that I think has more female nudity in it than pretty much any movie I can think of with an actual plot. But then on the other hand, it’s also trying to say something about sexuality, and how societal mores drive it underground in ways that lead to slashering.

But what it seems to be trying to say is a kind of puritanical anti-sex message, which fits really badly with, y’know, the whole movie’s existence. But then I guess that’s kinda the underlying message of a lot of slasher movies in the same dissonant way so idk. But then also, it might be a stretch to imagine that it’s saying anything deliberately, because there are a lot of super-weird notes in here that clash with each other and don’t really resolve into anything coherent.

Which is maybe for the best? Because I feel like if this movie were simple and straightforward, it’d just be a “well, that’s problematic” yikesfest, but because it’s such a thematic hot mess, it ends up being more complicated and harder to dismiss, and really just kind of a reflection of a hot-mess society that also has conflicting and weird views about sex. Narrowly recommended.