Famed film producer, and all around sleaze-meister, Dick Randall tossed this slice of steamy Eurocult into the, then, very popular Giallo ring, and soon came away a winner. None-too-prolific F. L. Morris (this being his third and final film) was brought in for the directing duties and a cast to end all casts was assembled to round out a rather stylish though derivative murder and sex mystery.
As with most films of this type the plot is so chock full of improbabilities that it nearly borders on tedium. The narrative simply twists and turns itself inside out to the point of complete absurdity. However, some of the key elements and highlights include: a jewel heist, an all-knowing-all-seeing medium, a brothel, hooded killers, a mad scientist, incredibly sexy women, incest, human eyeball fondling and a professional Humphrey Bogart look-a-like!
With all of this swirling about, the meandering storyline easily takes a backseat to the obligatory naked female flesh and gory set pieces. Topless hotties, beheadings and stabbings aplenty. Oh, and the groovy soundtrack by one of Europe’s finest, Bruno Nicolai, is worthy of a mention as well.
Producer Randall was famous for selling his movies to various markets across the globe and so the film was, not so surprisingly, host to a mint of alternate titles, including: “The Bogeyman and the French Sex Murders,” “Murders in Paris,” “The Paris Sex Murders,” “Casa d’appuntameto” and “Auge des Bösen.” Mondo Macabro did a wonderful job on the extras that include an essay by Pete Tombs about the film and its distribution, a 30 minute documentary on producer Dick Randall, 2 deleted scenes and a stockpile of stills, posters and various press materials.
