I first heard of this one via Leonard Maltin's Film Guide – where it's rated a staggering ***1/2; the reviewer goes on to claim that it was "ignored" in the U.S. (the film is a Canadian production), which explains its obscurity: it didn't help matters that two other films bearing similar odd-sounding titles, namely THE PHYNX (1970) and THE ASPHYX (1972), had just been released! However, I agree with his assessment that this is a title worthy of far greater attention than it seems to have garnered over the years – a fact which is sadly borne out by the truly dire condition it's been made available in so far (scratchy, fuzzy, washed-out colors, muffled soundtrack and, to add insult to injury, a faux Widescreen look i.e. masking the top and bottom off an obviously panned-and-scanned print!).
Anyway, the film itself is an occult thriller which sees cop Christopher Plummer investigating the mysterious death of hooker Karen Black (it was even renamed THE HOOKER CULT MURDERS): he's especially confused by a couple of objects (in view of their religious/satanic significance) she was carrying on her person at the time – a necklace with an upside-down cross, and a pyx (the small round container in which the consecrated host is carried when a priest holds communion off church grounds). Seamlessly running parallel to this plot line is another detailing the events leading up to Black's demise; this intriguing jumping-back-and-forth-in-time device (borrowed from either version of THE KILLERS [1946/1964]) certainly gave the film an identity among the mass of contemporary thriller/horror fare – and such intermittent development also greatly accentuates the suspense inherent in either situation (since one character is oblivious of her fate while the other unaware of what his probing will eventually unearth).
Still, the intelligent script is careful not to trip in its own cleverness – given that the audience is able to put all the pieces together well before the hero does (the former having had direct access, so to speak, to Black's past experiences) – and manages, in fact, to come up with one final unexpected revelation that's quite a knock-out (recalling that other cult thriller with a strong spiritual element to its essential Good-vs-Evil angle, THE WICKER MAN [1973], but also an amusingly heretical episode in Luis Bunuel's delicious masterpiece THE DISCREET CHARM OF THE BOURGOUISE [1972])! With this in mind, the fragmentary style is clearly reminiscent of yet another contemporary classic – DON'T LOOK NOW (1973) – while the police investigation snowballing into violence (one particularly nasty instance of which being directed towards a character's black feline!) and ending up by implicating the baffled hero looks forward to the equally underrated GOD TOLD ME TO (1976).
The film is made all the more believable and compelling thanks to some excellent performances: Plummer is fine as ever, but Black has one of her best-ever roles (and even get a chance here to showcase her secondary talent as a singer/songwriter!); also notable is Yvette Brind' Amour as Black's tough landlady/pimp. Having mentioned the songs – which, endowing proceedings with the tenderness and fragility inherent in Black's character, give the whole an undeniably haunting quality – one can't refrain from mentioning the eerily slowed-down or speeded-up music heard during the climactic Black Mass (a sequence which is rendered even more creepy by having some of the participants decked-out in animal masks!).
Finally, other films from director Hart I'd be interested in watching are the William Inge adaptation BUS RILEY'S BACK IN TOWN (1965), DARK INTRUDER (1965) – another little-known but well-regarded occult thriller – and SHOOT (1976), apparently a DELIVERANCE (1972) wannabe starring Cliff Robertson, Ernest Borgnine and Henry Silva! Incidentally, the producer of this one – Julian Roffman – had already made his own cult horror effort with the weird 3-D outing THE MASK (1961), a low-budget film I've been pining for since childhood (due to stills I'd seen from it in a Sci-Fi tome of my father's written by the late eminent Philip Strick) but can't seem to be able to get a hold of
