Most likely the very first Belgian giallo ever! And that's about the only good thing I can say about it. The first time I saw this one, a couple of years ago, I thought it was bad enough to not deserve anymore points than 3/10. Mainly because the acting feels forced and especially because of the plot being too standard, offering no red herrings, no suspense... and the fact that I immediately guessed who the killer was the first time he appeared on the screen (which is in the beginning of the movie!). Not only me or your granny, but everyone who decides to watch this film can guess it. You don't even have to be familiar with whodunit thrillers in general. Not even an attempt at offering us several suspects is being made here.
However, somehow I enjoyed this movie a bit more when I saw it for the second time. The reason: the incredibly foul en vulgar language that was used throughout the whole movie. Now, a foreigner will probably have no fun with it, but because of those dirty dialogues me and my mate were grinning our way through this movie. That and the fact that this movie had such unbelievable racist undertones that I was scratching my head while I was watching it. Especially black people are being focused on here (at one point the police department even tries to arrest the whole black community on suspicion of murder), but also an Italian immigrant gets a piece of the racist cake.You have to see this to believe it. Also mildly entertaining is the killer's modus operandi: he kills by shoving a sharp pencil up the victim's nose right into the brain. Gotta love that! But in the end, the killer's motives are just a big pile of sad clichés.
On a trivial note: this movie features a song by Marcel Vanthilt (Who the hell is he, you ask?). The song is a cultish new-wave version (now long gone obscure) of another song which was most popular amongst your average Belgian house-wife during the very early 80's, called "De Dag Dat Het Zonlicht Niet Meer Scheen". Who cares, you ask? We Belgians with good taste do!
