Rings of Fear

Far from terrible, but also far from terribly exciting, this Giallo should have had much more bite as its predecessors in the "school girl trilogy", Massimo Dallamo's "Cosa Avente Solange" and "La Polizia chiede aiuto". Blame must go to Alberto Negrin's tame direction and Testi's slow-moving "investigation" that severely dulls the sparse suspense. The are fair scenes where Negrin displays some flair in the film, but it is not difficult to spot the Argento influence, particularly "Cat O' Nine Tails." Apparently Negrin mostly helmed television before "Rosso" which might explain his limited palette. Dallamo's painterly hand is severely missed, but a few intriguing ideas such as the slutty trio of girls "the Insperables" and a hilariously improbable killer make "Enigma Rosso" worth watching at least once if you can find it.

A young sixteen year old girl is found dead in a river sexually violated with a blunt instrument.Inspector Di Salvo investigate this vicious and senseless crime in St Theresa's boarding school for girls.Unknown black gloved killer called Nemesis begins preying on girls from the school.It seems that there is a vice ring where rich and influential men pay well for teenage favours.The final installment of Massimo Dallamano's schoolgirls-in-peril giallo trilogy offers some delicious sleaze and full-frontal nudity.The pace is brisk and the school shower scene is truly gratuitous.There are some stylish shots for example an underwater shot from the corpse's point-of-view.Riz Ortolani's score is as always fantastic.8 nubile schoolgirls out of 10.

Naughty schoolgirls, perverted killers and unorthodox police officers… What more could you possibly hope to see in a late 70's Italian Giallo, apart from perhaps some large portions of graphic nudity and gritty bloodshed? Well, "Rings of Fear" has ALL of this (and more…), but still it certainly doesn't rank among the best efforts in this wondrous sub genre of horror. Even though no less than SIX persons are credited as scriptwriters, this film undoubtedly is the weakest installment in Massimo Dallamano's trilogy revolving on "Schoolgirls in Peril". The unofficial franchise began magnificently, with "What Have You Done To Solange?" – arguably one of the best Gialli ever made – but already lowered in quality a bit with "What Have They Done To Our Daughters", which felt more like a crime film with loads of car chases and gangster networks. "Rings of Fear", however, features the least amount of surprises and shocks and painfully suffers from the one demerit Gialli should never suffer from: predictability! Dallamano and his army of co-writers attempt to mislead us with red herrings and mysteriously behaving side characters, but even if you're only just slightly familiar with the standard Giallo trademarks, you can see right through every plot twist and easily unravel the identity of the culprit(s) yourself. It nevertheless remains a worthwhile horror gem for Italian horror fanatics to purchase, though, if it were only to behold the awkward and thoroughly unorthodox investigation methods Insp. Gianni Di Salvo (Fabio Testi) uses to unmask his sleazy killer. Di Salvo is charged with the case of an attractive 16-year-old schoolgirl who was raped and sadistically cut open with a large sharp weapon. The victim's witty younger sister informs him that Angela, along with three of her boarding school girlfriends, formed a secret alliance known as "The Inseparables" and frequently escaped from their dorm to serve as lustful & sexy entertainment for rich businessmen. Di Salvo knows where to look for the killer, but due to some of the suspects' prominent reputations the commissioner holds him back. "Rings of Fear" is an overall amusing Giallo because the story contains so many odd & unusual sub plots. For example, the inspector's girlfriend is a notorious shoplifter and his own interrogation techniques are rather ingenious, to say the least. He invades the boarding school in the middle of the night to question the scarcely dressed teachers and even drags his main suspect onto a wild roller coaster to force him to testify. The gorgeous (barely legal?) teenage girls provide this film with a more than fair amount of full-frontal nudity and lusciousness; while the light-hearted dialogs and Testi's utterly cool performance contribute in making "Rings of Fear" easy and undemanding viewing. The exciting score is courtesy of Riz Ortolani ("Cannibal Holocaust") and Alberto Negrin's direction is overall competent. Recommended viewing for trained Italian sleaze-fanatics, but newcomers to the Giallo-industry should probably postpone their viewing of "Rings of Fear" until they've seen some of the works of Dario Argento and Sergio Martino, or Massimo Dallamano's initial masterpiece "What Have You Done To Solange?".

This rather obscure giallo is relatively tame in terms of gore, but gets its creepiness from certain plot elements, like the young age of some important characters. The plot has too many suspects to keep track of and is difficult to follow at times, but that's not surprising considering that SIX (!) people worked on the script. Add some high-grade nudity from some VERY beautiful schoolgirls, a bizarre method of interrogation (choking the suspect while on a wild roller-coaster ride!), and a perfectly functional Fabio Testi performance in the lead and you have an uneven but creepy giallo. Too bad I only saw a badly cropped version of it, called "Trauma". (**1/2)

Marginally better than average giallo centres on an exclusive girl's school where the studies include mass orgies, gory retributions and murder. Detective (Testi) is called to investigate the brutal murder of a student and begins to suspect there's more going on at the school than just maths & science. A familiar trail is uncovered, highlighting several likely suspects (ubiquitous Euro horror ex-pat American, Jack Taylor primarily) who may or may not be the actual killer. There's also a neat little twist in the film's double-headed climax, although arguably, it could've been more effectively resolved.

Testi is a likable leading man, his portly sidekick Bruno Alessandro also effective as they use unconventional methods in an attempt to solve the politically sensitive case. Jack Taylor is typically sinister as a sleazy fashion guru (the roller-coaster scene memorable), and Ivan Desny prominent as the police chief. Unusually, the dubbing isn't bad and doesn't detract so much from the film like others of the ilk. There's a fair quota of skin on display here, and the occasional ghastly corpse will heighten the senses.

Director Negrin displays a solid appreciation for the sub-genre and while it's probably not strictly giallo for the puritanical fan, it serves the purpose well and maintains the mystery and suspense through to the dual climax.