Inspired by the Poe quote about a "knife of ice which penetrates the senses down to the depth of conscience," Lenzi and Carroll Baker would team one more time for the story of Martha Caldwell, who watched her parents die in a train accident at the tender age of thirteen. Now an adult, she's still mute from the shock of what she had seen. Even worse, there's a black gloved Satanic killer stalking the countryside and she seems like the next most likely victim.

Jenny Ascot (Ida Galli, The Psychic) is a famous singer in town to see her cousin Martha. However, hours after the killer stalks the two of them, she's dispatched. Yet every time the police arrest someone, the murders continue.

You have to love a giallo that has a Manson influenced killer, much less one played by George Rigaud (A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, The Case of the Bloody Iris, All the Colors of the Dark).

This is a classy giallo compared to much of the sheer lunacy that I watch. But don't judge it for it's lack of sleaze. It's a well-told film crafted by an expert at this type of movie.

Umberto Lenzi was a more than prolific giallo director during the late sixties/early seventies and he undoubtedly delivered great contributions to this wondrous sub-genre, with legendary titles like "Paranoia", "Orgasmo", "So Sweet, So Perverse", "Oasis of Fear", "Eyeball" and "Spasmo". His finest giallo accomplishment – in my humble opinion, at least – was "Seven Blood-stained Orchids" in 1972, and in that same glorious year he also made the lesser known but definitely worthwhile "Knife of Ice". This film describes itself pretty much as a textbook giallo, meaning it features a typical heroine in distress (Lenzi regular Caroll Baker),a few vicious knife murders (although less than usual),several conspicuous male suspects, misleading clues and red herrings all around and a far- fetched twist ending that is simultaneously preposterous and ingenious. When she was only a young teenager, Martha Caldwell lost both her parents in a disastrous train accident and witnessing this tragedy caused her to be mute ever since. She's now a gorgeous woman in her mid-twenties living with her uncle Ralph and awaiting the arrival of her successful niece Jenny, who coming over to visit her. On her first night already, though, Jenny is murdered in the garage. The police discover the lair of a satanic cult in the area, so maybe the killer is a devil worshiper, but also Martha's creepy chauffeur Marcos behaves increasingly suspicious. When the housemaid Annie also gets murdered in the area, it becomes clear that the killer is targeting Martha as the next victim. "Knife of Ice", which is – by the way – a fairly irrelevant title taken from a quote by Edgar Allen Poe, benefices from a steady pacing and a solidly written screenplay with a few bright ideas. The lead actress being mute isn't exactly new, but it provides an additional dimension for suspense, since she can't scream for help or testify to the police. The satanic cult aspect is relatively new for a giallo-thriller, which to me proves all the more that Lenzi is one of the principal founders of the sub genre. The low body count and the quasi gore- free depiction of the murders are rather disappointing, especially since we all know that Lenzi made several of the goriest Italian horror films in history. The most gruesome and shocking footage is actually during the opening credits, which is set in Spanish bull- fighting arena. Animal rights activists should probably fast-forward the opening credits, since the fate of the poor bull is illustrated quite graphically and mercilessly.

Italian director Umberto Lenzi dispatches with his usual decadence and debauchery for an Agatha Christie-styled whodunit set in the Spanish countryside. Carroll Baker (in her fourth teaming with Lenzi) plays a terrified woman--rendered mute since childhood after witnessing the death of her parents--who may be the next target of a sex maniac/devil worshiper stalking the area. Suspects include a snippy maid, a creepy chauffeur, an uncle who collects books on the occult, and a bachelor doctor with a cheerless manner. Well-made if derivative and poorly-dubbed thriller shows a hike in budget for Lenzi, who also co-authored the screenplay. Though the picture offers no let-up from the standard woman-in-distress clichés (footsteps in the fog, thunder and rain causing a power outage),at least it provides Baker with a fairly chaste role. The once-acclaimed actress had fallen on hard times in the 1970s, and appearing in Lenzi's twisted sex-fantasies provided a financial life raft. Here, Baker is demurely-attired, and it must have been a relief for her to stay covered-up throughout. With very few lines of dialogue, she does the only real acting in the film. ** from ****