A giallo from Greece is about as rare as a Pauly Shore comedy that is actually funny, so if you come across one that enjoys a moderately positive cult status, never hesitate! The makers of "The Rape Killer" – a.k.a. "Death Kiss" – observed their contemporary colleagues from Italy quite well, as they delivered a thriller that can compete with most of the Italian titles in terms of narrative style, perversity, sleazy and misogynic violence. The basic concept of the film is very familiar. The handsome but excessively greedy ladies man Dimitris, a former sea captain, wants to get rid of his wealthy older wife in order to inherit her fortune. He might as well just stick with her, as she's quite good looking for her age and she even gives him a luxurious yacht (!) for his birthday. But you know how it goes
his younger, blonder and hotter mistress nevertheless still demands to be the only woman in poor Dimitris' life. This is where the plot of "The Rape Killer" becomes slightly more extravagant than your average late-night TV-thriller, as Dimitris doesn't just hire an inconspicuous and professional hit man, but instead approaches a deranged and perverted serial rapist/strangler who has been terrorizing the city for weeks. Dimitris knows this sick individual, named Mike, since they smuggled heroin together on a cruise ship. My mother always taught me that it's important in life to have a lot of connections, so there you go. But Mike is an intelligent psychopath and righteously doesn't trust his deal with Dimitris, so he slaughters a look-alike but keeps the real wife captive as insurance.
The plot is far-fetched and highly implausible, but that's in fact a good and typical trademark for a Giallo! What matters most is that "The Rape Killer" remains compelling and entertaining throughout the entire (short) running time. We're served two of Mike's extended murders that are unrelated to the story, but nevertheless effective and useful enough to illustrate what a horrible person he is, and his scheme to mislead both Dimitris and the police is very ingenious and suspenseful. There isn't a lot of graphic gore on display, but the rape and strangulation sequences are nonetheless extremely brutal and grisly. Unfortunately good old Mike is a night prowler, so prepare to stare at a black screen a lot whilst hearing the poor damsels in distress shout and cry for help. Minor defaults further include an incredibly over long and tedious dancing scene inside a club and the absence of a memorable soundtrack (also defining for a great Giallo). The version I watched was a bootleg and apparently an incomplete one, because during the climax sequences the English dubbing swifts to original Greek language. I don't speak Greek so I missed the dialog between Dimitris and the heroic character, but I assume they were discussing feta cheese, Demis Roussos and various other patriotic topics. Interesting trivia: director Kostas Karagiannis must have been an insomniac or something, as he directed 146 films between 1960 and 1991. That's an average of nearly five movies per year! No wonder he dropped dead at the age of 60 Practically all of his movies are unknown and long forgotten, with one notable exception, namely the terrible dull "Land of the Minotaur" starring Donald Pleasance and Peter Cushing. It looks like it was Karagiannis one and only foreign adventure, but it was a complete failure. It's a film about a Greek mythological monster that shoots fire from its nostrils and yet it manages to be dreadfully boring!
The plot is far-fetched and highly implausible, but that's in fact a good and typical trademark for a Giallo! What matters most is that "The Rape Killer" remains compelling and entertaining throughout the entire (short) running time. We're served two of Mike's extended murders that are unrelated to the story, but nevertheless effective and useful enough to illustrate what a horrible person he is, and his scheme to mislead both Dimitris and the police is very ingenious and suspenseful. There isn't a lot of graphic gore on display, but the rape and strangulation sequences are nonetheless extremely brutal and grisly. Unfortunately good old Mike is a night prowler, so prepare to stare at a black screen a lot whilst hearing the poor damsels in distress shout and cry for help. Minor defaults further include an incredibly over long and tedious dancing scene inside a club and the absence of a memorable soundtrack (also defining for a great Giallo). The version I watched was a bootleg and apparently an incomplete one, because during the climax sequences the English dubbing swifts to original Greek language. I don't speak Greek so I missed the dialog between Dimitris and the heroic character, but I assume they were discussing feta cheese, Demis Roussos and various other patriotic topics. Interesting trivia: director Kostas Karagiannis must have been an insomniac or something, as he directed 146 films between 1960 and 1991. That's an average of nearly five movies per year! No wonder he dropped dead at the age of 60 Practically all of his movies are unknown and long forgotten, with one notable exception, namely the terrible dull "Land of the Minotaur" starring Donald Pleasance and Peter Cushing. It looks like it was Karagiannis one and only foreign adventure, but it was a complete failure. It's a film about a Greek mythological monster that shoots fire from its nostrils and yet it manages to be dreadfully boring!
