'Red Rings of Fear' aka 'Enigma Rosso' (1978) - Alberto Negrin.

The winningly dynamic vintage slasher, 'Red Rings of Fear' aka 'Enigma Rosso' (1978)remains a deliciously lurid Giallo treat, starring Euro-cult legend, and all round swarthy dreamboat Fabio Testi. And in this specific instance, the ubiquitous, and not just a little bit fabulous Testi, excels once more in his boisterous portrayal of the prototypically hard-nosed, libidinous detective, Gianni di salvo. In this briskly-paced, blissfully blood-thirsty thriller, di salvo stoically attempts to unravel the colourfully enigmatic motives behind an especially brutal and sinister series of sexually motivated killings with a laudable excess of gritty, inebriate resolve! Ably scripted by Massimo Dallamano it is, perhaps, inevitably similar in downbeat tone to his equally exploitative and profoundly exhilarating 'What Have They Done to Your Daughters'. 'Red Rings of Fear' is thankfully another wild, wickedly entertaining entry in the gleefully gaudy cannon of sensationalist 70s Italian sinema! Giallo/Euro-cult fans old and new should find this zesty, prurient mélange of garish misogyny, and gratuitous nudity a sleazily disturbing diversion; while director Alberto Negrin's salacious 'Red Rings of Fear' cannot really be said to be an especially innovative, nor demonstratively stylish Euro-slasher, it is a gritty, and altogether mean-spirited affair, and therefore remains an entirely slinky, frequently funky example of the then hugely popular plasma-drenched genre of black-gloved Gialli, and is therefore highly recommended to mustard-keen Gialli fans, old and new!

  

 

'I can can garrotte you for longer than you can hold your breath, Charlie!'

'This is your early-bird Giallo-style wake-up call! WAKEY-WAKEY! NECK-GO-BREAKY!''