Kadin Düsmani (1967)

In 1936 Agatha Christie published one of her most famous books, The A.B.C. Murders, where the killer murdered women with the same letter in the beginning of the name as the city they lived it. Between 1971 and 1973 the Alphabet Killer murdered three girls the same way. And in between, in 1967, Turkey released this impressive little giallo-esque thriller who could have been both a rip-off on the Christie-novel and a blueprint for the future real murders. Kadin Düsmani, or Woman Despiser, is a weird because it feels somehow like it's very inspired by the giallos that came years after, but this was before the big giallo-boom. Sure, it could also has been inspired by the Christie-novel or the Edgar Wallace-movies from Germany, but it's also a fact that this one stands on it's own legs and has it's own chilling story to tell.

Ekrem Bora plays a tough police who's handling the investigation of a series of brutal murders with necrophiliac tendencies. He falls in loves with the sister of one of the suspects, but will have more problem because of her mother - a psychotic controlling bitch, and his own - who fakes a handicap to be able to control her family even more. But more and more murders occur, and the suspects are falling down like apples from a tree. No one seem to be able to stop the killer, who dresses in goofy horror-masks and rubber-hands as gloves... 

This is a very typical slasher/giallo-style thriller, which manages to be really good. As usual the budget are low and some of the horror effects might be a bit silly, but Ilhan Engin tells the story with a helluva lot of style and gives us many great set-pieces with brutal murders and a lot of sleazy and perverted hints of what goes one after the murders. Engin uses a lot of shadows and light, and creates a feeling of both German expressionism and American noir, with the big difference that the story is more simple and a great excuse to thrill it's audience with out to much exposition. Even if the print is not in perfect shape (but far from bad), it can't hide the fact that the cinematography looks stunning.

I also like the characters, which are similar but it's still easy to tell them apart. The suspects is a bunch of young men around the same age, but all has different personalities and styles. The female characters are both strong, victims and psychopats, and it feels like this was a great movie to star in if you was a female character actor during this time. The female victims are mostly cute, and at least one of them a terrible, terrible actress. But it's all made with a lot of talent and imagination.

I know it's wrong to call it a giallo, because a giallo must be Italian. But I'm sure that everyone that enjoys a good murder mystery in the eurocult-genre would love this movie. It was a long time since I saw so many red herrings and suspects in one movie, and it brings a lot of joy to us, the viewers, because it's never boring and it's well made as hell!

The disc from Onar Films is as usual above average! The print they found for this one is in good shape, but of course there's a lot of scratches and problems with it to - but this is the best way to watch the movie and it will never, believe me, never look better than this. For lovers of eurocult and giallos, Turkish cult-cinema and a good thriller with out putting a lable on it, this is something for your. Get it at Onar Films before it goes OOP.