Sergio Martino

Dario Argento’s wildly successful The Bird with the Crystal Plumage inspired a wave of quasi-imitations. Director Sergio Martino’s thriller follows this pattern, though it actually improves on Argento’s film in one crucial scene.

Haunted by nightmares after losing her unborn child in a car crash, a woman turns to a Satanic cult for relief, only to find she cannot escape their influence.

It’s the best Lucio Fulci giallo not directed by Lucio Fulci.

In scenic Perugia, Italy, a masked killer strangles two female university students, sparking a manhunt. Another student may have recognized the murder weapon, leading to threatening phone calls from the killer. Alarmed, she retreats to a cliff-side villa with four girlfriends, including an American exchange student, played by Suzy Kendall. The killer, of course, follows.