My recent '80s Italian kick led me to a weird place - the Italian-French co-production Maniac Killer (1987). This is a bizarre one as there are two separate plots going on here. One has a cult led by Gondrand (Robert Ginty) that tortures impure women and then he kidnaps the wife of Count Silvano (Bo Svenson, who should never play someone named Silvano). The second plot has professor Roger Osborne (Chuck Connors) performing experiments in life extension at his isolated mansion. The only common thing connecting these two are some cop characters that visit both. Andrea Bianchi is often credited as the director (under the pseudonym Frank Drew White), but this feels more like a Jess Franco film (and it was produced by his main outfit, Eurocine). It definitely has that Joseph Lai or Godfrey Ho feeling of two separate films being edited together. Oh, there is also no maniac killer so no one is killed by a maniac killer.
Review of Maniac Killer
