The movie tells how an US tourist young girl (Leticia Roman) travels to Rome and is witness a killing by a brutal killer . She's only helped by an Italian mistress (Valentina Cortese) and a good-looking young (John Saxon) , they will help resolve the series of unsolved crude assassinations carried out by the so-called Alphabet Murderer . Later on , the police wants her cooperation to seize the executioner while the mysterious series-killer soon targets her for his next victim .
In the movie there is suspense , thriller , horror and results to be very exciting . The film is entertaining for continued tension , emotion , intrigue ; besides , appearing numerous palaces , famous buildings and squares that create spectacular scenarios . The picture is considered to be the first Giallo , being rightly regarded as the seminal work in what became known as the "Giallo" genre , a sub-genre invented by Mario Bava and successfully continued by Riccardo Freda and Dario Argento . Bava would follow filming Giallos as ¨Blood and black lace¨ and classics of horror cinema as ¨Mask of demon¨ , ¨Black Sabbath¨ and ¨Planet of vampires¨ . Film casting is frankly well . Leticia Roman as an enticing scream girl is enjoyable and attractive , John Saxon as her young friend is very fine and veteran Valentina Cortese is excellent . Robert Nicolosi's musical score is atmospheric , though in the US version is composed by Les Baxter , Corman factory's regular , and the catching opening song is sung by Adriano Calentano . Magnificent white and black cinematography by the same Mario Bava , as usual in most his movies , and this was his final black and white production . At the film is shown and well photographed several monuments and squares from Rome , such as : Foro Italico Stadium , Piazza Navona , Mincio Square , Colisseum , Piazza del Popolo and Piazza di Spagna . This motion picture which in some countries was released under the following titles : "The Evil Eye" , ¨Incubus¨ or ¨Obsession diabolique¨ will appeal to terror cinema fans and Giallo enthusiasts . Rating : Good . Well worth seeing
