Il sorriso della iena

The sinfully slinky 'Smile Before Death' aka 'Il Sorriso della iena' (1972) remains a bizarrely under scrutinized, salaciously saucy slasher from cult Italian film-maker, Silvio 'Amuck!' Amadio. This deliciously deviant, unjustly obscure, sublimely sexy, full-bloodied, sensuously soft-bodied Giallo features that deliciously divine brunette Rosalba Neri, the wickedly sultry queen of B-Movie scream and hellaciously hunky, Hiram Keller as a voluptuously-villainous duo plotting to do most grievous harm to the stepdaughter of Hiram's resolutely ill-minded character.

Bravura genre director Silvio Amadio's breezily stylish and frequently raunchy follow-up to "Amuck!" is fulsomely engorged with giddy plot twists, plentifully lurid stalk an' slash, and is busily replete with the ubiquitous "shock" ending rabid Gialli/thriller fans so ardently crave! 'Smile before Death' is most certainly guaranteed to amuse and bemuse in equally confounding measure, and remains an entirely worthy entry to this most histrionic of iconoclastic, bombastic film idioms. This gorgeous Giallo's relative rarity is wholly undeserved and one sincerely hopes that eventually it will soon get a glisteringly-restored Italian language, UK-friendly, feature-loaded DVD/Blu-ray release that this tremendously exciting thriller so earnestly deserves!