-Grindhouse Fest spotlights the cult gems, sleaze classics, and deranged wonders that defined exploitation cinema’s golden run. Proceed with delight and caution-
Directed by Sergio Grieco
Written by Sergio Grieco and Enzo Milioni
Starring:
- Helmut Berger as Nanni Vitali
- Marisa Mell as Giuliana Caroli
- Richard Harrison as Inspector Giulio Santini
- Marina Giordana as Carla Santini
- Luigi Bonos as Pappalardo
- Vittorio Duse as Giuliana’s Father
- Claudio Gora as Judge Ruggero Santini
Rating: 
No-holds-barred widescreen savagery, fetishized abuse, and ice-cold criminality are mythologized in this sleazy Section 3 “Video Nasty,” where Helmut Berger chews the scenery as an insatiable sadist—an escaped convict prowling free with four thugs eager to stir up mayhem. Richard Harrison plays the inspector tasked with rounding up this pack of brutes. Mad Dog Killer—a.k.a. Beast with a Gun or Ferocious—sometimes gets stuck trudging through the usual poliziotteschi business of plodding investigations and boilerplate action, but whenever the wide-angle lens opens up to spotlight the sadism of Helmut Berger’s vengeance-fueled psycho, Sergio Grieco and Enzo Milioni’s EuroCrime effort shoots straight into the sleazy stratosphere of supreme exploitation. Marisa Mell suffers magnificently here, delivering one of her most intense and exposed performances as Berger’s victim, her terror and anguish practically dripping off the screen. The movie refuses to rationalize its operatic cruelty, leaving Helmut Berger’s Nanni Vitali as a figure of almost existential malevolence; in his gleeful anarchy of violence he seems to stand shoulder to shoulder with Tomas Milian’s feral psychopath in Almost Human. The result is a vivid, visceral portrait of senseless evil.
