Knife of Ice

Knife of Ice

Zombies, voodoo, demons, and Afro-Cuban witches.
There's enough here to rob you of a month's sleep!"

Martha Caldwell (Carroll Baker), mute and skittish since she witnessed her parents killed in a train crash as a child, is being stalked by a mysterious killer who leaves behind satanic clues. As the people around her die, Martha wonders if the killer could be the creepy driver, Marco (Eduardo Fijaro), Dr. Laurent, her doctor (Alan Scott), or even her frail Uncle Ralph (George Rigaud), whose interest in the occult may be more than academic.  Or maybe it's the crazy-eyed morphine-addicted Satanist hippie who keeps popping up everywhere she goes.

No nudity or extreme gore in this film – it's a classy production that relies on suspense and focuses on the drawing room-style mystery at hand. There's not even a love story here, but the reason for that is apparent by the end of the film. Except for a few odd moments and the Satanist angle, this is a very buttoned-up production. The twist ending is a doozy, though, and it's one you probably won't see coming, even though it makes good sense once you look back on the film.

• The title of this film is explained away with a metaphorical quote from Edgar Allan Poe, hence my marking that it "sort of" make sense. There are no actual ice knives in the film.
• This is one of the very few gialli that has a priest character, where the priest isn't the murderer.
• You may recognize Carroll Baker from the movie Giant or from her Oscar-nominated role in Baby Doll. Or maybe from her other gialli like The Sweet Body of Deborah. Or maybe you know her as the villain in Kindergarten Cop. In any case, she brings a sweet sense of innocence and a sort of Doris Day wholesomeness to the role of Martha.
• It's also good to see George Rigaud, from The Case of the Bloody Iris and Death Walks on High Heels.
• The crazy-eyed hippie's look is clearly based on Charles Manson, who terrorized Los Angeles and caught the world's attention just a few years prior to this film's production.

Fashion Moment: Did I mention that the crazy-eyed hippie wears a velvet cape? And that at the second funeral scene, Martha wears a tight black mini-skirt? It gets its own close-up: