hwg1957-102-265704 Apart from good photography in nice locations this is rather dull. It has the usual giallo touches but halfway through it was easy to work who was the killer. Having the leading player not able to speak because of a childhood trauma does get wearing after a while though that's no fault of Carroll Baker, looking gorgeous as usual. The murders are tame and the music score by Marcello Giombini is forgettable.Near the climax there is a bit where a Donald Duck toy is kicked down some stairs. It is a toy that moves on its own and it tumbles down the stairs, lands upright and carries on moving and I thought, I wonder how many takes that took to get it right? So basically the film wasn't engaging one in the right way even so near the denouement. Umberto Lenzi directed all kinds of films, some good, some bad, some indifferent, some striking. This one's passable.

arfdawg-1 This movie is a mess. Pretentious. Overly slow. Poorly acted. And boring beyond belief.The plotAs a thirteen year old, Martha Caldwell witnessed the death of her parents in a terrible railway accident. Barely surviving the tragedy herself, Martha was struck dumb due to the shock. Now an adult, the still mute Martha lives with her uncle Ralph in the Spanish countryside. Martha's cousin Jenny arrives to be with the family but is quickly stabbed to death. It appears that a sex maniac is roaming the countryside; killing pretty young girls. The already traumatized Martha seems likely to be the next victim but the case turns out to be far more complicated than it would first seem.

EVOL666 Despite the fact that KNIFE OF ICE was very tame in the sex and sleaze departments (virtually no bloodshed and no nudity whatsoever...) I found this one to be a decent enough entry in the genre. Martha is a mute who became that way after a train accident killed her parents 15 years earlier. Her cousin comes to stay with her and her father, and ends up murdered. This of course leads to all the typical giallo-style investigations and 'red herrings' that most fans crave...I will say that I was disappointed in the lack of gore and nudity in this entry (especially coming from Lenzi who helmed such sleaze 'classics' as CANNIBAL FEROX and EATEN ALIVE) -but of the several giallo-films that I've seen lately-I was thankful that the pace was relatively quick, and the storyline pretty straight-forward. I tend to like gialli overall, but I find that many get caught up in such convoluted plots that they tend to weigh the film down. I will say that for me at least, I guessed the killer pretty much right off the bat- but that's not to say that the film is exactly 'predictable'. Overall a decent entry that I'd recommend to fans of the genre. 7/10

John Nail (ascheland) I agree that "Knife of Ice" is one of director Umberto Lenzi's classier movies, but I didn't find it one of his more interesting ones (it's certainly one of his least sexy). The mystery is well conceived, the editing well done, and Carroll Baker turns in a good performance, no doubt aided by the fact that since her character is a mute she's spared the stilted post dubbing suffered by the other actors. But the pacing is a bit sluggish and some of the devil worship symbols laughable (dig the cartoon goat head "medallion" found by the police). Personally, I found other Lenzi-Baker thrillers like "Paranoia" (a.k.a. "Orgasmo") and "A Quiet Place to Kill" (a.k.a. "Paranoia"--confused yet?) a lot more hopping. Guess I prefer my giallos on the trashy side. Still, for fans of the genre, "Knife of Ice" is worth a look.