Brief Thoughts - MURDER ROCK (1984)

MURDER ROCK (1984) - Later period Lucio Fulci giallo. Someone is killing off the best dancers in a class from which the top students will be offered prestigious jobs. A wily police detective suspects someone in the school but can’t pin the murders on anyone- not even the people with the most to gain. This one has always had a bad reputation because of the terrible 80s music that is slathered all over the soundtrack. It’s true the Flashdance style tunes are abysmal and unintentionally funny but they don’t make the film any less solid as a good thriller ride. The murders are fascinating and the amount of nudity on display is plentiful putting this firmly in the sexploitation genre. Handled like a throwback to the 70s heyday of the great Gialli the killer is inventive (and lucky) with an identity always hovering just out of sight until the end. Well done if not brilliant and a welcome return to form for Fulci at a time he was being regularly attacked for having lost his mojo. The man could really make exciting cinema.