Brief Thoughts - MURDER ROCK (1984)

MURDER ROCK (1984) is a late period Lucio Fulci giallo with the amped up violence expected from that period of his career. 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 80’s music that permeates the story. It’s true that the Flashdance style tunes are abysmal and unintentionally funny but they don’t make the film any less solid as a good thriller. The murders are fascinating and the amount of nudity on display is amazing for the times. The expert director handles the plot like a throwback to the 70’s heyday of the great Gialli bringing style and inventiveness to nearly every scene. Sure to please slasher fans, the killer is creative and very 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 as past his sell-by date. The man could still really make exciting cinema.