Julie Ward (Edwige Fenech) is married to Neil, but is feeling neglected because he is always busy with his work. On a business trip,Julie is disturbed to read about a serial killer who is murdering women with a straight razor, and she is even more unnerved to catch a glimpse of her ex lover, Jean (Rassimov), who was the dominant partner in their relationship, forcing Julie into various perverted sex games.

She meets up with her dizzy friend Carol, who introduces Julie to her attractive cousin George (Hilton) who she begins a brief affair. George and Carol have inherited some money from a deceased uncle, and George urges Julie to leave town with him immediately.

After murdering a prostitute in a park at the beginning, it appears that the killer has set his sights on Julie. Carol is murdered in the park, having taken blackmail money to deliver to Jean (who Julie thinks has sent a blackmail note to her threatening to expose the affair to Julies husband).
Julie is than attacked by a masked leather clad assassin in an underground carpark, narrowly escaping with her life. She and Neil decide to confront Jean, but when they arrive at his house he is dead in his own bathtub. Julie has had enough, so leaves with George for a small Portugese village. However, the attempts on her life continue......

Martino directed a number of top notch giallos in the Seventies, and this is the best of them.

Fenech is placed under constant threat from the assassin, and staggers from one set piece attack to another, narrowly cheating death each time, giving the film an almost delirious atmosphere from start to finish. Martino pulls out all the stops with neat visual tricks, tilted cameras,and wild tracking shots which never fail to make my heart beat faster every time I see the film. The cast have never been better,with Hilton in particular(who appears in loads of these films)playing the smooth charmer with a possible dangerous edge to him to perfection.

All the giallo tricks which became staple in the genre are evident in this film (indeed it is this one that is probably the most imitated of all, with subsequent entries trying to outdo Martino in the double/triple cross stakes!!)

Bruno Nicolais score is the only slight dissappointment, being rather predictable until it suddenly kicks into life in the second half when the onscreen action hots up.

This is one of the very few occasions when everything comes together in a filmmakers career to produce a genre masterpiece, with everything from the writing through to the production design and onto the acting and the direction itself being absolutely perfect.

This film would certainly be on anyones top five giallo list, and is certainly one of my all time favourites.

Version reviewed-Greek VHS tape under the title Next!
This film is available on a number of American labels but they are all cut.