Mondo Macabro continues their seal of excellence with their recent DVD release of the giallo Death Walks at Midnight (AKA Cry Out In Terror). It's not one of my all time favorites, but Death Walks at Midnight is still a shining example and has plenty to offer fans of the genre. Full of your traditional giallo trappings that make the genre so great, Death Walks at Midnight is quite the entertaining and stylish affair.

Valentina is a fashion model who voluntarily subjects herself to an experimental hallucinogenic drug called HDS. During her freak out she sees a young woman brutally slain at the hands of a murderer wearing a spiked metal glove. This is only the first of many murders that Valentina will find herself connected to. With the killer hot on her trail and bodies turning up around her, Valentina soon becomes the fashion model who cried wolf and a prime suspect in the eyes of the police.

That's right folks, throw away your black gloves, because our killer now sports a shiny metallic spiked hand ornament. It's a delicious twist and only one of the many off track routes that Death Walks at Midnight gleefully takes on its own accord. Your typical giallo makes very little sense to begin with and unapologetically throws bizarre nonsensical plot twists the viewers way. Death Walks at Midnight is certainly no exception.

After the first murder, it's a good 45-minutes before there is another victim. However, the last half hour of Death Walks is completely insane with a very bloody and entertaining finale. The jibber-jabber between violent set pieces is almost always entertaining and definitely part of the appeal here. The usual sex and violence quota is quite low compared to some other flicks of the time, but these characters are always fascinating to watch and director Luciano Ercoli really knows how to fill his frame with some interesting images. Performances are also above average including the lovely Susan Scott as Valentina; fashion model gone awry. The 70's lounge style score is a bit spotty but when it hits, it's very entertaining as well.

While there's really nothing here to write home to Ma about, Death Walks at Midnight is a fun giallo that shouldn't be taken too seriously. The twists are pretty ridiculous and so much has to be explained in flashback towards the end, the filmmakers could have given us any explanation and we would have had to accept it. Death Walks may never live up to the true classics, but it's a fun and novel attempt and easily a welcomed addition to any giallo collection.

Mondo Macabro has hit another one out of the park with this one. Death Walks at Midnight looks simply fantastic, with only minimal amounts of print damage, barely any evidence of grain and mostly strong and bold colors. Audio is present in both English and French stereo tracks and while there is the promise on the packaging of a subtitle option, it was nowhere to be found. Audio is quite clear, there is really only minor evidence of that dreaded snap, crackle and/or pop. I noticed one or two slight audio glitches in a couple of spots, but nothing too major or distracting.

Update: It has been recently confirmed that the true aspect ratio for Death Walks at Midnight is indeed 2.35:1 not 1.85:1 as presented here. The image on this DVD is therefore slightly cropped, although how much info is lost is not known. Whether or not this deters you from a purchase is completely up to you. Take this info and run with it. Credit goes out to the fine folks at MHVF for picking up on this one.

Extras include text interviews and quite a few extensive BIOS along with a piece on the giallo genre that runs about 17-minutes. Adrian Smith (author of the excellent book Blood and Black Lace The Definitive Guide to Italian Sex and Horror Movies) guides us through many a giallo film (including Death Walks at Midnight) in this brief piece. Giallo veterans will most likely not find a whole lot of new information here, but it's still great to see Adrian yak it up about the genre that he loves so dearly.

I'm sure that giallo fans will want to snatch this one right up (and rightfully so). Death Walks at Midnight is a groovy trip into the world of what really makes the giallo film so much fun. While it may not be as over the top in the gore and nudity department that some may either be used to or expecting, it still makes for one hell of an entertaining time. Mondo Macabro's presentation is top notch as usual; we gotta show these guys all of the support we can so they never stop releasing these great gems of cinema on DVD.

While this is a Region 0 DVD, it is PAL only so you will need to have the ability to convert PAL to NTSC on your US systems. For more info on Mono Macabro visit their UK site by clicking here or their US site located here. For a great place to order this disc from in the USA head on over to xploitedcinema.com and don't forget to tell them that The Monsters sent ya!