THE ROSARY MURDERS

The rosary murderer is not obsessed with sex or blood; he simply seems to have a serious problem with church people: nuns, priests, nuncios, deacons, monks… Not even one of them seems to escape his homicide madness.
Every time, his murders look like there is a ritual, as the victims are found dead with a rosary in their hand… Of course, one priest becomes the prime suspect of the investigation, especially as one day, in his confessional, the killer talked…
Fred WALTON with When a Strange Calls had already shown his extraordinary gift for pure terror directing: without reaching his first movie’s climax for all that, The Rosary Murders is completely immersed in a very captivating, obsessional atmosphere served with a very clever (suspense is present throughout the whole movie) and often original script. His way of bringing and then filming the murders (while avoiding useless violence), the omnipresence of violent death, and the murder religiousness make it an excellent movie on the edge of fantasy.
In this mixed atmosphere, the directing evolves with ease and leans on the nuanced act of Donald SUTHERLAND (M*A*S*H, Fellini’s Casanova, Invasion of the Body Snatchers).