Like Rabid Dogs

Endowed with the ferocious bite of Sergio Grieco's maniacal 'Mad Dog Killer', and maestro Umberto Lenzi's nihilistic 'Almost Human', versatile film-maker Mario Imperoli's feral, politically enraged crime thriller remains a dazzling example of a much-maligned genre. Opening with a thrillingly violent heist at a packed football stadium, this brutal Poliziottesco gem relentlessly plunges the increasingly hypertensive viewer into the arbitrarily cruel murder machinations of three callous middle-class thrill killers. Led by pretty stone-faced psychopath Tony (Cesare Barro), the terminally twisted trio's orgiastic murder spree very soon becoming the greatly tormenting obsession of stolid cop Commissario Muzi(Jean-Pierre Sabagh).

Aided by the beauteous Policewoman Germana (Paola Senatore), gifted director Imperoli brilliantly orchestrates a violent, bullet-casing tight agitprop crime thriller that succeeds not only as an unflinchingly visceral Poliziotteschi, but makes for a fascinating document exposing the turbulent socio-political unrest of Italy in the 1970s. A meticulously constructed thriller that certainly rewards repeat viewing, and the resolutely cool, objective way Imperoli documents the gang's wanton sadism recalls Michael Haneke at his glacial best. Those cult film fans only familiar with Mario Imperoli's playful, Gloria Guido-starring, snugly denim-clad sensation 'Blue Jeans' (1975) are in for a shock, since 'Like Rabid Dogs' is an entirely more vicious, tarmac-shredding, balaclava-blasting beast! The inspired, rump-humpingly groovy score by maestro Mario Molino is a memorably ear-worming treat!