Naughty schoolgirls, perverted killers and unorthodox police officers… What more could you possibly hope to see in a late 70's Italian Giallo, apart from perhaps some large portions of graphic nudity and gritty bloodshed? Well, "Rings of Fear" has ALL of this (and more…),but still it certainly doesn't rank among the best efforts in this wondrous sub genre of horror. Even though no less than SIX persons are credited as scriptwriters, this film undoubtedly is the weakest installment in Massimo Dallamano's trilogy revolving on "Schoolgirls in Peril". The unofficial franchise began magnificently, with "What Have You Done To Solange?" – arguably one of the best Gialli ever made – but already lowered in quality a bit with "What Have They Done To Our Daughters", which felt more like a crime film with loads of car chases and gangster networks. "Rings of Fear", however, features the least amount of surprises and shocks and painfully suffers from the one demerit Gialli should never suffer from: predictability! Dallamano and his army of co-writers attempt to mislead us with red herrings and mysteriously behaving side characters, but even if you're only just slightly familiar with the standard Giallo trademarks, you can see right through every plot twist and easily unravel the identity of the culprit(s) yourself. It nevertheless remains a worthwhile horror gem for Italian horror fanatics to purchase, though, if it were only to behold the awkward and thoroughly unorthodox investigation methods Insp. Gianni Di Salvo (Fabio Testi) uses to unmask his sleazy killer. Di Salvo is charged with the case of an attractive 16-year-old schoolgirl who was raped and sadistically cut open with a large sharp weapon. The victim's witty younger sister informs him that Angela, along with three of her boarding school girlfriends, formed a secret alliance known as "The Inseparables" and frequently escaped from their dorm to serve as lustful & sexy entertainment for rich businessmen. Di Salvo knows where to look for the killer, but due to some of the suspects' prominent reputations the commissioner holds him back. "Rings of Fear" is an overall amusing Giallo because the story contains so many odd & unusual sub plots. For example, the inspector's girlfriend is a notorious shoplifter and his own interrogation techniques are rather ingenious, to say the least. He invades the boarding school in the middle of the night to question the scarcely dressed teachers and even drags his main suspect onto a wild roller coaster to force him to testify. The gorgeous (barely legal?) teenage girls provide this film with a more than fair amount of full-frontal nudity and lusciousness; while the light-hearted dialogs and Testi's utterly cool performance contribute in making "Rings of Fear" easy and undemanding viewing. The exciting score is courtesy of Riz Ortolani ("Cannibal Holocaust") and Alberto Negrin's direction is overall competent. Recommended viewing for trained Italian sleaze-fanatics, but newcomers to the Giallo-industry should probably postpone their viewing of "Rings of Fear" until they've seen some of the works of Dario Argento and Sergio Martino, or Massimo Dallamano's initial masterpiece "What Have You Done To Solange?".

Third and least of a series of ‘schoolgirl’ gialli: the previous two, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE? (1972) and WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? (1974),were both directed by Massimo Dallamano – he co-wrote this but, since he died in 1976 and the film was released a couple of years later, it appears that he only managed to be involved during the early stages of the writing.

Anyway, the earlier films had tackled the subject matter from different angles – the first from the viewpoint of a suspect and the second from that of the police. The third entry should have taken yet another view – perhaps from that of a possible victim – but, being an Italian/West German/Spanish co-production, the casting of Fabio Testi (graduating from the suspected teacher in SOLANGE to a police inspector) prevailed as well as that of German actress Christine Kaufmann in, basically, a nothing role! While the plot isn’t particularly involving and fairly muddled until the various threads come together at the end, the film provides the usual quota of thrills, gore and sleaze: especially interesting is the cross-cutting (albeit too brief) between an orgy and an abortion, but also notable is the scene where marbles are used for purposes of murder (a girl slips down a flight of stairs and, symbolically, brings to the ground with her the statue representing the saint after which the school is named). Incidentally, both the original title – which translates to RIDDLE IN RED – and the English RINGS OF FEAR prove meaningless!

The score by the usually-reliable Riz Ortolani does the job but it’s nowhere near as memorable as the work of Ennio Morricone on WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE? and that of Stelvio Cipriani on WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO YOUR DAUGHTERS? Still, the identity of the corrupt official exposed by the investigation (there's always one but, this time, he also doubles as the killer!) is interesting – and even more so that of the “Nemesis” figure, whose messages (quoting poet Robert Burns) turn up intermittently throughout. The supporting cast includes veteran German actor Ivan Desny as Testi’s superior and Jess Franco regular Jack Taylor as the depraved but gutless owner of a shop for women’s clothing. The English dubbing wasn’t too bad under the circumstances, though the image quality of my DivX copy was soft and incredibly murky (especially during scenes set in the dark).

When Angela washes up on the beach, a detective (Fabio Testi) investigates a girl's school with a lack of social graces. The plot wasn't half bad, what there was of it. The film had that same wonderful substandard dubbing we have come to accept with questionable restoration. On the plus side the film boasts ample gratuitous teen full frontal nudity. Available on 50 DVD packs.