Arriving in Haiti for work, a doctor trying to keep the various figure from getting their hands on a miraculous drug being developed runs into a friend and his wife on vacation trying to save their marriage, and when they all start to become involved in the growing body-count must try to stay alive against the attackers.

This one turned out to be a rather pedestrian and underwhelming giallo. The main issue that holds it back is that hardly anything here is interesting with nothing being given a worthwhile status to them. The espionage story at the center of the film is a major obstacle with barely anything about the miraculous drug beyond lip-service denoting its hallucinogenic properties as this reputation is all that's given to this one. Basically given nothing to work with doesn't make it interesting nor does a stranger going around beating up random people trying to get information out of them intriguing as this just doesn't make for an interesting time, rather just gets confusing. On top of that, the married couple going around trying to repair their relationship is simply tedious as they go through the usual woes associated with this tope and just end up wasting time for the most part. It's also not that impressive if there's not much in the way of traditional genre action here. As the exploits of the style denoted a masked killer wandering around trying to kill someone off, this one barely has any of that occur as the focus appears to be on the doctor running around the island performing his duties or the married couple getting lost in the tourism side of the area while trying to be civil with one another until they run into him who saves the couple. This industrial espionage type of action comes across as being in the wrong film altogether as this grounds the film more realistically compared to the series of hallucinations and visions which have little connection to what's going on. All in all, these are what hold it back for the most part. There are a few slight positives to be had here. The biggest plus is that even though the hallucinations and visions feel out-of-place they're pretty impressive visually. Especially noteworthy is the big sequence often buying the fertility being statue as that's quite expressive and appealing which is quite fun. As well, there's also the intriguing amount of stalking scenes on display, which are rather fun as this one manages to bring in some excitement to this one. From the ambush in the hotel room to the stellar stalking of the henchmen looking for a secret payout in the factor which results in a nice surprising scene and the series of double-crosses and foot-chases which are featured here, there's quite a lot to enjoy here with some decent kills mixed in. Along with some fine nudity mixed in, this one offers up some decent points if not a whole lot overall.

Rated Unrated/R: Full Nudity, Violence, Language and violence-against-animals.

Anita Strindberg is in Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, A Lizard in a Woman's Skin, The Case of the Scorpion's Tail, Who Saw Her Die?, The Two Faces of Fear, L'uomo Senza Memoria and Murder Obsession, but is never mentioned with the same devotion as Edwige Fenech or Barbara Bouchet. Well, she's great in this and in nearly everything else I've seen her in.

In this film, she plays Grace, the wife of Fred (Gabriele Tinti, Endgame) and their vacation has led them to Haiti and Dr. Williams (Anthony Steffen, who mostly is known for Italian westerns, but also appeared in The Night Evelyn Came Out of Her Grave, Evil Eye and An Angel for Satan), who has invented a new drug that can change the world. It's so astounding that everyone from drug cartels to drug companies - which are really close to one another, when you really think about it - will kill for its formula.

There's also a scene where the doctor takes our heroes to watch a voodoo ritual, all so this movie can have a bit of mondo* within it. Because it's an Italian film, that means we're about to watch a real bull really get killed and then lose its scrotum in gorgeous living color. The film then tops this with actual cows being slaughtered, so if you're upset by the side of Italian cinema that doesn't shy away from putting animal butchery right in your face, make a mark to avoid.

This movie leaves me with so many questions. What kind of doctor is Williams? He says he's a veterinarian, then he makes a magical anti-venom drug and oh yeah, he's also a meat packing inspector. And just what kind of wonder drug has he made? And did the filmmakers realize that the Tropic of Cancer is nowhere near Haiti?**

So yeah - most of the movie is spent wondering whether or not Grace is going to succumb to the lure of the native men***. And the best character in it is Peacock (Alfio Nicolosi, who was also in Goodbye Uncle Tom), who pretty much runs the island. Also, the murders in this go from high tech to voodoo-based death and faces getting melted right off, which is different for a giallo****.

And hey - that Piero Umiliani (Orgasmo, Baba Yaga) score is perfect!

It's not a great giallo, but it certainly is weird, and sometimes, that's good enough.

*One of the directors of this film, Giampaolo Lomi, was the production manager for perhaps one of the most notorious mondo films, Goodbye Uncle Tom. The other, Edoardo Mulargia, directed Escape from Hell, which was edited into the Linda Blair movie Savage Island. So with backgrounds like those, the scummy mondo nature of this film makes a bit more sense.

*Of course, we can assume that with the Henry Miller novel being such a big deal getting banned and causing controversy that the title itself seemed like a good idea to get curious folks into the theater. Better than Death In Haiti, Peacock's Place or Inferno Under the Hot Sun.

***The flower that poisons her takes her on an insane erotic fever dream that we all get to watch and the movie is better for this scene.

****There's just as much - if not more - male than female nudity, too.

This is a unique film. It is like a time portal into 1972 Haiti. Some reviewers will demonise it as racist etc but I found it to be quite neutral really. It had a gay character which was unique in 1972 & while he was stereotypical, he was basically accepted as another human with his strengths & weaknesses. It is quite sexually open for its time & seems to explore a lot of voodoo culture in a way that seemed more documented than acted. A sense of the climate of the tropics imbues the film and a regard for Haiti.