Watch Me When I Kill is a 1977 Italian Giallo film directed by Antonio Bido. It is also known under the names The Cat's Victims, The Jade-Eyed Cat, The Cat with the Jaded Eyes, and Il Gatto Dagli Occhi Di Giada.
The plot revolves around a cabaret dancer named Mara, who becomes the target of a killer when she accidentally hears his voice after the murder of pharmacist. Realizing she's in danger, Mara goes to live with her boyfriend, Lukas Karmen, who is determined to find the killer to keep her safe.
This film contains examples of:
- Alas, Poor Villain:
- Upon realizing that Carlo is too far gone, Judge Pastore shoots him with a pistol, shedding a tear while doing so. Afterwards, he uses the same pistol to kill himself.
- Carlo's death due to his massive Freudian Excuse and teary-eyed Motive Rant.
- Amateur Sleuth: Lukas Karmen, normally a music producer, decides to investigate when he realizes Mara's in danger.
- Animal Motifs: Two of the alternate titles refer to a cat, and each time someone is killed, an image of cat eyes is flashed. The cat eyes are later revealed to belong to the sister's plush cat.
- Asshole Victim:
- Biagio Dezzan, the pharmacy owner who is revealed to have been a friend of the Nazis and was responsible for arresting Judge Pastore's family.
- Esmeralda Messori, Bozzi's mistress who apparently convinced Bozzi to betray Judge Pastore's family.
- Big Bad: Carlo Pastore, Mara's script-writer is the killer.
- Cat Scare:
- Esmeralda Messori gets spooked by a coat and fedora hanging on a coat rack.
- Mara gets spooked by a mannequin.
- Conspicuous Trenchcoat: The killer wears a black trenchcoat, and seems to sport a fedora during the murder of Dezzan.
- Cop Hater: Mara doesn't like them because she thinks they look down on her for her profession, while Pesquale Ferrante and his wife hate them because Ferrante is an escaped prisoner who may have been wrongfully convicted.
- Covers Always Lie: Neither of the American covers for Watch Me When I Kill have really anything to do with the film. In fact, the killer pictured on both covers isn't at all what they look like and the blonde woman the killer is shown grabbing doesn't even appear anywhere.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The killer burns Esmeralda Messori's face in a frying pan of hot stew before stabbing her with a cooking fork.
- Exposition Cut: Lukas travels to Bozzi's old home in Padova to find out about the Jewish family he took in. He ends up meeting one of Bozzi's relatives who explains to him who the family was and what happened to them. However, it's all done offscreen as it cuts away to Mara.
- Freudian Excuse: During The Holocaust, Judge Pastore hid his family in a house belonging to Giovanni Bozzi and Esmeralda Messori. Through unspecified means, they were captured by the Nazis and put into a concentration camp. While his mother and sister perished, Carlo somehow survived and escaped. Scarred by the memories and believing that his family was murdered, drove Carlo into seeking revenge on those he felt were responsible for their capture.
- Hand of Death: The killer's scenes before the reveal are usually focused on their white surgical gloves.
- Harassing Phone Call: Bozzi receives multiple throughout the film which all consist of the same three sounds that hint towards what the murders are about. Bozzi and Messori know exactly what they mean, but outsiders, Lukas and Mara don't figure it out until later.
- Heel Realization: Judge Pastore, upon hearing Carlo trying to justify his murders. Even complete with Judge Pastore saying "Only now I've begun to understand."
- Hidden Villain: Judge Pastore and Carlo
- Killed Offscreen: Marco has his throat slit with a switchblade offscreen and is later found by Mara.
- Leave No Witnesses: The killer decides to go after Mara, because she heard his voice through a door after killing Dezzan. Likewise, Carlo tells his father that Lukas and Mara can't go on, and tries to convince him to shoot them.
- Motive Rant: Both Judge Pastore and Carlo get a couple.
- Murderer P.O.V.: Pretty much a given, since it's a giallo.
- Never One Murder: The killer murders four people.
- Never Trust a Title: Watch Me When I Kill, doesn't have really much to do with the film's premise. Neither does the tagline.
- No Name Given:
- The sister and mother in the photo.
- The madman in the abandoned mansion.
- The old woman and her relatives in Padova.
- Averted with Judge Pastore, whose last name can be heard when Lukas calls out to him.
- Only One Name:
- Mara
- Marco
- Michele
- Santoro
- Averted with Carlo, as his father's last name is said.
- Peek-a-Boo Corpse: Mara finds her dance partner, Marco, with his throat cut when he falls out from behind a clothing rack.
- Poorly Timed Confession: Carlo calls Mara at Lukas' villa in attempt to lure her out, but it backfires as she ends up being able to match his voice with the one on the tapes. This, along with him knowing how to contact her at a private villa, allows Mara to piece together that he's the killer.
- Police Are Useless: The reason Mara doesn't want to go to them for help.
- Red Herring: Pesquale Ferrante, an escaped prisoner who was convicted of murder by Judge Pastore, two months before the events of the film. So much so, the actual killer intended to use him as a scapegoat.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The killer's motive.
- Sadist: The people on the radio reporting on Messori's death, suggest the killer is this, due to the torture inflicted before the killing.
- Serial Killer: The film's main villain ends up killing four people.
- Sinister Switchblade: The killer uses a switchblade to slit Dezzan and Marco's throats.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: Scenes leading up to the murders are accompanied by funky jazz fusion music in a similar fashion to Deep Red.
- Stronger Than They Look: Carlo manages to outmuscle Pesquale Ferrante.
- The Reveal: Two, actually.
- Judge Pastore is revealed to be the killer's father and the patriarch of the Jewish family that Bozzi took in.
- Carlo is revealed to be the killer, and the little boy in the photo.
- Wham Line: "Oh, and by the way, how did you find this number?"
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Despite being a serial killer willing to murder anyone to cover his tracks; it's hard not to feel bad for Carlo, as he was a holocaust survivor who likely watched his mother and sister perish in front of him as a child, and it's implied that he can't forget. All he really wanted was to kill everyone he blamed for his family's death.
