Naked Massacre (1976) / Seven Blood Stained Orchids (1972)

NAKED MASSACRE (1976): A solitary American soldier stops in Belfast on his way home from Vietnam. Already traumatized by the horrors of war, he is driven to madness by the IRA bombings shaking the city. With no money to complete his journey, he becomes fixated on eight young nurses living together in a boarding house. His mind snapping, the soldier invades the girls' home, subjecting them to a horrific night of rape, terror, and murder...Loosely based on the real-life Richard Speck murders, Naked Massacre is a brutal, uncompromising portrayal of madness and violence. Also released as Born for Hell, it is a West German-Canadian-French-Italian co-production (extremely loose tax shelter laws were in place during the late 1970s for international co-productions, reducing the financial risk for unusual movies such as Naked Massacre.) Director Denis Heroux also made the British horror anthology film The Uncanny (1977) with Peter Cushing and Ray Milland.

SEVEN BLOOD-STAINED ORCHIDS (1972): A serial killer is preying on the women of Italy, leaving only their blood-stained naked bodies and a silver medallion of a crescent half-moon behind. Photographer Mario Gerosa saves his wife from being murdered by the killer while traveling by train on their honeymoon. Police accuse Mario of being the killer, believing he purposely fouled up his wife's murder to divert suspicion. Mario decides to uncover the identity of "The Half Moon Killer" himself. The fact that the maniac targeted Mario's wife was no accident. The killer is someone much closer to him than he can possibly imagine...Directed by the legendary Umberto Lenzi, Seven Blood-Stained Orchids combines elements of the Italian giallo (horror) and poliziotteschi (crime) films. An Italian/German co-production, it was marketed in Germany as an Edgar Wallace adaptation, despite having no resemblance to any of Wallace's stories.

• horror