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| Image courtesy of Altered Innocence |
Not to be confused with the 1964 American film of the same name, The Strangler (L'étrangleur) is a French crime drama that first saw the light in 1970. Now it has been given a 2K restoration for a fresh 2023 release in November, featuringEnglish subtitles.
The Strangler introduces a serial killer called Emile (Jacques Perrin) who kills women as an act of mercy – or so he rationalizes it. As a child in Paris, Emile watches a powerful male stranger strangle a solitary, weeping woman in the street with little to no resistance.
This random act impacts the boy to such an extent that, as an adult he sees himself as an empathetic force with the ability to see sadness or loneliness in women. Targeting women who live alone, he takes it upon himself to ‘save them’ from their lackluster futures and the torment of feeling unwanted.
Writer/ director Paul Vecchiali’s The Strangler is Giallo without the bite, less horrific and more of a dramatic study in the myriad of nuances that present in the mind of a killer. Emile is friendly and accommodating, even when he kills, claiming however to feel no change before or after a murder.
This seemingly unusual lack of motive intrigues police inspector Simon Langret (Julien Guiomar) so much that it borders on obsession and he approaches Emile from a place of understanding and friendship to sate his own curiosity. Anna (Eva Simonet) enters the picture, hounding the inspector to use her as bait for reasons unknown, leaving us to wonder what fuels her interest in the cop and the killer.
Both men appear to project their issues about women differently in their faintly homoerotic exchange. Emile is effeminate and docile by nature, perhaps projecting his own frailty and loneliness on his victims to feed his delusion of being an angel of mercy; a protector.
On the other hand, Simon admits that women scare him which alludes to a possible admiration in Emile’s bravery towards women. Ironically, a thief follows Emile to rob each victim after she is killed to the vexation of the killer - and with good reason - but this is a spoiler-free piece.
The Strangler is not violent or pulsing with action, screaming and bloody goodness. Instead, it uses suggestion to address the psychological aspect of killing those who already gave up on life, so to speak. In fact, some fans of true crime art might even find it exhaustingly mediocre and flat, save for the psychological angle.
The film takes a stance on where we draw the line between compulsion and free will, blurring the borders of our perceived moral views. Still, it is more of a drama than an escalating heartbeat of violence and revenge, so The Strangler might disappoint the more rowdy Fulci or Argento maniacs among us. As far as twists go, The Strangler is barren and anti-climactic, even for the most fervent armchair psychologists out there. At least he has a cool dog.
—Tasha Danzig