The top dancers of the New York "Arts for Living Center" have more to worry about than a choreographer who seems to have wandered out of FAME and competition for a starring roll in a Broadway show when someone starts offing the competition. Everyone's a suspect. Is it driven choreographer Candice (Olga Karlatos of Fulci's ZOMBIE), womanizing school director Dick Gibson (the late Claudio Cassinelli of ISLAND OF THE FISHMEN), trainer Margie (Geretta Geretta of Lamberto Bava's DEMONS), or one of the neurotic students? Or could it be handsome George Webb (Ray Lovelock, OASIS OF FEAR) who has been stalking Candice's dreams threatening her with a hatpin) and has recently also appeared in-the-flesh to possibly menace Candice. Laconic Detective Borges (Cosimo Cinieri aka Lawrence Welles of NEW YORK RIPPER and MANHATTAN BABY) is on the case. Also stars Christian Borromeo (TENEBRAE), Roberto Gligorov (STAGE FRIGHT), Giovanni Di Nava (THE BEYOND), Al Cliver (ZOMBIE), and Silvia Collatina (HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY). Although shot in 1984, the film did not make its US theatrical release until 1990 (reported in an early issue of Video Watchdog) in mono prints under the misleading title THE DEMON IS LOOSE. Fulci himself likened his follow-up to NEW YORK RIPPER (scriped by the same co-scenarists) to an "American television film." The film concludes with an epigraph quoting John Huston's adaptation of THE ASPHALT JUNGLE, “often crime is only a left-handed form of human endeavor,” that is actually quite appropriate given the similar motives of the killers of MURDER ROCK and NEW YORK RIPPER and the environment which created them (that said, even the lyrics of the cheesy Keith Emerson-composed vocal numbers actually possess some thematic resonance below the immediate surface which may be difficult to penetrate given Giuseppe Pinori's cinematography which effortlessly conjures up the look of FLASHDANCE - the film's alternate title is SLASHDANCE). The script does drag in bits and there are some ridiculous clues but there is also some diverting plotting that keeps the identity of the killer a mystery until quite late in the film. While there is a fair amount of nudity, the result does have the look and feel of an early eighties TV thriller with better production values and the usual awkward English dialogue of Italian films. The gore is dialed down after the slashed throats, sliced eyeballs, and gutted abdomens of NEW YORK RIPPER (not unlike the reduced blood-letting of Fulci's otherwise-atmospheric EXORCIST-clone MANHATTAN BABY shot at the same time as RIPPER). Longtime Fulci collaborator Vincenzo Tomassi's manic editing is more suited to the dance and murder set-pieces of this film than to some of the scenes in Fulci's gothic horror outings. Keith Emerson's disco score is neither his best film score nor his best Italian horror film score but strangely entertaining all the same (it's the NIGHTHAWKS of his Italian work). If you don't go in expecting a Fulci-style bloodbath, you'll find the film a nice little late giallo effort.