The whodunit genre focuses on identifying the culprit among the various characters in a plot. This playful structure was not Hitchcock’s favorite, as he believed it killed the suspense, but it has proven its worth across different genres, such as the giallo and the slasher.

Robert Siodmak’s The Spiral Staircase is a classic whodunit and is considered one of the inspirations for the Italian giallo. In 1975, British director Peter Collinson (The Italian Job, Fright, The Penthouse) adapted this classic, incorporating stylistic elements from the contemporary 1970s giallo. Jacqueline Bisset (Bullitt) and John Phillip Law (Danger: Diabolik) star in this efficient remake, directed by one of the most promising filmmakers of British genre cinema… who tragically passed away five years later at the age of 44.

Meanwhile, Terror Train is part of the golden era of the 1980s slasher genre. The film takes place entirely on a train, following the classic slasher trope of a teenager bullied by classmates who later seeks revenge. Building on the success of Halloween, Jamie Lee Curtis—the queen of scream queens—leads the film… alongside a certain David Copperfield, who plays a magician! This was the directorial debut of Canadian editor Roger Spottiswoode, who later made a name for himself in mainstream American cinema (Tomorrow Never Dies, the Bond film, and Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot with Stallone…).