The Killer Is Still Among Us 1986

A couple drives to a secluded lovers’ lane on the outskirts of Florence to be intimate, but their private moment ends in tragedy as they are both gunned down by a gloved prowler. The killer then mutilates the female victim with a knife and a tree branch, leaving a stark, brutal scene that becomes the latest chapter in a string of similar murders attributed to Il Mostro (The Monster). This wave of violence sets off a tense investigation led by people who fear the killer may be closer than anyone suspects.

Cristiana Marelli, a criminology student, launches a thesis-driven probe into the case, determined to understand the pattern and motives behind the killings. Her academic curiosity earns her pushback from those around her: her professor, the local police, and her doctor boyfriend, Alex, who grows increasingly wary of the risks, as he becomes entwined in her pursuit of answers. The investigation unfolds amid a mounting sense of paranoia, as eerie telephone calls trace their way to Cristiana and she finds herself shadowed by an unseen presence, even as she carries on with her daily life and studies.

As the mystery deepens, a bartender who had offered to share information with Cristiana is found hanged, a chilling reminder that the danger surrounding Il Mostro is real and personal. The mounting circumstantial evidence against her lover—his unexplained absences during the murder timeline, and the fact that Cristiana had confided her plans to meet with the bartender—begins to gnaw at her certainty. The suspicion grows and heats into a dangerous hypothesis: that Alex might be the killer himself.

Seeking a paranormal leg up, Cristiana attends a séance hoping to contact the victims’ spirits and illuminate the killer’s identity. En route, she drops Alex off at a theatre where a Hitchcock film is showing, a detail that will later feel ominous in retrospect. Inside the séance, the Medium—a psychic conduit for the dead—has a vision of Il Mostro slaying and mutilating another couple during a camping trip; the vision includes a male victim’s throat being slashed, a wound that eerily mirrors marks later seen on the Medium herself.

Paranoia swells as Cristiana becomes convinced that her boyfriend is the Monster. She abandons the séance in a rush and hurries back to the theatre, only to discover Alex there, quietly watching the film with other spectators. As she threads her way toward the seat beside him, an unseen figure slips into the row, sitting across from her. The film’s mood shifts in the moment, and a title card appears on the screen:

The killer is still among us.

This chilling revelation underscores the uncertainty and danger that saturate Cristiana’s world, leaving her—and the audience—gripping the edge of fear as the narrative threads toward its unsettling, ambiguous close.

The film closes with a stark note from the creators: the story was crafted as a warning to young people, with the intent of aiding real-world police work and encouraging vigilance against violence.