Murder Rock () is a 1984 Italian giallo film starring Olga Karlatos, Ray Lovelock, Al Cliver and Claudio Cassinelli, and directed by Lucio Fulci (who has a cameo appearance in the film).
Plot
At the Arts for the Living Center in New York, Candice Norman (Olga Karlatos) oversees the latest dance routine choreographed by Margie (Geretta Marie Fields). Candice tells Margie that the act needs even "more perfection" in preparation for a visit from three talent agents. The academy director Dick Gibson (Claudio Cassinelli) meets with TV producers Bob Steiner and John Morris, who watch a video of the dance, and Candice learns that the men will only select three dancers for an upcoming TV show. That evening after the dance class is over, one of the dancers, Susan, is murdered in the locker room by an unseen person who chloroforms then stabs her in the heart with a long hairpin needle. NYPD Lieutenant Borges (Cosimo Cinieri) arrives on the scene to investigate. Also with Lt. Borges is the police profiler and psychotherapy professor Dr. Davis (Giuseppe Mannajuolo). With Candice nowhere to be found, suspicion begins to focus not only on her but on the victim's boyfriend Willy Stark (Christian Borromeo), as well as Dick Gibson.
Candice arrives back at her apartment, where she finds Dick waiting. He wants to talk about the potential relationships between the students, and tries to convince Candice that there is nothing going on between him and any of the other students. While he is there, the DJ from the studio, Bob, phones Candice and updates her on the murder at the academy.
The next day, the routine at the campus continues as normal, causing Dick a great deal of upset, since nobody seems to care about Susan's death. At a nearby coffee shop, Lt. Borges talks to Dick about a possible rivalry between the dancers. That evening at a local nightclub, another student from the academy, Janice, dances alone for an audience and then walks home to her apartment. She finds Willy waiting and wanting to talk. In her bedroom, Janice finds a photograph of Willy and Susan, but when she calls out to him, he is gone. Janice finds her pet canary dead with a hairpin needle through its body. Panicked, she runs to the front door, where she is attacked and killed by the unseen assailant who thrusts a hairpin needle into her heart.
Candice begins having nightmares of being attacked by a handsome young man (Ray Lovelock) wielding a long, ornamental needle identical to the one used in the killings. Candice becomes more obsessed with the dream assailant when she sees an advertising billboard which features him prominently. Unable to shake the feeling that they are in some way predetermined to meet, Candice tracks down the man in the poster to the seedy Fulton Hotel, and bribes the desk clerk for the key to "Mr. Robinson's" room. She explores the room, but is shocked when the handsome model returns suddenly. The man introduces himself as George Webb who, to Candice's repulsion, is a drunken and disheveled wreck. With what seems like disappointment mingled with terror, Candice flees from the room, leaving her purse and ID behind.
Meanwhile, Lt. Borges records a phone call to the police station from a person claiming be the killer. When a voice analyst identifies it as Bart, one of the dancers, Borges arrests him. Bart confesses to the phone calls as well as to killing Susan because she was crazy, and Janice because she was Hispanic. Borges, however, states his belief that Bart is not the killer, but a pathological liar.
George goes to the academy to return Candice's purse where another dancer, Gloria, recognizes him from a modeling show they appeared in years earlier. Dick sees George and Candice on a security monitor and calls Borges saying that George must be the killer. Over lunch at a local Chinese restaurant, the relationship between Candice and George becomes closer when she confides in him about an incident years earlier, when a man on a motorcycle ran her over in a hit-and-run putting an end to her dancing career and forcing her to teach. Back at Candice's apartment, she gets a phone call from Phil (Lucio Fulci), a local talent agent, who has made a background check for her on George and informs her that he once had an affair with a young girl who later died. At the studio, Candice is attacked by Margie, using the killer's M.O., but she is subdued by Dick, who turns Margie over to the police.