This gripping, unjustly obscure, superbly realized, darkly atmospheric thriller from Hungary is an absolute pip! While, Lajos Fazekas's moody, consistently compelling 'Defekt'(1977) initially appears to take considerable liberties with the ubiquitous cinematic tropes provided by maestro, Robert Bloch's hugely influential 'Psycho'; the excitingly terse narrative herein nonetheless soon settles into a truly idiosyncratic, sparely-written, appealingly taciturn, noirish thriller that makes most excellent use of its slender running time (67 mins approx), and the creepy film's equally meagre, deliciously oppressive locale is suitably claustrophobic! The assured, creative B/W photography and grimy art direction is uniformly excellent, and the eerie jazzoid score by clearly talented composer, Gyorgy Vukan is a chilling, Lalo Schifrin-style delight! I sincerely found 'Defekt' (1977) to be a hugely entertaining downbeat thriller, and I hope that a great many other similarly broad-minded, treasure-seeking Euro-cult cinephiles will also get a chance to appreciate this offbeat macabre masterpiece of Hungarian, jazz-fuelled terror!

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