Michael York gives a bravura performance as Robert, a classical pianist with the world literally at his fingers. He contracts a disease which begins to prematurely age him at an alarming rate. Cue a crack up on Robert's behalf in which he goes around killing young women in a graphic fashion and playing cat and mouse with a detective played by Donald Pleasance who grows frantic in his efforts to track Robert down. Italian Giallo crack up fare made more plausible by the strong leads in the film - Michael York, Donald Pleasance and the divine Edwige Fenech. The most fun bit occurs when Pleasance has a crack up of his own and goes screaming into the Venetian streets "Come out! Come out! You murdering b**tard!! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!"- truly he is a crazed man at that point. Robert comes off more to be pitied rather than despised. This is no mean feat of acting on Michael York's part and it makes Phantom of Death (Off Balance) one of the most interesting Gialli of the 1980s.