La notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba

Emilio Miraglia's "The Night Evelyn came out of her Grave" is an entertaining slice of perversely manipulative and seedy Gothic Euro-horror. The way the format works out (Gothic crossed Giallo) is a delicious web of eerie uncertainty and devilish twists, where is it the cracking mind of the protagonist or maybe the supernatural has something to do with the mysterious occurrences and demented happenings. Where never quite sure how it will pan out, despite its strictly routine and what you think a simple set-up. It does create many effective and spontaneous passages, like a layer upon layer structure, which compellingly builds up to its show-stopping, and unforeseeable conclusion. Which eventually goes out of its way to shock. Miraglia sharply paints a sombre atmospheric setting that at times embraces a dreamy elegance and for the darker, glum moments it's covered with moody shades due to its shadowy lighting. There's plenty of rough, jolting blocks of viciously nasty violence, sensual nudity and sordid fetishes. Bruno Nicolai's peering camera-work is smoothly orchestrated and Gastone Di Giovanni's wicked, bustling music score fits every scene. The pacing can get rather stumpy and editing can lumber with little rhythm, but it has a certain glow and the strangeness of the idea seems to hold you. The performances fair up decently, with a voluptuous Erika Blanc looking rather stunning and nailing down her part. Antonio De Teffè's nervous wreck portrayal is finely tuned in a neurotic sense and Marina Malfatti is there to shower us with her gratuitous looks. Rod Murdock colourfully hams it up, with winning results and Giacomo Rossi-Stuart is suitably adequate as the stable-headed doctor. There are able performances from Joan C Davis and Roberto Maldera too. The story can get patchy with few plot-holes, but it has a sedately arresting, stylised appeal.

Italian horror/suspense film about a wealthy English lord who cruises pubs and taverns for girls with red hair just like his recently deceased wife Evelyn. You know he must have really loved his wife, because he brings them to his home - a huge, rotting castle - and makes them disrobe and then tortures them, whips them, and kills them. The most bizarre aspect of this film for me was that somehow by the film's end, we see this guy played by Antonio De Teffe as the HERO of the film. Anyway, soon, under the advice of his playboy uncle Roberto Maldera, De Teffe settles down with a girl he meets at his uncle's party. She moves in and strange things begin to happen to De Teffe's fragile state of mind. He begins to see and hear his dead wife and finally, well, just look at the title if you are still curious. Also, family members and friends begin to die in the most brutal fashions. Poor Aunt Agatha(she looks like she might even be younger than De Teffe and they have her in a wheelchair and trying to look old) meets her fate in a foxy fashion. Another man is injected and then buried alive. And of course, there is a whole explanation as to why/how Evelyn did what she did. Director Emilio Miraglia does do some things fairly well: the settings in the film are well-suited for this film though trying to make us believe it is England is ludicrous at best. None of the actors look English. Many having dark black hair and Mediterranean complexions and wearing clothes an Englishman wouldn't be caught dead in. The cars drive on their wrong side of the road. But all that notwithstanding, the crypt scene was effectively shot and I liked the cheesy resolution too. And of course any film with the sultry, red-headed Erika Blanc is always a plus. There is a streak of sexual perversion; however, which I found somewhat appalling with the idea that torturing women was quite alright and healthy in order to relieve one of his mental demons. C'mon.

OK, maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think so. If you want to watch great cinematography maybe you should watch this for a base to judge it on. I have the r rated version and I've seen more breasts in this than in a regular porn movie. This is a wonderful movie to have with a ton of friends over. If there were only more spaghetti horror movies like this.

From the get go, there are red heads galore. And more S&M than you'd have thought could be filmed back in the 70s. I'm not saying this is the best movie of the age, but the costume designer should have won an Oscar. Can you say "Titty"? And the under lying theme of "Get rid of your old flame's s**t!" can't be denied.

Perhaps those who don't appreciate this film aren't the "artsy fartsy" types but this movie also can boasts non-stop high quality Sets. And any flick that involves Red head chicks naked, Rufees, and gore can't be bad. Oh!, and foxes eating intestines.

And let's not mention Aunt Agatha getting her head knocked in ala. Apollo Creed in Rocky IV.

Alan (Anthony Steffen), an English multi-millionaire with a few screws loose (thanks to his first wife's infidelity and untimely death during childbirth), entices sexy, red-headed women to his castle, offering them bundles of cash to stay the weekend. Once back at his ancestral pile, he gets them nekkid, proceeds to flog them with a bull-whip, and then kills them.

But when he meets blonde hottie Gladys (Marina Malfatti) and falls for her ample charms, he decides to give up his murderous ways and get married. Their wedded bliss is short-lived, however, thanks to Alan's iffy mental state, which becomes increasingly fragile when his dead wife Evelyn starts to appear outside his window and a spate of gruesome murders occur within the castle grounds.

So let's recap: a groovy 70s Euro-horror with loads of tasty women in various states of undress; spooky Gothic retreats and misty graveyards; a sadistic rich psycho with a penchant for drop-dead gorgeous babes with cracking bods; several vicious murders (including a great bit where one victim has her head bashed in with a rock and her entrails eaten by foxes). Normally, a checklist like that would guarantee me a good time—so why did I find 'The Night Evelyn Came Out Of Her Grave' so dull? Well, for starters, the plot is way too convoluted: there are red herrings, crazy plot developments, and suspects galore, and it all becomes a bit too much. By the ridiculous ending—in which we discover that, all along, several people have been plotting to get their greedy paws on Alan's wealth, and that our red-head killing nut-job is actually supposed to be the hero of the movie—my head was hurting too much to care! Secondly, Emilio Maraglia's direction is pretty torpid. Stylish, yes; but as slow as molasses at times.

And then there's the bits that are just too damn silly, possibly even for a giallo: the death by poisonous snake bite (surely one of the most bizarre choices of weapon ever); Alan's Aunt Agatha, an old crippled relative who is played by a pretty young woman; the hiring of a group of identical curly headed blondes as maids; the poor attempt at convincing the audience that the film is set in England (mentioning 'pounds' and hiring a crap police uniform for one of the extras is not enough); and then, of course, there is the unlikelihood of finding a bag of sulphuric acid laying next to a swimming pool...

'The Night Evelyn Came Out Of Her Grave' isn't a total waste of time (how could it be, with so much female flesh on show?), but there are much better giallo's out there. Watch this one if you're a fan of the genre and you've already seen the best—but don't expect too much.

This creepy Italian thriller tells the story about a widowed lord who still suffers from the memory of the death of his red-haired wife Evelyn who betrayed him. So the aristocrat lures red-haired prostitutes into his castle to take revenge on his dead wife again and again: He whips them before he kills them.

But he's obviously not the only whacko in this film, because after he has found a new wife - a blonde woman this time - he seems to be getting better, but strange things happen and there's even a gloved killer who murders a couple of people in quite nasty ways.

This film from the director of the fine Giallo "La Dama Rossa Uccide Sette Volte" (1972, see also my comment on that one) is a clever blending of gothic horror elements (a creepy castle, mysterious events taking place and an empty coffin that suggests that Evelyn indeed came out of her grave) and a typical Giallo story (gloved killer, nasty murders and some surprising twists during the climax). The only letdown is the slow paced start (after a great opening sequence, though), but the second half makes up for that in many ways. The film is not that gory, but there is one particularly gruesome scene when the killer batters a woman with a stone and then throws her into a fox cage - you actually see the foxes munch on her innards.

All in all an interesting and unusual film that is worth looking for (although it's not easy to get it on tape at the moment).