La dama rossa uccide sette volte

The Red Queen Kills Seven Times is a vintage 1970's thriller about a family curse, in which there are 7 murders every 100 years, committed by one of two sisters, who picks off 6 victims and the eventually kills the other sister. Which is a bit of a convoluted legend. But anyway, Barbara Bouchet plays Kitty, the leading lady in peril, who feels that her missing and deranged sister is replaying out the legend and killing multiple people, so she soon fears that she will become the 7th victim.

The whole movie is a bit of a jumble of plot and events, as people close to or somehow linked to Kitty start to die horribly. The movie does look good, thanks to the lovely actresses who appear in it, and there are some great shots of the "Red Queen" killer (in a long red cape, black hair and white face) dashing about the place. There's also a fairly spectacular castle setting with suitable creepy rooms and dungeons. The explanation is almost impossible to piece together, but at least it's something you couldn't really figure out!

The prologue is also important as it shows how Kitty (as a child) first learned about the legend, and we get to hear the improbable story, as well as see a ridiculously gory painting which the family have deemed suitable to be hung in full view on a wall! Sadly, what doesn't work is the English dub, which is dreadful and it especially hampers this prologue, because the only thing worse than bad dubbing is bad dubbing of children, and here it's excruciating. There is a fair bit of gore, but the blood looks like tomato soup and there are no really good effects to be seen. However it's all energetic and well paced, and there is a lot of topless female nudity to keep the male audience members entertained. Worth a look.

When two sisters inherit their family castle, a string of murders committed by a mysterious dark haired woman in a red cloak decimates their circle of friends. Is the killer their ancestor, the "Red Queen" whom legend says claims seven lives every hundred years?

This was Emilio Miraglia's follow-up to "The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave". Barbara Bouchet stars, making 1972 a good year for her -- she was also in the highly praised Fulci film "Don't Torture a Duckling". With her is "Evelyn" holdover Marina Malfatti who was also having a god year -- she was in Sergio Martino's "All the Colors of the Dark". Supporting them is Marino Masé, who appeared in even bigger films -- "The Leopard" and "Nightmare Castle", to name a couple. Lastly, Sybil Danning has a smaller early role here -- today (2016) she is probably the best-known of the cast due to her transition into American films.

Composer Bruno Nicolai, another holdover from "Evelyn", really ties the film together. He had done many, many films but I would say this is probably among his best work. Unfortunately, aside from "Caligula", he never seems to have risen above Italian B-movies, even if he was in the same league talent-wise as Ennio Morricone.

Luca Palmerini, no fan of Miraglia, dismisses this film as "mediocre". While it may not be groundbreaking or on the level of the masters (Fulci, Bava, Argento), for me, an average giallo is better than most horror films any day of the week. There is just something about the style and use of color that remains unmatched in American movies. And Palmerini fails to notice the striking villain (one of the most memorable of the giallo genre) and the clever blend of giallo and Gothic that seems to be the defining trait of Miraglia.

Arrow Video hired both Alan Jones and Kim Newman to provide an audio commentary for their masterful blu-ray disc. The two tag team the commentary expertly, and either could have done it alone. But together? It is incredible.

This interesting Giallo boosts a typical but still thrilling plot and a really sadistic killer that obviously likes to hunt his victims down before murdering them in gory ways.

Directed by Emilio P. Miraglia who, one year earlier, also made the very interesting "La Notte che Evelyn Usci della Tomba" (see also my comment on that one), the film starts off a little slow, but all in all, no time is wasted with unnecessary sub plots or sequences.

This film is a German-Italian coproduction, but it was released in Germany on video only in a version trimmed by 15 minutes of plot under the stupid title "Horror House". At least the murder scenes, which will satisfy every gorehound, are fully intact, and the viewer still gets the killer's motive at the end. But the Italian version containing all the footage is still the one to look for, of course.

A convincing Giallo with obligatory twists and red herrings, "La Dama Rossa Uccide Sette Volte" is highly recommended to Giallo fans and slightly superior to Miraglia's above mentioned other thriller.

When I saw the elaborate DVD box for this and the dreadful Red Queen figurine, I felt certain I was in for a big disappointment, but surprise, surprise, I loved it. Convoluted nonsense of course and unforgivable that such a complicated denouement should be rushed to the point of barely being able to read the subtitles, let alone take in the ridiculous explanation. These quibbles apart, however, the film is a dream. Fabulous ladies in fabulous outfits in wonderful settings and the whole thing constantly on the move and accompanied by a wonderful Bruno Nicolai score. He may not be Morricone but in these lighter pieces he might as well be so. Really enjoyable with lots of colour, plenty of sexiness, some gory kills and minimal police interference. Super.

This was the second giallo Emilio Miraglia directed after the previous year's The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave. In fact it was the last movie he ever directed. On the evidence of this film that is a criminal waste because The Red Queen Kills 7 Times really is a terrific giallo. Like its predecessor, this one mixes the giallo format with neo-Gothic elements; in this case an old castle replete with a crypt populated with rats and bats, as well as a legend about an evil supernatural killer. This Gothic material is combined with a super-chic contemporary setting, where we have a fashion house populated with a selection of gorgeous girls. This set-up gives the movie a slightly different angle to most others in the genre and Miraglia makes full use of both the Gothic and the giallo conventions.

The plot is as complex as you should expect from these flicks. It is basically about two sisters who grow up in a castle. An old painting shows two other warring sisters, the evil one being the dark haired Red Queen -a girl who returns from the dead every hundred years on murderous rampages. Of course the little girls grow up and the Red Queen mysteriously appears and starts a series of killings.

It has to be said that this film has a truly awesome killer. The Red Queen has to be one of the greatest cinematic serial killers ever conceived. This sexy black haired woman in flowing red gown and scary voice is a very inspired creation indeed. She commits a series of murders of course. They aren't the most graphic of killings but they are very varied. Most original being death by fence pole, while the scene where someone is dragged through the streets by car was repeated several years later in Dario Argento's Deep Red. Aside from this, the cinematography is as lovely as you may expect from a film like this, with great widescreen compositions that make full use of both the Gothic locations as well as the modern interiors. And last but certainly not least there is an assortment of gorgeous Euro actresses to savour. Barbara Bouchet leads the picture and, as always, is phenomenal; sexy and sympathetic, she truly was one of the very best actresses working in Italy in the 70's. Also of particular note is Sybil Danning as a bad girl femme fatale.

For Euro cult viewers you just cannot go wrong here. It's definitely a very memorable entry in the giallo sub-genre.