Ela Matou em Êxtase

Dr.Johnson conducts revolutionary experiments with human embryos he keeps in jars around the lab.When medical committee rejects his findings and orders him to stop his work,the doctor becomes depressed and commits suicide.His beautiful wife decides to seduce and kill three men and one woman 'responsible' for his suicide.Of course,two of the potential victims include Howard Vernon and Jesus Franco himself."She Killed in Ecstasy" is a pretty good Spanish horror film.The photography is excellent and easily captures the natural beauty of the lead actress,Soledad Miranda.There is plenty of nudity,but the film is quite tame.Still there is a really hot lesbian scene between Soledad Miranda and Ewa Stromberg,who was also in "Vampyros Lesbos".So if you are a fan of Jesus Franco you can't miss this film.7 out of 10.

Jess Franco is not known for telling a great story, but he sure knows how to show flesh and he shows it very well in She Killed in Ecstasy.

Dr Johnson is happily married to a beautiful woman (Soledad Miranda). He is conducting experiments on human embryos that he keeps jars in his lab. When he shows his findings to a medical board, they are outraged by what he is doing. They call it blasphemy and immoral. They strip him of his medical license and destroy his lab. This drives him over the edge and he commits suicide. His wife distressed decides to take revenge against the doctors who ruined his life and killed him. She speaks to her dead husband's corpse and promises to get those who did him wrong. She seduces all the doctors including a woman to get her revenge. She finds they are not as moral as they appear to be.

She Killed in Ecstasy is Jess Franco's follow-up to Vampyros Lesbos and features many of the same people who worked on Lesbos, including the late Soledad Miranda as Ms. Johnson. She is breathtakingly seductive as the woman who will do anything to avenge her husband's death. The film has a faster pace than Franco's usual offerings and not to hard to take, as the film does not run to long, plus Soledad's body is easy on the eyes.

"She Killed In Ecstasy" must be one of Jess Franco's most artistically well-made films (I say "must be", because the man has made almost 200 movies, so it's hard to be sure!). Of course, there are scenes that make him come off as a hack (especially those involving physical violence), but at least the film is not boring, and it is helped immeasurably by the mesmerizing presence of Soledad Miranda. She is almost able to convince us that a woman would go to bed with her ten minutes after she had first met her (!), or that a man would go to bed with her even though he knows she is a killer out to get him (!); the story is still implausible, yes, but without her it would've been laughable. She is also able to suggest the rage and sorrow of her character, and indeed one thing that sets this movie apart from other revenge thrillers, such as "I Spit On Your Grave", is that it doesn't try to justify or celebrate the heroine's vengeance; instead, it presents an initially normal woman who seems to be getting more deranged by the minute because of her own actions. (**1/2)

Jesus Franco has made so many movies that it's almost inevitable that he will occasionally get one right. This is one of those movies where his bizarro and repetitive plots, his pan-and-zoom-happy cinematography, and his obtrusive jazz score all manage to gel for a pretty dumb but thoroughly enjoyable movie. It helps, of course, that this was one of only four films he made with the incredible Soledad Miranda before her untimely death in the early 1970's. There's no denying that Franco's regular collaborator (and wife), Lina Romay, was a very sexy actress in her prime and has become something of a legend in her own right, but she is a pale shadow of Soledad Miranda, who was if anything even more beautiful and had a kind of class and talent that none of Franco's later actresses could ever hope to emulate.

The plot is about as simple as you get--this is yet another Franco knock-off of "The Bride Wore Black" with Miranda avenging herself on the scientists who drove her husband to suicide by censuring his morally dubious embryo research. Of course, this involves getting them all in bed (including the one woman, who is naturally a lesbian). This makes for some interesting (and sometimes disturbing) scenes--a nude woman being smothered with a see-through plastic throw pillow, a single trickle of blood running down Miranda's bare thigh after she stabs one poor guy in the back (while he is apparently licking the lint from her belly button), and, perhaps most disturbing of all, Howard Vernon, Dr. Orloff himself, in the altogether(shudder!). Like any good Franco movie this film is deliciously perverse. Miranda's murderous campaign against these hapless souls is every bit as morally questionable as her husbands grisly experiments. She manages to achieve an uneasy combination of touchingly sympathetic, voraciously sexy, and frighteningly psychotic. Her last two victims (one of who is Franco himself) realize exactly who she is and know she is going to kill them, but they can't resist her anymore than a male praying mantis can resist the female who is going to rip him apart and eat him.

Is this is perfect movie? Well, no. The whole premise is completely ridiculous and it has the most unconvincing fatal car crash in cinema history near the end. But it sure is a lot of fun to watch.

Dr. Johnson (Fred Williams) is happily married with his beloved wife Mrs. Johnson (Soledad Miranda) and is researching human embryos using animal cells. When he brings his findings to the Board of the prominent Dr. Franklin Houston (Paul Müller), Prof. Jonathan Walker (Howard Vernon), Dr. Crawford (Ewa Stroemberg) and Dr. Donen (Jesus Franco), the committee rejects his researches and destroys his laboratory. Dr. Johnson has a nervous breakdown and commits suicide, and the disturbed Mrs. Johnson seeks revenge, seducing each member of the Board and killing one by one while having sex with her victims.

"Sie Tötete in Ekstase" a.k.a. "She Killed in Ecstasy" is a movie of revenge that uses a storyline very similar to François Truffaut's "The Bride Wore Black" with a grieving woman seeking revenge on the responsible for the death of her beloved lover. However, this film follows the usual style of the director Jesus Franco, with kinky sex, nudity, lesbianism and murders. The hot Soledad Miranda is very beautiful and sexy. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Ela Matou em Êxtase" ("She Killed in Ecstasy")