Killer Dames: Two Gothic Chillers by Emilio P. Miraglia Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

Killer Dames: Two Gothic Chillers by Emilio P. Miraglia Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 29, 2016

Arrow Video is continuing to mine some of the lesser known corners of giallo with the release of Killer Dames: Two Gothic Chillers by Emilio P. Miraglia. As I mentioned in my recent Death Walks Twice: Two Films by Luciano Ercoli Blu-ray review (also from Arrow Video), many casual giallo fans (and maybe even some diehard aficionados of the genre) tend to default to either Dario Argento or Mario Bava when thinking of the idiom, but there are a number of other interesting directors who brought out various films that might be thought of as at least tangentially fulfilling some of the “requirements” of giallo. That said, Miraglia may actually be more of a cult item than even Ercoli, and as the title of this release suggests, there are other genres that inform his work at least as much as any ostensible giallo tropes. The two films collected in this set tend to be among the better known of Miraglia’s relatively limited oeuvre, which (according to the IMDb) amounts to only six films (as a director) which spanned the rather brief period of 1967-1972 (making Miraglia’s short career even more mysterious is the fact that he evidently billed himself as Hal Brady in several of these efforts). Both 1971’s The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave and 1972’s The Red Queen Kills Seven Times offer (as that “gothic” in the release’s title suggests) shadowy castle environments where scantily clad women encounter all sorts of menacing spirits (or at least humans pretending to be spirits), and they frankly lack some of the most recognizable elements of traditional giallo, including gloved killers and a surplus of blood, guts and other gore. Both films have interesting moments, but neither is probably ever going to be considered a lost (or underappreciated) masterpiece.

Reviews of the two films featured in this set can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave Blu-ray review

The Red Queen Kills Seven Times Blu- ray review

Killer Dames: Two Gothic Chillers by Emilio P. Miraglia Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Video quality of each film is assessed in the above linked reviews.

Killer Dames: Two Gothic Chillers by Emilio P. Miraglia Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Audio quality of each film is assessed in the above linked reviews.

Killer Dames: Two Gothic Chillers by Emilio P. Miraglia Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Supplementary material for each film is listed in the above linked reviews.

Additionally this comes housed in a sturdy slipcase that also includes a nicely illustrated booklet with some interesting essays.

Killer Dames: Two Gothic Chillers by Emilio P. Miraglia Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Neither of the films in this set is an undiscovered masterpiece, but each has at least some elements to recommend them. The biggest hurdle here is a lax presentational style that glosses over important plot points, though true giallo fans may wonder if Evelyn even rates as a giallo. Arrow has put together a handsome package as usual, and while the films are a mixed bag, the release as a whole comes Recommended.