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

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 29, 2016

Note: This film is available as part of Killer Dames: Two Gothic Chillers by Emilio P. Miraglia.

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.

Note 2: While no out and out spoilers will be posted in this review, those with an acquaintance of some other titles mentioned in the review who are able to “read between the lines” may be able to jump to some conclusions about various plot points. Those folks are encouraged to skip down to the technical portions of the review, below.

There’s a kind of interesting through line linking Diabolique and Deathtrap which plays upon an almost inherent audience perception that what they’re seeing amounts to the cinematic equivalent of an omniscient narrator in a literary setting. What of course turns out to be the case in both of these fascinating films is that the writers and directors have willfully misled the viewer and that only “part” of what’s actually going on has been detailed, at least that is until the beans are spilled in some revelatory late scenes. Something at least somewhat similar is part and parcel of The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave’s sinister ambience, though it’s also colored with some patently weird sexual shenanigans that almost flirt with Fifty Shades of Grey territory.

Alan Cunningham (Anthony Steffen) is first seen in a highly agitated state, and perhaps under the influence of some kind of psychotropic drug, as he attempts to escape from what is revealed to be a mental institution. With the salient plot point that the film’s “hero” is mentally unbalanced therefore firmly established, the story moves on to detail Alan’s curious obsession with red haired women, one which is ultimately revealed to be linked to his late auburn tressed wife, Evelyn. Alan is literally haunted by memories of Evelyn, despite (or maybe because of) the fact that she evidently cheated on him shortly before her demise.

The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave flirts with some BDSM material when Alan invites a working girl back to his place, a weirdly dilapidated castle which nonetheless has an insanely luxe apartment hidden somewhere deep inside. There’s also a “dungeon” of sorts which is filled with all sorts of provocative accoutrements, including a whip which plays into some of the sex games. While it appears for a moment that Alan is going to slaughter the helpless woman, this first interchange seems to end in a, well, kind of flaccid way (for a moment, anyway), though Alan’s peculiar tendencies are witnessed by an unexplained vagrant who is evidently blackmailing him. (There are several sidebars in The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave which are frankly not all that well handled and/or developed.)

What’s kind of odd about this initial setup is that it hints (and later outright shows) Alan is a deranged psychopath, and yet the film more or less abandons this fascinating premise as it moves along, something that undercuts supposed suspense when an actual body count begins accruing. That happens after Alan’s relative Farley (Umberto Raho) assures Alan that his mental problems will be cured if only he remarries a woman who looks like Evelyn. That turns out to be Gladys (Marina Malfatti), who, like Alan himself, seems to be encountering spectral phenomena related to Alan's supposedly deceased first wife. Gladys at least has the good sense to at least attempt to find a rational explanation for things, not that her efforts influence Alan’s rapidly unraveling psyche in any meaningful way.

A kind of cartwheeling series of revelations keeps things rather breathless in the film’s final act, but the problem with The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave is that, despite several promising building blocks, things are never constructed in an artful enough way to ever resonate clearly or convincingly. One salient example comes late in the film, after a series of “Moishe the Explainer” moments which finally divulge most of what has happened. In the wake of those revelations, one character is clearly being poisoned by another character and yet continues to imbibe the poison even after its effects have already started. It adds a comedic flavor to the proceedings (almost as if the character is saying, "Mmmm. . .tasty poison, I think I'll have some more") which was obviously unintended (commentator Troy Howarth finds similar humor in the film’s opening sequence on the grounds of the insane asylum). That said, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave makes for an interesting comparison piece to the two films mentioned above, if only to point out how a similar foundation doesn’t necessarily support the same kind of solid cinematic structure.

The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Both of the films in the Killer Dames set feature AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 2.35:1. Arrow's typically excellent information about the provenance of the elements and technologies utilized for the transfer state that both transfers were sourced off of 35mm 2-perf Techniscope negatives and scanned at 2K resolution. I've scored both films at 4.0, but there are some subtle differences between them, and it's perhaps more instructive than usual to do a compare and contrast to establish certain baselines. While both transfers feature generally excellent color, saturation and densities are a bit more convincing in The Red Queen Kills Seven Times. That's especially evident when The Red Queen lives up to the color in its title and indulges in some standard giallo tropes like gushing red blood, which has a suitably garish hue here. That said, there are parts of The Red Queen that might be better termed as blue or gray, with a kind of slate cast overlaying the imagery (see screenshot 1 in The Red Queen Kills Seven Times review for an example). The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave can look just slightly anemic at times, though my hunch is this difference will be more apparent to those who view these two films in rapid succession, and generally speaking Evelyn's palette looks healthy, if not quite as robust as The Red Queen's. While neither film looks "sharp" by contemporary standards (nor should they), there are commendable detail levels, especially when Miraglia zooms in for close-ups. Grain resolves naturally in both transfers and there are no problems with image instability, nor are there any compression issues to cause concern. Restorative efforts have delivered a near damage free viewing experience.

The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both films in this set feature DTS-HD Master Audio Mono tracks in both Italian and English. Once again as is my custom, I suggest sticking with the Italian, though as is discussed briefly in the commentary on The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, since both of these films were done in the traditional Italian manner of being entirely post-looped, even the "original language" version has occasional mismatches between lip movements and words uttered. Fidelity is fine on both tracks, and the at times weirdly perky scores of Bruno Nicolai sound great.

The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Introduction (1080p; 00:54) features Erika Blanc.


• Audio Commentary features Troy Howarth.


• Remembering Evelyn (1080p; 15:12) features Stephen Thrower.


• The Night Erika Came Out of the Grave (1080p; 9:44) is a recent interview with Erika Blanc.


• Trailers

  Italian Trailer (1080p; 2:44)

  English Trailer (1080p; 2:44)

• Archival Special Features

  2006 Introduction by Erika Blanc (1080i; 00:37)

  The Whip and the Body (1080i; 20:57) is a fun retrospective featuring Blanc.

  Still Rising from the Grave (1080i; 22:49) features production designer Lorenzo Baraldi.

The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave probably only qualifies as a giallo in the broadest sense of the term, but it's often moody and is infused with some patently odd sexual content. The story's interesting elements are sometimes hobbled by a ham fisted presentational style, and in fact some cynics may find at least parts of the film unintentionally hilarious. Technical merits are generally first rate and Arrow has assembled its typically excellent assortment of supplements. Recommended.