6.7 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
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?
Starring: Barbara Bouchet, Ugo Pagliai, Marina Malfatti, Marino Masé, Pia GiancaroHorror | 100% |
Foreign | 67% |
Mystery | 23% |
Thriller | 4% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Italian: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono
English
Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
DVD copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (B, C untested)
Movie | 3.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
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.
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.
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.
- Italian Trailer (1080p; 3:13)
- English Trailer (1080p; 3:13)
- Dead a Porter (1080i; 13:38)
- Round Up the Usual Suspects (1080i; 18:24) features Marino Mase.
- If I Met Emilio Miraglia Today. . . (1080i; 4:14) also features Mase.
- My Favorite. . .Films (1080i; 00:59) features Barbara Bouchet.
I'm frankly still a little confused by some elements in The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, but I'm going to chalk any dunderheadedness up to being transfixed by the allure of Barbara Bouchet, who makes for a very winning heroine. As with this film's sibling The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, a number of rather interesting building blocks are thrown together too haphazardly to ever construct a completely convincing (or logical) edifice. Technical merits are generally first rate and Arrow has assembled its typically excellent assortment of supplements. Recommended.
(Still not reliable for this title)
La notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba
1971
Special Edition | La morte accarezza a mezzanotte
1972
Special Edition | La morte cammina con i tacchi alti
1971
Cosa avete fatto a Solange?
1972
Tutti i colori del buio
1972
Profondo rosso | Special Edition
1975
Gatto nero
1981
Sei donne per l'assassino
1964
Non si sevizia un paperino
1972
Il tuo vizio è una stanza chiusa e solo io ne ho la chiave
1972
Standard Edition
1982
La morte ha sorriso all'assassino
1973
L'uccello dalle piume di cristallo | Remastered
1970
Follia omicida
1981
Nude per l'assassino
1975
Reazione a catena
1971
Una farfalla con le ali insanguinate
1971
Le foto di Gioia / Slipcover in Original Pressing
1987
1980
La Mansión de la Niebla
1972