31 Nights of Halloween Horror - Night 21 - The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
99 mins.
Dir. Emilio Miraglia
1972/Italy
For our Giallo (look it up) entry this month I have chosen The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, directed by Emilio Miraglia who the year before made The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave.
I love the names of Giallo films, they are usually long crazy surreal names like Lizard in a Woman's Skin or Four Flies on Grey Velvet or House of the Laughing Windows. But with the Red Queen Kills Seven Times, the title is exactly what the story is. Two sisters are playing in the yard of a castle where they live, Kitty and Evelyn. Evelyn steals Kitty's doll and runs into the castle, Kitty chases. They run into a room where their grandfather is reading the paper, Evelyn stops to stare at a painting on the wall of a woman dressed in black stabbing a woman dressed in red. She gets somewhat possessed/influenced by the painting and begins destroying Kitty's doll, Kitty cries and the two fight with Evelyn threatening her. The grandfather intervenes and Evelyn apologizes saying she doesn't know what came over her. Grandfather tells them the story of the red and black queens, where the black queen killed the red queen. The red queen returned from the grave and killed six people with the black queen being the seventh. Every 100 years the red queen returns to commit these acts of murders in the castle. In 16 more years it is said the red queen will return. Both those are just things of legends, no one believes them.
Fast forward 16 years later and Kitty (now played by the lovely Barbara Bouchet) is a model photographer living in London and Evelyn is in America. Their grandfather dies and everyone gathers for the reading of the will, Kitty, Franziska (her older sister), Herbert her husband, but no Evelyn. Turns out Kitty and Evelyn never really got along their whole life and when they were older and in another scuffle, Evelyn accidentally hit her head on a rock and fell into the river and drowned. Kitty's sister Franziska helped her hide the body in a crypt in the family castle and they covered up the murder saying Evelyn was in America. But someone is murdering people close to Kitty wearing a red cloak with black hair and looks a lot like Evelyn. But she's dead, or is she? Kitty and Franziska return to the family crypt to check on Evelyn's body, which is still there. Then who is doing the killing? Once six people are killed Kitty will be next.
And so unfolds this stylish giallo of murder and mystery. This one is a classic that has it all, beautiful models, some violent deaths, masked killer, colors, soundtrack, style all the giallo staples are present. I suck at guessing murder mysteries so I generally don't even try, so this one had me up until the end. And what a great ride it was. If you like murder mysteries, The Red Queen Kills seven times is a great one to watch. Giallos can be hit or miss for me sometimes, when they work they are 100% on the mark, but then they don't they can be a slow yawn fest. I can guarantee you there are seven kills in the film and if that is not enough what if I'll throw in Barabara Bouchet naked and if you still are not convinced, I will raise the stakes with a young naked Sybil Danning.
There are a lot of characters to keep track of in this movie, just about everyone seems to have a motive and when a couple die off they seem to introduce some more. A somewhat intricate story unfolds between the high fashion world and gothic castles. The Red Queen...really has all it's bases covered and was a pleasant surprise to watch unfold. Red Queen gets my vote for giallo of the month.
The Red Queen Kills Seven Times
99 mins.
Dir. Emilio Miraglia
1972/Italy
For our Giallo (look it up) entry this month I have chosen The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, directed by Emilio Miraglia who the year before made The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave.
I love the names of Giallo films, they are usually long crazy surreal names like Lizard in a Woman's Skin or Four Flies on Grey Velvet or House of the Laughing Windows. But with the Red Queen Kills Seven Times, the title is exactly what the story is. Two sisters are playing in the yard of a castle where they live, Kitty and Evelyn. Evelyn steals Kitty's doll and runs into the castle, Kitty chases. They run into a room where their grandfather is reading the paper, Evelyn stops to stare at a painting on the wall of a woman dressed in black stabbing a woman dressed in red. She gets somewhat possessed/influenced by the painting and begins destroying Kitty's doll, Kitty cries and the two fight with Evelyn threatening her. The grandfather intervenes and Evelyn apologizes saying she doesn't know what came over her. Grandfather tells them the story of the red and black queens, where the black queen killed the red queen. The red queen returned from the grave and killed six people with the black queen being the seventh. Every 100 years the red queen returns to commit these acts of murders in the castle. In 16 more years it is said the red queen will return. Both those are just things of legends, no one believes them.
Fast forward 16 years later and Kitty (now played by the lovely Barbara Bouchet) is a model photographer living in London and Evelyn is in America. Their grandfather dies and everyone gathers for the reading of the will, Kitty, Franziska (her older sister), Herbert her husband, but no Evelyn. Turns out Kitty and Evelyn never really got along their whole life and when they were older and in another scuffle, Evelyn accidentally hit her head on a rock and fell into the river and drowned. Kitty's sister Franziska helped her hide the body in a crypt in the family castle and they covered up the murder saying Evelyn was in America. But someone is murdering people close to Kitty wearing a red cloak with black hair and looks a lot like Evelyn. But she's dead, or is she? Kitty and Franziska return to the family crypt to check on Evelyn's body, which is still there. Then who is doing the killing? Once six people are killed Kitty will be next.
And so unfolds this stylish giallo of murder and mystery. This one is a classic that has it all, beautiful models, some violent deaths, masked killer, colors, soundtrack, style all the giallo staples are present. I suck at guessing murder mysteries so I generally don't even try, so this one had me up until the end. And what a great ride it was. If you like murder mysteries, The Red Queen Kills seven times is a great one to watch. Giallos can be hit or miss for me sometimes, when they work they are 100% on the mark, but then they don't they can be a slow yawn fest. I can guarantee you there are seven kills in the film and if that is not enough what if I'll throw in Barabara Bouchet naked and if you still are not convinced, I will raise the stakes with a young naked Sybil Danning.
There are a lot of characters to keep track of in this movie, just about everyone seems to have a motive and when a couple die off they seem to introduce some more. A somewhat intricate story unfolds between the high fashion world and gothic castles. The Red Queen...really has all it's bases covered and was a pleasant surprise to watch unfold. Red Queen gets my vote for giallo of the month.
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