Review #1,005: 'The Red Queen Kills 7 Times' (1972)

Emilio Miraglia only directed a handful of films throughout his career (though he was more prolific as an assistant to the likes of Luciano Salce, Carlo Lizzani and Lucio Fulci), the two films he made between 1971 and 1972 - The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave and The Red Queen Kills 7 Times - stand out most of all. Although the two films are pretty recognisable titles to any giallo enthusiast, Miraglia's name hardly echoes throughout the annals of the genre, most likely down to his slim body work as it certainly isn't down a lack of quality.

The premise of The Red Queen is giallo at its most gleefully ludicrous. While the film is mostly a gory thriller, there are elements of gothic with its cobwebbed, desolate mansion setting during the opening scenes. A dying grandfather tells two of his granddaughters of the tale behind the gruesome painting overlooking his death-bed, of one sister ('The Red Queen') who stabbed and murdered the other sister ('The Black Queen'). This cycle repeats itself every 100 years, due again in 1972. When the dreaded year comes, the grown up Kitty (Barbara Bouchet) works as a fashion photographer and believes that her sister Evelyn died in a freak accident years ago. When people start dying, murdered by a manic woman in red, has Evelyn returned from beyond the grave as the Red Queen or is something even more sinister at play?

When the movie finished, I was left wondering how such a convoluted build-up could lead to such an easily-explained mystery, but that's the beauty of giallo and The Red Queen itself. The infusion of gothic undertones peppered throughout the film only add to the fun of the piece, although its feet lie firmly in its pulpy paperback roots. Complete with impressively staged, gory set-pieces, this adds pretty much every element of the genre into the mix - the world of high fashion photography, beautiful, big-eyed women, a gruff detective, and plenty of sexual deviancy. So, it offers little in the way of originality, but it's certainly a lot of fun (the scene with the fence spike is a cracker). See it for the bonkers plot and ghostly, Hammer-esque sets if nothing else.


Directed by: Emilio Miraglia
Starring: Barbara Bouchet, Ugo Pagliai, Marina Malfatti, Sybil Danning
Country: Italy/West Germany

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie