The Red Queen Kills 7 Times

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The Red Queen Kills 7 Times
1972 Emilio Miraglia

Although not related to Miraglia's earlier movie "The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave" it is an excellent companion piece, and shares similar themes as well as some cast and crew.  The question running through both movies is whether a woman named Evelyn will stay dead, or is she back from the grave, running up a body count?
 
This movie starts with a couple of young sisters who are part of a wealthy family, but there's a downside, naturally.  The girls' natural sibling rivalry is on display, and their grandfather tells them of an old family curse where one sister, dubbed the Red Queen, kills her sister, The Black Queen, when they are in their early adulthood.  Supposedly this cycle repeats itself every hundred years.  There's also something in there that when the Red Queen comes back, she kills 7 times.  Cut to 16 years later, and Kitty (Barbara Bouchet) is a fashion photographer who stands to inherit a considerable amount of wealth as her grandfather has just died of a heart attack, brought on by the Red Queen.  Kitty is to split the inheritance with her brother, Herbert, his wife Francesca (Marina Malfatti), and Kitty's sister Evelyn, who is unable to be located as she is somewhere in America.  But Kitty is also harboring a secret:  a couple years ago, Evelyn and Kitty were fighting and Evelyn hit her head on a stone, falling into a pond and dying; the story of Evelyn going to America is only a cover. The body count adds up, as the Red Queen starts to kill everyone associated with Kitty and the model agency (sound familiar?) and evidence starts to point at the identity of the Red Queen as Evelyn.  But she's dead, right?  Red herrings are everywhere, as Kitty's boyfriend Martin (Ugo Pagliai) takes over the model agency after one of the first victims' death clears the way for him to move up.  There's also the scheming Lulu (Sybil Danning) as a model that is after Martin for sex, power, and who knows what else.  As is the usual for these types of movies, everyone has a motive, and the story gets more convoluted as the suspect pool narrows, until finally the identity of the Red Queen is revealed.

The plot moves along slowly and steadily, but is confusing and hard to follow at times, and the end wraps up suddenly.  Questions are left unanswered, and some leaps of logic need to be made, but that's not why you're watching these, right?  It's not all that hard to figure out who the killer is, but as usual, there's a plot twist or two.  The acting is fitting; industry standards Bouchet, Danning, and Malfatti, are all sultry and mysterious and get nude at the appropriate time, and the male leads are overbearing and chauvinistic.  Martin puts up a token resistance to Lulu before sexing her up, all in the midst of courting Kitty and trying to save her life.  Kitty also gets attacked and raped by a junkie, who shortly after tries to warn her about the identity of the killer, acting like it was perfectly natural to rape then protect.  Not to worry, he meets his fate in an effective but gruesome manner.  The Red Queen makes for a great villainess, and it's almost secondary as to who she is.  Stylish in her red cape and white mask, she usually kills with an ornate dagger, and isn't afraid of the daylight either.  The dreamlike sequences of the Red Queen running down the hallway are very effective, and while not important to the overall plot, really add to the gothic feel of the movie.  There are also a couple of good kill scenes, particularly the woman impaled on the gate spikes.  Maybe not as visually stylish as Argento or as suspenseful as Martino when they're at their best, Miraglia can still create an eerie mood and atmosphere that runs throughout the movie.  And the house and sets look spectacular too. 

It's impossible not to compare "The Red Queen Kills 7 Times" to "The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave".  While  "Night..."  has more nudity, perversion, and violence, "The Red Queen..." also has the underlying sleaziness and nasty disposition of the former, as well as the standard fares of a giallo wrapped in a supernatural appearing mystery.  However it also shares the meandering, confusing, and generally illogical plot mechanisms of the former, again not unlike most gialli.  I got this in a box set with both movies and a cool statue of the Red Queen.  Both are excellent prints, and well worth choosing over the public domain versions if you should encounter them. While not without fault, they each offer tons of atmosphere and great visuals, and somehow leave you satisfied at the end.  Repeated viewings of "The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave" only made it better, and I suspect another viewing of "The Red Queen Kills 7 Times" would bump it up another half point or so.  Recommended for any fan of The Genre.
3.75/5

[boltthrow]

I watched both last night.  I think I preferred "Evelyn" if for no other reason than Polly, the prostitute at the beginning, had amazing hoots.  But I also liked the slightly larger supernatural element (and the amazing poster for "Evelyn").  Like you said, both are inferior to Argento but still fun to watch.