Review: The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (1972)

(aka La dama rossa uccide sette volte)
Directed by: Emilio Miraglia
Starring: Barbara Bouchet, Ugo Pagliai, Marina Malfatti
Written by: Fabio Pittorru, Emilio P. Miraglia
Music by: Bruno Nicolai
Country: Italy, West Germany
Available on: Blu-ray & DVD (Arrow)
IMDb

Emilio Miraglia’s second gialli and final directorial effort is an at-times nifty mashup between traditional Italian giallo and gothic horror, with half the film taking place within a beautiful castle in Germany. The Red Queen Kills Seven Times focuses on sisters Kitty and Evelyn Wildenbrück, set to inherit their father’s estate after he dies. The family is haunted by a curse that every 100 years, the Red Queen, who was murdered by her sister the Black Queen, returns from the grave and murders six strangers and one member of the Wildenbrück family. After Evelyn mysteriously dies, the Red Queen shows up to fulfill her end of the bargain. The premise is really great and half of the movie plays out like a decently spooky supernatural slasher. When she kills, the Red Queen cackles insanely and it’s a goddamn joy every time. She shows up out of nowhere, dressed entirely in black with a red cloak and a creepy mask that evokes the uncanny valley, murders someone in Kitty’s vicinity, laughs her crazy ass off, then disappears into the darkness again. This cycle over the first 45 minutes or so is very compelling and Bruno Nicolai’s music is wonderfully sinister. However, The Red Queen Kills really suffers when it settles into the giallo doldrums of “solving the case,” as the plot pivots more to watching Kitty’s dull boyfriend try to prove his and Kitty’s innocence by confronting a variety of blonde-haired women who look confusingly similar. One of these bleachy-bobbed clones is Sybil Danning, who seems pretty bored by it all. Or maybe it was one of the other actresses. I seriously lost track of who was who about two-thirds into this, which made the requisite red herrings so frustrating. Things pique again once the climax rolls around, but my attention was being pushed to its limits by then. With a better balance of murder and mystery, this probably would have been something. But alas, it’s just not doing any particular thing with enough style or substance for a long-term deposit in the memory banks.

Overall rating: 6.5 out of 10