The Red Queen Kills 7 Times/Review

In this follow up film to his first giallo The Night Evelyn Came Out of The Grave, Emilio Miraglia tells a story about two sisters who find themselves caught up in an ancient tale of terror. After Kitty Wildenbruck and her sister Evelyn have a violent fight over a toy doll, we see from the start that Evelyn is possessed by the spirit of the legendary "Red Queen" who appears in a painting on their grandfather's mansion wall. The two girls are told the tale by their grandfather of the Red Queen and the Black Queen, who were also sisters that hated one another. The story goes that every 100 years the Red Queen comes back for her revenge on the Black Queen, killing her and the seven people who are closest to her.

Flash forward to 1972, 14 years after the story was first told to the girls. We learn that Evelyn has been gone for some time now and that Kitty and Evelyn's third sister, Franzika (Marina Malfatti) is now taking care of their grandfather while working at a Fashion Design firm. One night, the grandfather hears someone approaching his room. We see the mysterious Red Queen in the shadows and Mr Wildenbruck is so frightened he has a heart attack. The estate is now in the hands of his grandchildren, but they must wait a year until the actual rights are passed over to them. Evelyn's whereabouts have been shrouded in mystery to everyone connected with the family. Kitty (Milano Calibro 9's Barbara Bouchet) tells Evelyn's estranged boyfriend Pete, that she is in America. Pete doesnt believe that story, he thinks something more sinister has happened to her. We find out that Evelyn was in fact accidentally killed by Kitty after a fight they had near a pond adjacent to their grandfathers mansion. The only thing is, if Evelyn is dead, how could she return as The Red Queen to seek vengeance? Emilio Miraglia piles on several red herrings throughout the film as the mysterious Red Queen gets rid of her victims in some really grisly ways including a startling attack in a city park, impaling a woman on a spiked fence, kidnapping a fashion model in a van and brutally stabbing her to death as well as dragging one of her victims alongside a car, then ramming into the sidewalk at full speed!

While making this film, Miraglia had a bigger budget thanks to The Night Evelyn Came Out of The Grave which was a big hit. You will notice the production design and scope of the film are more ambitious. Like his previous effort, Miraglia took the giallo into another arena with his Bava-esque injection the gothic ghost storylines and themes. Both this film and his previous giallo made Emilio Miraglia a director to watch for. Sadly, this was his last known directorial work. The accompanying score by Composer Bruno Nicolai (one of my favorites!) again adds another layer of psychedelicized mood to this terrifying tale of the killer Red Queen who has come back to take her revenge!

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Peter Roberts is the co-founder/editor-in-chief of the Grindhouse Cinema Database (GCDb) and contributor to the GCDb's sister site Furious Cinema. A Massachusetts native, he is an avid film fan that has been immersed in the world of entertainment and pop culture his entire life. He is a professional digital media designer and educator.