Red Queen Kills 7 Times

Red Queen Kills 7 Times

Genre: Giallo, Horror

Original title: La dama rossa uccide sette volte

AKA: The Corpse Which Didn't Want to Die

Director: Emilio Miraglia

Year: 1972

Two sisters, Kitty (Barbara Bouchet) and Evelyn, are cursed by a family painting depicting a seven year-cycle in which a Red Queen is raised from the dead to kill seven times. After Evelyn seemingly perishes and multiple killings ensue, their niece Franziska (Marina Malfatti) and Kitty start to suspect that Evelyn may be the Red Queen.

A year after directing The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave, Emilio Miraglia made his second (& final) Gialli which once again featured a character called Evelyn coming back from the grave.. or has she? 

The problems with his first film were down to pacing issues & a general lack of thrills, this time around Miraglia almost hits the nail on the head. Once again there is a absolutely fantastic Bruno Nicolai score. 

Barbara Bouchet & a very naked Sybil Danning provide the sex appeal & there's some really good kills scattered throughout the film with a story that actually works & is engaging. Sure it all leads an overly ambitious reveal at the end that is as ridiculous as it is outrageous, but that's one of the traits of the genre so you have to kind of accept how far fetched it is. 

After such a vast improvement in just a year from his first attempt it's a damn shame Emilio Miraglia never got to make a third Evelyn film to create a trilogy as further improvement could of seen him make a real classic.

Rating: ★★★½

Red Queen, an overlooked gem