The Red Queen Kills Seven Times

I decided to watch a Giallo with a wonderful title:

The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (1972).

Mild Spoilers Ahead

The movie opens with a young girl, Kitty, playing with a doll in a castle garden. Her sister Evelyn steals it and runs away. Their invalid grandfather tries to make peace between them until Evelyn, apparently influenced by a grisly portrait stabs and destroys the doll.

The painting is of a woman dressed in red with black hair stabbing a blond woman in a black dress. This is the legend of the Red Queen who tormented her sister, the Black Queen, until she snapped and killed her sister. The Red Queen then rose from her grave and killed six people culminating with the Black Queen being the seventh victim. Every hundred years two sisters are born that are cursed to reenact the original Red Queen – Black Queen drama.

Cut to ten years later. The uncle, Tobias Wildenbrück is suffering from a bad heart as well as being confined to a wheel chair. His eldest granddaughter Franziska and her husband lives with Tobias in his castle, when one night the Red Queen appears and he dies from fear induced cardiac arrest. Everyone is shocked, but Kitty, now a successful fashion photographer is horrified. A year or so earlier Kitty fought with Evelyn when Evelyn hit her head and fell in the moat. Everyone knew the sisters hated each other, so Kitty and Franziska hid the body in the castle cellar since no one would believe that it was an accident. Then they told everyone that Evelyn had moved to America.

Soon enough, more people get murdered, and each time, someone sees a woman with long black hair and a red cape fleeing into the night laughing maniacally. The Red Queen is back!

This Italian movie is directed by Emilio Miraglia who also directed The Night Evelyn Came out of Her Grave. The movies are not connected despite the similar names. It stars Barbara Bouchet, Ugo Pagliai, Marina Malfatti and Sybil Danning amongst others.

Overall, The Red Queen Kills Seven Times is a really nice mystery thriller. The cinematography is excellent, the actors are a cut above the norm but the soundtrack is pretty awful. Several tense scenes are accompanied by an upbeat jazz score that really doesn't fit at all. The kills are good, suitably violent and sometimes pretty gory but not too over the top. There is some nudity, but it is tastefully done and avoids feeling too sleazy.

The overall story is actually really good. It had me guessing from the start and I failed to solve the mystery before the movie ended.

There are a couple of missteps though. The biggest has to be Peter, a sleazy, greasy junkie who blackmails Kitty. He claims to know that Evelyn is not in the US and demands money to keep quiet. Later on he assaults Kitty in her bedroom leaving her traumatized. But then this is never mentioned again. The scene of her sitting half naked, horrified and barely sane is a harrowing image and in the next scene she is fine. Why include this if it has no impact on the character on indeed on the movie?

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes I do. The Red Queen Kills Seven Times is not a masterpiece, but rather a pretty solid middle-of-the-road affair. It does what it sets out to do and does it well enough. Not one of the great classics in the Giallo genre, but nevertheless a solid watch.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!