Saturday, October 6, 2018

Death Smiles on a Murderer, The Dead Return and She is Mad

We've all done it. Locked in our secret basement laboratories, we have all attempted to create a serum to bring the dead back to life. Many of us have succeeded in bringing certain roadkill back. A mashed squirrel, crushed rat, or a fallen pigeon perhaps. To bring a dead person back to life is a bit more complicated. For example, how do we decide who to bring back? Billions have died throughout world history. In 1973's Italian horror film "Death Smiles on a Murderer" a beautiful woman is brought back. Directed by Joe D'Amato, this film can serve as a warning to all of us amateur mad-scientists that often times the more beautiful among us is often the deadliest.
When we first meet the sultry Greta (Ewa Aulin), she is a corpse. Her loving (a very inappropriate love, I might add) brother Franz (Luciano Rossi) has studied the black arts and has resurrected her. Jump forward a few years. Greta mysteriously shows up at the estate of Walter (Sergio Doria) and Eva (Angela Bo). Greta apparently has amnesia and her coachman is torn to shreds as the stage crashes on their property. Dr. Sturges (Klaus Kinski) restores her to health but notices something strange about Greta's condition. As Sturges returns to his secret lab with some secrets he gleaned from Greta, he then brings a corpse back to life. This experiment's success will have a short-lived success, as...well...you'll see.
Back to the estate. As Greta regains her strength, both Walter and his wife Eva fall in love with her. Eva will invade Greta's bath and have sex with her, and Walter will have sex with her in the stable. Uh oh, Eva becomes jealous and plots Greta's demise. Thinking she has killed Greta, the mysterious beauty returns and the results will be quite bloody. As Greta goes through Italian nobility like crap through a goose, whatever erotic moments Walter and Eva shared with her may come back to haunt them in blood red fashion.
What is the reason for Greta's homicidal mission to Walter and Eva's estate? Where is Greta's brother, Franz? Has she killed him too, or is she seeking to re-unite with her brother/lover? Just what did happen to Dr. Sturges in his secret laboratory? Erotic and gory, this horror story is full of surprises, so pay attention through the last frame. Ewa Aulin is captivating as the ravishing seductress turned monster. For some arousing Giallo, enjoy "Death Smiles on a Murderer."

2 comments:

  1. Better than anything Mary Shelly has written, maybe the Italians invented the Gothic movement, didn't Michelangelo sculpt gargoyles?

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  2. Great review Christopher, I'm not a fan of D'Amato ( I simply find him boring AF usually)but this is one of the very few films of his I do like, it's a weird little flick with a great atmosphere & it's hands down D'Amato's most accomplished film for me. Very nice review again mate might revisit this one over the October season.

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