The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1972)


The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave is one of those movies I have been wanting to see for a long time.  I originally had it on a cheap horror box set but never watched it.  I did get about maybe a minute or two into it, but it was a poor pan-and-scan version.  From what little memory I have of it the beginning was completely different and, even at the time, I knew there were several versions of this. 

All the versions that made it to the United States - including the theatrical one, which had a great poster that had little to do with the story - were butchered in some manner.  It went into public domain rather quickly which meant anyone could do what they wanted, and I am sure that many companies, including those leasing films for the grindhouse circuit, made versions that emphasized the nudity (of which there is plenty) or the violence (of which there is a little) or the horror element (of which there is next to none).  Releasing it under the direct English translation of the Italian title I guess was lurid enough to get some people in as well.

Lord Alan Cunningham (Anthony Steffen) is trying to recover after a mental breakdown caused by his wife Evelyn (Paola Natale) frolicking with her lover in the gardens of the ancestral castle.  Her unfaithfulness, along with her death in childbirth, put him over the edge.  Supposedly cured, he finds himself bringing back red-headed prostitutes and strippers that look like Evelyn to play sadomasochistic games with - ones that often go too far.

While initially rejecting the advice of his doctor Richard Timberlane (Giacomo Rossi Stuart) to remarry, he changes his mind after attending a party with his cousin George (Enzo Tarascio), where he meets a woman named Gladys (Marina Malfatti).  He falls in love with her and marries her almost immediately.  That is when a whole round of deaths begin - his former brother-in-law Albert (Roberto Maldera) and his Aunt Agatha (Joan C. Davis) primary among them.  Mounting evidence is that Evelyn has returned from the dead and is seeking revenge.

Despite the name of the movie and the American poster art, and a few nods to spiritualism and gothic horror, this is largely a giallo disguised as a scare movie.  Emilio Miraglia had worked with other directors, including Lucio Fulci, and was definitely familiar with the genre.  It is awhile before we get a black-gloved killer (initially it's yellow gloves for a change).  He also wrote the screenplay for the film and it tries hard to stay on point.  Unfortunately, a lot of problems that pop up in the genre arise, particularly twists and incidents that require the power of teleportation from those involved.  There is also the fact that our supposed hero, no matter what others around him are up to, has murdered and disposed of the body of at least one woman and bribed his brother-in-law to look the other way.  

That really doesn't leave anyone to root for.  There are all sorts of reveals and double crosses before the film comes to its abrupt, unsatisfying end, which is equally frustrating since there are a lot of elements that work.  They simply don't come together in a coherent way.  Also, I really hoped at some point there would be an actual Evelyn coming out of an actual grave; it would have been nice for that to be the ultimate twist with everyone, including Alan, getting his due, but alas it never happens. 

The actors do the usual workman-like job one would expect from a second-tier Italian release.  At least one of the kills works, but most are bloodless, and one is probably more well-known due to the amount of nudity involved.  Miraglia, to his credit, knows how to shoot a film even if he may not be the best at writing one, and even shows some of the usual heavy use of basic colors many of these films have.  Still, this feels like an attempt to hop on board a trend and get a movie done quickly - especially when Miraglia's less-exploitative The Red Queen Kills Seven Times is more honestly a giallo and considered a much better film. 

The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1972)
Time: 103 minutes
Starring: Anthony Steffen, Marina Malfatti, Enzo Tarascio, Giacomo Rossi Stuart
Director: Emilio Miraglia

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Lawnmower Man (1992)

Image
Virtual reality has been one of the most hyped, and one of the most disappointing, promises of technology.  While it promotes immersion into a cybernetic world what it really provides are video games with 20-year-old graphics and the occasional bruise when one accidentally hits a closet door.  In the case of The Lawnmower Man  what it is promising is that something with graphics just a little bit better than Dire Straits's "Money for Nothing" video will somehow change the world and alter humanity. It was laughable then and it is laughable now.  The only person not laughing was Stephen King, who demanded that his name be removed from all future advertising for the movie because he never wrote this.  The story, of which a short film was made in the 1980s, involves a man unwittingly hiring a Greek god to mow his lawn and, after said god creates a spectacle, paying for the landscaping with his life.  It's only a few pages and, in my opinion, it is one of King's...
Read more

Things (1989)

Image
Most of the time when I hear a movie is the worst ever I know that is hyperbole. There are few candidates and I would even say the famous book chronicling the worst movies ever made got it wrong.  Plan 9 from Outer Space is laughably incompetent, but enjoyable.  The worst kind of films are the ones where no joy can be found in the watching experience, for reasons ranging from unlikeable characters to just sheer boredom.  A truly horrible movie is something like  Things.   This is a 1989 direct-to-video horror film from Canada, filmed on 8mm and dubbed once it was completed and the makers realized most of the sound was unusable.  Director Andrew Jordan and writer Barry J. Gillis managed to grab porn star Amber Lynn for an hour to shoot her as a news reporter just so they could put her face on the video box.  Most of the music was done by Gillis, and some of it by a local band called Familiar Strangers.  It was filmed in large part in Andrew Norman'...
Read more

The Omen (1976)

Image
A movie does not have to be high art to strike a chord with the public.  The Omen was an attempt by writer David Seltzer to make some money and get a nice trip to the UK.  It just so happened that because of The Exorcist the public was hungry for more movies involving demons and such, and adding a veneer of Catholicism didn't hurt either.  The Vatican's secrets are most likely of more interest to scholars than anyone else, but a religion doesn't hang on over the centuries without creating a bit of mystery.  In this case, Seltzer settled on the Revelation of St. John, the low-fantasy portion of the Bible and, instead of an hilariously named (albeit historically correct) demon named Pazuzu, with The Omen we get the son of Satan himself.  When Robert Thorne (Gregory Peck) is informed that his child has died he visits a priest at the hospital in Rome where his wife is coalescing.  He is given an offer too good to be true: a foundling, whose mother died in...
Read more