🪬 Giallo (1972 ) 🇮🇹

”Even the police know I’m an incredible nymphomaniac.”

The Red Queen Kills Seven Times is an atmospheric and beautifully filmed giallo set in an elegant and time-weathered family castle, replete with hidden cells, doors to nowhere, swarming rats, a moat perfect for drowning, and a red-cloaked murderess cursed to kill seven times every hundred years—what is there not to love?

This sort of film is basically candy for someone like me. It doesn’t matter if it’s not the best; I’ll generally still find something to enjoy with it. And The Red Queen is absolutely not the most clever, the most violent, the best acted, the most twisted, or most coherent giallo, but it was a hell of a fun murder mystery with interesting stakes and some plot twists that were not expected.

The ambiance is what does it for me, as well as some very great images of the current Red Queen at work. Who doesn’t love decaying countryside grandeur? And the music is a perfect compliment for this, opening with harpsichord sounding theme composed by Bruno Nicolai, who you may know from Sergio Martino’s All the Colors of the Dark and Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key. This haunting melody has an uncanny and ghostly feel and it sets the mood well.

That said, it feels a bit dated, especially in intensity. It is just not that violent or disturbing for a movie about a serial killer queen. The killings are very chill by Argento or Fulci standards, let alone present ones. There are exceptions however: the final sequence is so much fun and probably could be frightening as well.

I was confused by parts of the plot—the translation in the subtitles was a bit less than perfect, my Italian is equally imperfect, and the English dub was not enjoyable so I missed some plot points. There are a lot of characters and narrative threads and if you miss some of the relationships early on, the later parts of the movie can be confusing. That said, it did not really matter: it was always interesting.

I’ve fallen for giallo as a genre, but I am more used to horror, so sometimes a film like this can feel a bit mild to me. That’s my main complaint. It’s my issue, not the film’s, but if you’re looking for horror you’ll have the same experience.

The Red Queen Kills Seven Times is enjoyable for what it is. Come for a dark gothic folktale gone awry. It’s a classic, and it’s good. If this sounds like your sort of film, give it a try.

Recommended.

Some Lists:

🪬 Giallo
👻 Supernatural Horror
🇮🇹 Italian Horror
1970s Horror & Thrillers Ranked
💎 Slightly Hidden Horror Gems and 🌱 Candidates
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