Seven Deaths In A Cat's Eye – A Brilliant Combination of Gothic Horror and Italian Giallo

Review by Steve D. Stones

Twilight Time has recently released a beautiful blu-ray disc of the 1973 Italian film – Seven Deaths In A Cat's Eye. Directed by Antonio Margheriti (aka Anthony M. Dawson), the film is also known by its Italian title of La Morte Negli Occhi de Gatto. The brilliance of this film is that it combines elements of the murder mystery Italian “giallo” with Gothic horror.

In an opening sequence that is important to the ending of the film, the viewer sees a close up of a stained glass lamp at a table and then a large chest being thrown down stone stairs of a castle as a corpse rolls out of the chest. A ginger tabby cat at the top of the stairs witnesses this scene. The corpse is eaten by rats as the camera shows close up shots of bloody eaten flesh of the corpse. The lamp will make another appearance at the end of the film, so it's important to remember this scene.

Corringa (Jane Birkin) returns to her family ancestral Scottish castle from her convent school in London after being expelled. The castle is known as Dragonstone. A gorilla looks out a castle window as Corringa's carriage arrives. Corringa's mother Lady Alicia (Dana Ghia) tries to persuade the matriarch of the house – Lady Mary MacGrieff (Francoise Christophe) to sell the castle and come to London where she can get treatment for her insane, anti-social son James (Hiram Keller). James distances himself from the rest of the family by creating art in his castle studio and avoiding contact with anyone. He paints nude portraits of his French teacher Suzanne (Doris Kunstmann) who also lives in the castle.

When Corringa arrives at castle Dragonstone, she is greeted by Suzanne in her bedroom. Corringa decides to burn some of her school books in the fireplace and accidentally throws a Holy Bible into the fire. Suzanne pulls Corringa away from the fire as she tries to pull the bible out of the fireplace. Corringa's mother Alicia fears that the burning of the Bible has brought a curse on the family. The family priest – Father Robertson (Venantino Venantini) assures the family at dinner that nothing bad will happen if burning the Bible was a mistake.

Lord James MacGrieff enters the room to join the family for dinner, but his rude and inhospitable behavior makes members of the family get up and leave the table. The family doctor – Dr. Franz (Anton Diffring) tells father Robertson that James killed his baby sister when he was a child.

Later that night, Lady Alicia is suffocated in her bed with a pillow as the ginger cat witnesses the murder. Dr. Franz is asked by Lady Mary to announce her death as natural causes. James watches from a distance as the coffin of Alicia is carried to the family crypt. The ginger tabby cat jumps on top of the casket as the pallbearers carry her into the crypt. Lady Mary instructs the family chauffeur to lock the cat in the crypt with Alicia's body.

One by one, the MacGrief family members are murdered with a razor blade. Most of the murders take place off camera. This adds to the tension of not knowing who the killer is. The ginger cat is present at the scene of each murder. Even Lord James' pet gorilla is murdered.

After going down in the cellar of the castle to find the ginger tabby cat, Corringa encounters the rotted corpse eaten by rats and her mother's grave empty and is attacked by bats. Lord James later shows Corringa his nude paintings of Suzanne in his studio. She becomes more suspicious of James as the murderer of her mother.

When a police inspector (Serge Gainsbourg) arrives to arrest Lord James, James flees to hide in the castle cellar. The viewer continues to believe that James is the murderer, but the final sequence of the film reveals who is really behind the MacGrief family murders, and the stained glass lamp makes another appearance that ties to the opening of the film.

Seven Deaths In A Cat's Eye has some plot elements very similar to Agatha Christie's 1939 novel – Ten Little Indians. One of many interesting aspects of Seven Deaths In A Cat's Eyes is the ambiguity of the time period in which the film takes place. Clothing worn by actors and interior décor in filmed environments suggests that we are seeing a late Victorian era set piece. However, actress Jane Birkin wears a number of outfits that look as if we are in a 1920s Scottish environment. A reference to the famous writings of Sigmund Freud is also mentioned in one scene – which suggests that the film takes place in the early 20^th century. The opening horse and carriage scene suggests that this is a time before the automobile.

Director Antonio Margheriti directed a number of 1960s horror thriller films that were not quite as stylish and effective as Seven Deaths In A Cat's Eyes – such as Castle of Blood (1964) and Long Hair of Death (1964), both starring raven haired beauty Barbara Steele. Margheriti also directed a number of Italian “sword & sandal” epics – such as Hercules, Prisoner of Evil and Giants of Rome, both in 1964. Happy viewing.

Planet of the Vampires a great Mario Bava film

"Planet of the Vampires" is a very interesting, effective 1965 early Mario Bava film. It involves astronauts entering a seemingly deserted world and slowly being picked apart one by one by desperate aliens seeking new life forms.

Unlike many genre directors who thrive on gloomy, forbidding black and white images, Bava manages to convey fear and horror through the use of vivid, almost garish color. That is notable in his horror anthology Black Sabbath. In Planet of the Vampires, the color, particularly red, along with the claustrophobic atmosphere of the spaceship and even the colorful planet, add to the tension and terror the crew feels as they are picked off one by one.

The only major American star in the 86-minute film is the late character actor Barry Sullivan as the space crew captain. Brazilian Norma Bengall also stars. The rest are capable European actors. The story is similar in narrative and design to the later horror classic Alien.

Believe it or not, there are also similarities to the recent Stephenie Meyer book "The Host." Bava's "vampires" are not necessarily evil; they are desperate creatures trying their best to stave off extinction. They'll do anything to achieve their goals.
Planet of the Vampires is a must-have film for Bava fans and 1960s "space opera" fans. There's a "twist ending," but alert viewers will see it coming. Watch the trailer below.

-- Doug Gibson

Black Sunday – A Film To Make Your Skin Crawl With Goosebumps!

Review by Steve D. Stones

If someone were to ask me what I thought the top ten scariest horror films of all time are, I would definitely list the 1960 classic Black Sunday in the top five. The film certainly deserves to rank as the best horror film of the 1960s. If ever there was a film that fits the title “Gothic Horror,” Black Sunday is it.

Italian director Mario Bava is masterful at creating an eerie atmosphere of old world decay. Black Sunday marks his directorial debut and was also a first for the beautiful raven-haired English born actress Barbara Steele. After the success of Black Sunday, Steele went on to star in a number of 1960s European horror classics, such as Nightmare Castle, Terror Creatures From The Grave, Castle of Blood, The Long Hair of Death, and the Roger Corman classic The Pit & The Pendulum.

Steele plays a Russian princess named Asa living in 17^th century Moldavia. Asa and her companion Javutich are accused of witchcraft and making a pact with the devil. Both are executed at the stake with a spiked demon mask hammered into their faces. Before their deaths, Asa vows to return from the dead and seek revenge on all her descendants.

The film then takes us into the future to the nineteenth century. Dr. Choma and his young assistant Dr. Gorobec are traveling through Moldavia in a coach when one of the wheels breaks. The two stop to rest as the driver attempts to fix the wheel. They wander into an old crypt filled with bats and lots of thick, creepy fog. Choma is immediately drawn to a coffin with a glass window. The coffin is of witch Asa executed two hundred years ago.

Dr. Choma accidentally breaks the glass with his cane while trying to hit a flying bat. He reaches into the coffin to remove Asa’s demon mask and cuts his hand. Large scorpions crawl out of the empty eye sockets of the dead Asa. Her skin also reveals the spike punctures from the mask. This is one of the creepiest sequences in the entire film. Choma’s blood drips onto the face of Asa, bringing her back to life.

Another frightening sequence shows a young Russian girl strolling through the dark woods at night to fetch a pail of milk. While milking a cow next to an old cemetery, she witnesses Javutich crawl out of his two hundred year old grave as Asa summons him. He removes his demon mask to reveal a pasty, shriveled complexion covered in cobwebs. This scene makes my skin crawl with goose bumps every time I see it.

What follows for the rest of the film are attempts by Asa and Javutich to murder Asa’s descendants. One of the descendants is the beautiful Katia, also played by Steele, who resembles Asa perfectly.

Black Sunday was also known in European markets as La Maschera del Demonio (The Mask of The Demon), House of Fright and Revenge of The Vampire. Sinister Cinema in Medford, Oregon sells a beautiful widescreen print with scenes cut from the American release. The film was banned for nine years in England because of some of the intense, graphic scenes of horror and violence. Director Bava went on to direct many less effective cult horror classics, such as Planet of The Vampires, Kill Baby Kill, Blood & Black Lace and Baron Blood. None of these films achieve the stylish gothic horror atmosphere that makes Black Sunday such a great classic of the horror genre.

Black Sunday is a film I would highly recommend as part of your Halloween festivities this season. Happy viewing and Happy (upcoming) Halloween!

The Embalmer features, sans irony, a murdering madman

By Steve D. Stones

The Embalmer originally played on a double-bill in drive-ins in 1966 with the Barbara Steele film The She Beast. It was later put on a triple bill in the early 1970s with the Ted V. Mikels classic The Corpse Grinders and The Undertaker and  His Pals. The Sinister Cinema DVD print of The Embalmer contains an interesting trailer for the triple bill encouraging movie patrons to sign a certificate of assurance guaranteeing to be of healthy and sound mind, and to not hold the theatre management liable for any heart conditions suffered while viewing The Embalmer. This was a clever gimmick to draw patrons into the theatre. A nurse was also on attendance to take the blood pressure of movie patrons.

A maniac dressed in a hooded monk’s robe and skull mask (similar to the mask used by The Crimson Ghost in the 1947 serial) is kidnapping young beautiful girls, draining their blood and injecting them with a serum to preserve their beauty forever. He puts their bodies on display in glass cases in his underground hideout in the catacombs under the city of Venice in Italy.

A young newspaper reporter is determined to solve the case of the missing girls. He helps a tour group find their hotel, and later guides them around the city. He falls in love with the leader of the tour group named Maureen.

Meanwhile, The Embalmer is busy kidnapping and drowning young girls by pulling them into a canal above the catacombs. He seems to have a taste for brunettes. An archaeologist discovers the Embalmer’s hideout. The Embalmer kills him and places his body in a coffin used as a stage prop for a local music club. Patrons at the music club are horrified when they witness the corpse of the archaeologist fall out of the upright coffin during a performance.

One of the girls from the tour group becomes the Embalmer’s next victim. Maureen is determined to find the girl. She enters the apartment of the hotel manager and discovers a secret passage to the catacombs through the fireplace. She discovers the Embalmer’s hideout in the catacombs. He chases after her as the young reporter hears her screams and comes to her rescue. The Embalmer and the reporter struggle in a fight. The reporter is able to remove the skull mask of the Embalmer to discover he is the hotel manager.

What I find so clever about this film is that the mask and identity of the Embalmer is not shown to the audience until the end of the film when Maureen discovers his hideout. Up until this point in the film, we only see the backside of the Embalmer as he hovers over his victims to inject them with a serum. Many clever point of view shots are shown of the Embalmers legs as he is walking to sneak up on his victims. This helps to build up tension and suspense.

Since The Embalmer is an Italian horror film, it is dubbed in English for American audiences. However, this does not distract from the film in any way. Both Alpha Video (oldies.com) and Sinister Cinema sell The Embalmer on DVD. Both prints seem to be of equal quality, and likely come from the same source material. I recommend that you view The Embalmer together with another Italian horror classic, such as Castle of Blood or Terror Creatures From The Grave. Enjoy!