La notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba (1971)

Director:

Emilio Miraglia

Writers:

Fabio Pittorru (story) &
Massimo Felisatti (story) ...

Release Date:

18 August 1971 (Italy)

Genre:

Horror | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

The worms are waiting.

Plot:

A wealthy pervert lures beautiful young women to his castle so he can have his way with them.

Plot Keywords:

Castle | Pervert | Nudity | Bondage | Sadist

Cast

Anthony Steffen	...	Lord Alan Cunningham
Marina Malfatti	...	Gladys Cunningham
Erika Blanc	...	Susie
Giacomo Rossi-Stuart	...	Dr. Richard Timberlane
Enzo Tarascio	...	George Harriman (as Rod Murdock)
Umberto Raho	...	Farley
Roberto Maldera	...	Albert
Joan C. Davis	...	Aunt Agatha
Ettore Bevilacqua	...	Il custode del cimitero
Maria Teresa Tofano	...	Polly
Brizio Montinaro
Paola Natale

Also Known As:

The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave
The Night She Arose from the Tomb
The Night That Evelyn Left the Tomb

Runtime:

103 min | Italy:88 min (cut version)

Country:

Italy

Language:

Italian

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:R | USA:R

Company:

Phoenix Cinematografica

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The story is set in England, and the cars keep to the left-hand side of the road, but they are all left-hand drive cars.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Dusk to Dawn Drive-In Trash-o-Rama Show Vol. 3 (1996) (V)

Argento's not the only one who can make a terrific Giallo

Here in the States the horror sub-genre that's been exhausted is slasher. The number of films in this category is astronomical and they vary in quality. Some, like 'Halloween' and 'Friday the 13th' are among the better examples of the genre, while others like 'Savage Weekend' and 'Don't Go in the Woods...Alone!' are on the opposite end of the spectrum. Overseas they too have slasher films, but these are very different. Instead of 90+ minutes of dumb teenagers getting hacked up by a masked killer after having sex and/or drinking and doing drugs like we see in American slasher flicks, in Italy they have more style, mystery, and sometimes more blood and violence. For decades Dario Argento has been making films like this and more often than not has done it very well, but he's not the only one. Though he only did two in his whole career, Emilio Miraglia proved that he could make as Giallo just as well as any and this film is a perfect example of what he could do.

Pros: Gorgeous photography and scenery. A beautiful, haunting, and sometimes chilling score. Excellent job done by the cast. Some good atmospheric moments. Moves at a slow, but steady pace. Some great moments of craziness. Besides the cinematography, the film is also nice to look at due to vibrant colors in the costumes, production design, and in some cases the lighting. Some good twists and turns. An exciting finale.

Cons: Some things, like some of the hair styles and the rock group, date the film a lot. Ends rather abruptly.

Final thoughts: For years this film was only available in poor quality as part of those public domain sets of 10 or more films, but now thanks to No Shame we can see both this and Miraglia's other Giallo 'The Red Queen Kills 7 Times' the way they were meant to be seen. I think this is why I wasn't too impressed with 'Night' the first time I saw it. The colors were murky, the picture grainy, a few minutes were missing, and the dubbing was awful. After seeing the original version I see what the big deal is. A real gem!

My rating: 4.5/5