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The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave
SCREENER/APPROX. 103 MINS/1971/ITALY R18+
SCREENER/APPROX. 103 MINS/1971/ITALY R18+
9
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The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave is a demented, decadent horror movie that will fix any dope fiend’s need for a dazzlingly sexy cinematic
high! Trippy, shadowy and rich in vivid production detail and gorgeous naked women, sadism and sexual psychosis, this is undoubtedly the
weirdest, sexiest and most lyrically self-assured horror film to emerge from the boom in Italian sex-and-horror exploitation cinema in the 1970s. It
proved influential: the legacy of castles, mausoleums and a succession of murdered wives recurred in director Edward Dmytryk’s luxuriant version
of Bluebeard; and its plot anticipates that explored by director Michael Anderson in the seldom seen curio Dominique is Dead! five years later.
One of only two giallos made by director Emilio Miraglia (the other being The Red Queen Kills 7 Times), The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave
concerns an English Lord. A sexual madman, he lures call girls who remind him of his deceased ex-wife up to his castle for sex, there torturing and
killing them in explicit, sexy scenes neatly contemporizing the Italian Gothic sensibility of directors Mario Bava and Riccardo Freda in a morally
ambiguous (and even disturbing) study of an aristocratic serial killer disturbed by his continued emotional obsession with his deceased wife and
the details of her supposed infidelity. Troubled by surreal images of his wife’s infidelity, he cannot deal with her death and absence, yet is still
driven to kill women who remind him of her. A close relative suggests that he marry again and at a party he proposes to an attractive woman. As
his new wife moves in, he sees the apparition of his dead former wife Evelyn, earlier implied in a séance scene to still be a haunting presence on
the castle grounds. A murder on grounds leads to greater scrutiny of the supposed haunting.
Highly unusual in that the psycho-sexual psychosis that begins the film leads into a detailed story of manipulation and desire in which the sex killer
protagonist is a sympathetic hero, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave is a clever study of psychological vulnerability and a creepy evocation
of deathly menace. As the second half plays off the man’s psychology against that of the new wife, involving her in the ghostly events, the concern
here is for behaviour and breakdown in the face of seeming irrationality. Egos are fragile in this film, tenuous in their grip on reality. People are
deceptive too and the mannered stagnation of the rich is paralleled here to their lack of conscience in sexual and inter-personal matters. The film
always puts its ghost story perspective in a realistic context, casting doubt on the supernatural and anchoring it instead in what is a deadly game
of deception, psychological imbalance and sexual indulgence. A palpable sense of both dread and fascination for human behaviour and the depths
of human manipulation propels The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave through to its surprising, but somewhat convoluted, conclusion.
Director Emilio Miraglia is a true visual stylist and brings to this film a delight in the erotic staging of the murders of beautiful women that was
pioneered by Mario Bava, perfected by Dario Argento and brought to Hollywood by Brian DePalma. With perfect control of mood and tension, this is
a lean and tightly fluid film that continually engages and surprises the viewer in an intricate and involving plot which makes for a well-sustained
high of a trip through transgressive, sexy horror. Famous in the days of VHS dubs for its infamous cover image of a woman’s corpse holding a
severed head, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave is a gorgeous hybrid of giallo, mystery haunting and Bluebeard style sexual decadence
that well deserves the opportunity given it for re-discovery with this sterling new remastered DVD transfer.
high! Trippy, shadowy and rich in vivid production detail and gorgeous naked women, sadism and sexual psychosis, this is undoubtedly the
weirdest, sexiest and most lyrically self-assured horror film to emerge from the boom in Italian sex-and-horror exploitation cinema in the 1970s. It
proved influential: the legacy of castles, mausoleums and a succession of murdered wives recurred in director Edward Dmytryk’s luxuriant version
of Bluebeard; and its plot anticipates that explored by director Michael Anderson in the seldom seen curio Dominique is Dead! five years later.
One of only two giallos made by director Emilio Miraglia (the other being The Red Queen Kills 7 Times), The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave
concerns an English Lord. A sexual madman, he lures call girls who remind him of his deceased ex-wife up to his castle for sex, there torturing and
killing them in explicit, sexy scenes neatly contemporizing the Italian Gothic sensibility of directors Mario Bava and Riccardo Freda in a morally
ambiguous (and even disturbing) study of an aristocratic serial killer disturbed by his continued emotional obsession with his deceased wife and
the details of her supposed infidelity. Troubled by surreal images of his wife’s infidelity, he cannot deal with her death and absence, yet is still
driven to kill women who remind him of her. A close relative suggests that he marry again and at a party he proposes to an attractive woman. As
his new wife moves in, he sees the apparition of his dead former wife Evelyn, earlier implied in a séance scene to still be a haunting presence on
the castle grounds. A murder on grounds leads to greater scrutiny of the supposed haunting.
Highly unusual in that the psycho-sexual psychosis that begins the film leads into a detailed story of manipulation and desire in which the sex killer
protagonist is a sympathetic hero, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave is a clever study of psychological vulnerability and a creepy evocation
of deathly menace. As the second half plays off the man’s psychology against that of the new wife, involving her in the ghostly events, the concern
here is for behaviour and breakdown in the face of seeming irrationality. Egos are fragile in this film, tenuous in their grip on reality. People are
deceptive too and the mannered stagnation of the rich is paralleled here to their lack of conscience in sexual and inter-personal matters. The film
always puts its ghost story perspective in a realistic context, casting doubt on the supernatural and anchoring it instead in what is a deadly game
of deception, psychological imbalance and sexual indulgence. A palpable sense of both dread and fascination for human behaviour and the depths
of human manipulation propels The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave through to its surprising, but somewhat convoluted, conclusion.
Director Emilio Miraglia is a true visual stylist and brings to this film a delight in the erotic staging of the murders of beautiful women that was
pioneered by Mario Bava, perfected by Dario Argento and brought to Hollywood by Brian DePalma. With perfect control of mood and tension, this is
a lean and tightly fluid film that continually engages and surprises the viewer in an intricate and involving plot which makes for a well-sustained
high of a trip through transgressive, sexy horror. Famous in the days of VHS dubs for its infamous cover image of a woman’s corpse holding a
severed head, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave is a gorgeous hybrid of giallo, mystery haunting and Bluebeard style sexual decadence
that well deserves the opportunity given it for re-discovery with this sterling new remastered DVD transfer.
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