A good set-up is the key to building suspense and this movie does a fantastic job in the first few minutes of introducing us to the main characters, presenting us with a legend, and then giving us a sense of what we can expect over the course of the film in terms of body count and motive. In a good giallo, however, what you think is going to happen and what actually ends up happening can be two different things.

The legend of the red queen is a simple one. It revolves around two sisters who once lived in a castle. One of them (the black queen) ended up killing the other one (the red queen). A year later, the red queen returned from the grave to murder six innocent people and ended her spree with a final kill saved for the black queen. Although revenge is obviously the motive, it is unclear why the other six had to die but it sure makes for a good story.

As the movie begins, the legend of the red queen is told to two children by their grandfather. Of course, the children are sisters and the story is told in the castle where the legend supposedly reinvents itself every hundred years. The movie then fast forwards a number of years and we learn that one of the two sisters is dead. It doesn't take long for the bodies to start building up and we wait in gleeful anticipation for the red queen to complete her revenge. In typical giallo fashion, we are led to question to validity of the supernatural aspects of the story and are given a number of characters who have many motives to murder one another. This leads the film into a series of red herrings and a bit of confusion but in the hands of director Emilio Miraglia, it ends up being a stylish and suspenseful entry in the genre. Although I noticed a number of similarities to Miraglia's previous thriller, The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Grave (even to the name of the prime suspect), I found this to be the better of the two as there is a lot more going on.

Production/costume designer Lorenzo Baraldi returns to provide the same level of unique style that he brought to Evelyn and the design of the red queen's costume ensures that we would remember this character. The contribution of cinematographer Alberto Spagnoli is also worth mentioning as he makes great use of the European architecture to his advantage. The murder sequences are violent and involve a number of stabbings, an impaling, and even a nasty car dragging. Some of the other notable elements are a large number of rats coming out of water pipes at one point, an extremely well-lit crypt, some bizarre eyeglasses that one character wears for a scene, and an unnecessary rape that serves little purpose other than to get star Barbara Bouchet out of her clothes for a minute.

Bouchet appeared in a number of other gialli including Black Belly Of The Tarantula and Don't Torture A Duckling. This film also marks an early appearance by future b-movie/Playboy starlet Sybil Danning as a model who sleeps her way to the top (and doesn't disappoint in the nudity department). Euro-horror fans will also recognize Marino Mase (Contamination) as a cop and Marina Malfatti (who was also in Evelyn). Unfortunately, this was Emilio Miraglia's last film as a director and he has since dropped out of the film business. (Josh Pasnak, 3/18/08)

Directed By: Emilio Miraglia.
Written By: Emilio Miraglia, Fabio Pittorru.

Starring: Barbara Bouchet, Ugo Pagliai, Marina Malfatti, Sybil Danning.