The Red Queen Kills Seven Times

1972 ‘La dama rossa uccide sette volte’ Directed by Emilio Miraglia

The Corpse That didn't Want to Die!

In the film, an age-old family curse hits sisters Kitty and Franziska following the death of their grandfather Tobias. Every hundred years, the legend goes, the bloodthirsty Red Queen returns and claims seven fresh victims. Was Tobias just the first... and are Kitty and Franziska next?

Barbara Bouchet Ugo Pagliai Marina Malfatti Marino Masé Pia Giancaro Sybil Danning Nino Korda Fabrizio Moresco Rudolf Schündler Maria Antonietta Guido Carla Mancini Bruno Bertocci Sisto Brunetti Dolores Calò Nestore Cavaricci Alfonso Giganti

Alternative Titles

The Lady in Red Kills Seven Times, Cry of a Prostitute: Love Kills, The Corpse Which Didn't Want to Die, Horror House, Red Queen Kills 7 Times, The Red Queen Kills 7 Times, Blood Feast

mystery horror thriller

100 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Dyrnott ★★★½ 2

I found it entertaining! Wasn’t great but had some good parts mixed with slightly boring at moments! Shot beautifully and a decent mystery. A good example of Giallo! Nice amount of blood as well with surprising burst of violence. If you haven’t seen it check it out on Shudder.
Review by Sean Baker 12

1972 giallo film that rises above the rest because of its gothic tones. Watched the Arrow Video Special Edition Blu-ray.
Barbara Bouchet (Casino Royale, Don't Torture a Duckling ) photographs so well in giallo films. She has wide, expressive eyes and always appears to be in shock.
One of Sybil Danning's early films. Almost unrecognizable with red hair. And quite nude. Great interview on the Arrow Video Blu-ray.
Truly gorgeous cinematography by Alberto Spagnoli (1st AC on Red Desert). And the film scan is A+.
Blu-ray has a bunch of cool extras. Lots of interviews, commentary, alt opening, etc.
Review by Tony the Terror😼🏳️‍🌈 👻 ★★★★★ 13

This has always been one of my favorite giallos with its crazy twist filled plot and beautiful German village setting. It’s probably not perfect to everyone, but it sure is to me because everything just works so well. The cast is great with Barbara Bouchet, Ugo Pagliai, Marina Malfatti (thankfully not trying to pull off a Nieves Navarro wig in this), and randomly Sybil Danning who is oddly not dubbed with her own voice and was apparently not told about it until after the film was released. Burn.
The castle at the center of this red herring filled whodunnit is possibly my favorite part. It’s HUGE and I love the scenes with Babs chasing the red queen herself through all…
Review by Sally Jane Black 4

Sumptuous is probably overused, especially when describing things that are either Gothic or giallo, but this is both. It earns the designation, from the architectural porn to the high fashion (interwoven into character, setting, and plot) to the long hallways and tight interiors to the wallpaper, yes, the glorious, sometimes garish, sometimes sublime wallpaper. By god, what wallpaper. (I love the wallpaper.)
As a murder mystery, it uses the "kill the suspects" model, especially toward the end, a sort of lurid Agatha Christie story with a supernatural twist and grotesque secrets. But giallo is not entirely about the plot; someone is being killed and someone is killing. Like the blunter cousins in the slasher genre, these films are sometimes more…
Review by Slig001 ★★★★½

I've always loved this Giallo and easily consider it to be one of the best of the genre; but for some reason it always seems to be absent in discussions about the best Giallo. The plot is a mix of murder mystery and gothic fairytale and focuses on the Wildebrook household and in particular two sisters plagued by an ancient legend concerning a murderous "red queen". This one really has it all - gory murders, beautiful women, atmospheric locations and an intriguing mystery plot. The 100 minute runtime is very well used, the story moves along briskly and there's always another blood splattered murder scene just around the corner. The plot itself is well worked and while the identity of the main villain is not too difficult to guess, the film still has time to deliver a hilariously unlikely resolution to the mystery. Overall, this is great stuff and comes highly recommended to all Giallo fans!
Review by RanchoTuVu ★★★½

The legend of a murdered woman who comes back every hundred years to avenge her death reincarnates itself in the old castle where it began but also moves into (where else?) an Italian fashion house located in Germany. This way you get the scantily clad models as well as the atmosphere of an old castle. Both are used pretty well, with some nicely done avenging murders. They could have channeled more of a Barbara Steele type vibe if they had focused more on the castle and its basement where the crypts are. The story is kind of convoluted but, unlike other gialli, actually made sense to me which I saw as part of the overall problem, that this film didn't…
Review by Sam ★★★

Pretty good Giallo with a dope title that stars a Freddie Mercury lookalike in the role of the detective
Review by Bob McCully ★★★★

Forging onward with my Giallo addiction, my first rip through the Red Queen Kills Seven Times has provided the highest concentration of wacky sensationalism yet!
The plot for this is a doozy, as I'm sure we all know how unrelentingly twisty and convoluted these Giallos are and yet somehow this felt even more so as we're treated to a hybrid of a pre-slasher whodunnit and a psychotic family drama with gothic undertones.
It's hard to sum it all up, but just understand the ingredients are: feuding sisters leads to an accidental death, mysterious red cloaked killer that may be the resurrected sister, a family inheritance that everyone wants their grubby hands on, "the myth of the Red Queen", fashion house…
Review by Bill the Thrill ★★★★½ 4

The mysterious legend explained in the opening sequence gives this giallo a distinct Gothic vibe as well as more depth than many other gialli. The cinematography, cast, score, and use of colors are all phenomenal here. Although the twists at the end probably require a bit more suspension of disbelief than usual, The Red Queen Kills Seven Times remains one of the most stylish, ethereal, and thrilling films of the genre.
Review by Edith ★★★★ 3

A beautiful foreboding gothic castle, a fairytale allegory and implications of the horrors of sisterhood, even a possible suggestion to the duality of the feminine psyche, am I reading too much into this giallo? Probably.
It has the best elements of what makes a giallo interesting; trashy paperback motifs, bloody slashing, relying on the spooky and familial flair of a gothic horror story, murrrder mystery, and something supernatural hiding in the shadows. An Italian onion, unwrapping similiar aspects together into one visually unique piece. I usually find, while probably sacrilegious to most film nerds on here, that giallo tends to be punchy moments amongst really boring and inconsequential circumstances that don't really add up to anything, relying mainly on a…
Review by laird ★★★½

Sybiling Rivalry
or
Sisters Are Doing It* For Themselves
*Murder
Aesthetically this movie is never boring even when the plot is dull as a doorknob (see also: most movies under the giallo umbrella). Doesn't make much use of its Bavarian location, but it gets a lot of mileage (for me anyway, yours may vary) for having a mystery killer that dons a red cape and cackles maniacally...and Sybil Danning!
Amazon Prime havers of October '17: this is a great transfer in the correct scope aspect ratio, Italian language with English subtitles.
Review by Hunter Cooper ★★★★ 1

No joke, I listen to Servizio fotografico at least once a week. I have loved Bruno Nicolai’s score for a little while and now I can finally say I’ve watched The Red Queen Kills Seven Times.
A worthy giallo with unusual subplots, murderous twists, bad acting, and nudity all covered in the cherry tinted blood. You know all the essentials. A fun film that’s equal parts mod and confusing. The number of well staged deaths and killer art direction contained in a surprising thriller makes for highly imaginative schlock. An uneven film with two dimensional characters, but enough style and mystery to become a must for fans of the Italian genre. And the music and zoom transitions alone are melodramatic perfection.
Why doesn’t anyone catch her? She’s literally just jogging half the time.

Recent reviews

Review by Jacob ★★★★½

I'm not well-versed in gialli, but this has instantly become one of my all-time favorites. Lovely and ludicrous.
Review by b To THe G ★★★½

Silly and stylized, with great tunes and a crazy twist at the end. Italian horror from the 70’s is an endless trove of treasures.
Review by Trav Linthicum ★★★★½ 1

I liked it even more on a rewatch.
It’s a shame Emilio Miraglia didn’t make more movies because the two gialli are certified bangers. I’d really like to get my hands on his 3 other films listed on IMDb.
Gothic castles and family curses collide with fashion models in modern city scapes in this great Italian/German co production. Barbra Bouchet is as beautiful as ever in the lead role as a grieving heiress with a secret to hide. Marina Malfatti has a nice turn as her sister and there’s even a young Sybil Danning stealing the show as Lulu.
There’s also an exciting and elaborate showdown involving a room flooding that’s really impressive for this type of cinema.
The music…
Review by Evan Kendal ★★★

Not bad, typical Giallo, overflowing with 70s style. Love the red Porche 914. Some cool old architecture too. Nice print on Prime.
Review by SweeneyTom ★★★★★

My fav Barbara Bouchet performance, and a very underrated giallo film in general
Review by Alex Kittle ★★★★

Lost half a star for having a totally out of the blue, unnecessary, never mentioned again (???) rape scene but otherwise I loved this
Review by CrankyCineaste ★★★

Unspectacular giallo is whelming in every way. Perks up when Danning is on the screen, and tries for a bravura resolution. Mostly muddled, with some stylistic flourishes.
Review by Niko ★★★★

I watched this movie, because I wanted to study a building featured in it. Casa Papanice, which was build in Rome by the way, although the plot is based in Salzburg. It is the Appartment of Mitch, the safe spot. Beautiful Building by Paolo Portoghesi.
Besides that, this Giallo is briliant. Pure 70s. Brutal and suspense. A masterpiece of form and genre.
Review by virginia purdy ★★★½

That’s two Italian movies in a row I’ve watched where someone's killed by being dragged from a car. What’re the odds?
Review by JDCorley ★★★½

A whodunit that, despite the frankly ridiculous amount of female nudity on display, fails to reach the levels of exploitation and hysteria needed to raise it above mere pulp and into true giallo. Nevertheless, the weird twist at the end just about works, and the romantic leads truly get across two people who might just be in lust with each other, might be in love with each other, but are faced with an insurmountable issue of trust: they both think the other might be a murderer.
Review by drewhance ★★★

A pretty fun mystery! I really liked the killer and wish we could have spent more time with them, and unraveled their story through time with them. Instead, their backstory was rather hurriedly explained in black and white in about 5 minutes towards the end of the movie. Still, not bad overall!
Review by FilmResidue ★★★

Giallo with a cool Argento-lite vibe and strong gothic aesthetic. The typically confusing murder mystery plot feels like an afterthought.