Death Smiles on a Murderer

Dir. Joe D'Amato 88 Minutes

Italy

1973

Starring: Klaus Kinski, Ewa Aulin, Angela Bo, Sergio Doria, Attilio Dottesio, Marco Mariana, Luciano Rossi

**1/2/***** Fairly tepid, but sometimes nicely sleazy, giallo with such a wild mix of exploitation images and subplots. If there is a natural point of identification, it is through Greta (Ewa Aulin), who is introduced in a flashback revealing some sort of incestuous relationship with her brother. Greta is involved in a carriage accident where she loses her memory, but things get curious at the arrival of Dr. Sturges (Klaus Kinski), who becomes fascinated by an amulet around Greta's neck before jabbing her in the eye with a needle. She seems unaffected by the act. She finds shelter in a mansion inhabited by a brother and sister, and proceeds to separately bed both of them, before getting involved in Kinski's plots to used her necklace to bring corpses back from the dead. This is all ridiculous. 

Death Smiles on a Murderer combines such a wide array of bizarre circumstances, spooky side characters, voyeuristic sexual energy, gore shots (climaxing with an extended cat scratching climax that culminates in a popped eyeball), and a final little smirk that possibly just creates more questions rather than answers, and there is quite a bit to hold attention even if none of it really comes together in any type of cohesive (or even coherent) way. D'Amato has a bit of a reputation for being a bit trashy, though he certainly has a nice grasp on mood and the Gothic environment of the mansion. And he finds plenty of opportunity to create quite the tense, horny atmosphere, even if much of it exists to be provocative rather than be entertaining. Upon revisiting the events, the film has the appearance of being far more interesting than it actually is, but has individual moments throughout that give it a creepy energy even if on the whole it mostly flails about. October 19th, 2019