Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Sam Panico Once you watch this film, you'll wonder - just how did this play on TV? It was part of the 13 titles included in Avco Embassy's Nightmare Theater package syndicated in 1975 (the others were Marta, Maniac Mansion, Night of the Sorcerers, Fury of the Wolfman, Hatchet for the Honeymoon, Horror Rises from the Tomb, Dear Dead Delilah, Doomwatch, Bell from Hell, Witches Mountain, Mummy's Revenge and The Witch) and several of these films aired intact on regular television! I can't imagine - nor will you once you read this - what people thought! I even found a mention that the scene where Klaus Kinski inserts a pin into a girl's eye aired uncut on Pittsburgh's beloved Chiller Theater (indeed, it played on July 7, 1979 and December 26, 1981, thanks to the amazing listing on the Chiller Theater fan site). 1906. Austria. Greta von Holstein (Ewa Aulin, Candy from Candy as well as Death Laid an Egg) has been used and abused by all of the men in her life, including Dr. von Ravensbrück, a rich cad who knocks her up and leaves her to die in childbirth.Three years later. Her hunchback brother Franz, besotten with incestual love, brings her back to life with a magic medallion inscribed with the secret of life over death. He tries to get back into her pants, so she throws a black cat at his face. It eats his eyeballs, because, well, this is a Joe D'Amoto movie. She then escapes into the world where she seeks revenge on the von Ravensbrück's family.Walter, the son of the doctor who done her wrong, and Eve, his wife, take her in after an accident outside their home. They both fall in love with her, which gives D'Amoto license to shoot long lovemaking scenes. You may know him on one hand for his horror films, like Beyond the Darkness, Ator, Antropophagus, Frankenstein 2000 and Absurd. But you may also know him for his adult films like Porno Holocaust and the Rocco Siffredi vehicle Tarzan X - Shame of Jane. Here, he combines his love of the female form with his eye for murder and insanity.Eva is becoming jealous of Greta. But what he doesn't know is that her new lover is wiping out people left and right, just for fun. The butler in the gallery with a razor. The maid in the woods with a shotgun. A lab assistant in the lab with a metal club. Even the family doctor (Klaus Kinski, do I need to say more or tell you he was in Schizoid, Crawlspace, Marquis de Sade: Justine and more? Or that he was also maniac who was drafted to the German army, spent time as a POW and drank his own urine to get sick and get home earlier. This is not the craziest Kinski story, by the way) is strangled right after he learned how to use hr amulet to bring back the dead that he had been experimenting on (as you do).Eva's jealousy wins out, so she walls her up alive in the rooms beneath the castle, killing her. But Greta isn't done yet. She shows up as a ghost at a party and lures Eva toward falling off the roof. That night, Greta's ghost gives Walter a fatal heart attack in bed. And all of this was just to lure her old lover, Dr. von Ravensbrück, to the funeral, where she leads him to a vault and suffocates him.A police inspector wonders if he'll ever add up the case, as he finds the corpse of Greta's brother near her empty grave. She's gone and he wonders what ever happened to her. The person he has been telling the story to? Greta.I was really struck by Berto Pisano's music in this. He also contributed the starnge soundtrack to Burial Ground. Here, his music is jazzy and then atonal, with sharp stings to call out the action.I feel like I need to take a long shower after watching this movie. Which isn't a bad thing, really. It's an effective mix of giallo and gothic romance, with plenty of sleaze and gore for those seeking those thrills.

a_baron In the 1960s, a series of low budget films known as Spaghetti Westerns emerged from Italy; Clint Eastwood starred in a number of these, most notably "The Good, The Bad And The Ugly". The 1970s saw horror films given the same treatment, and one or two of them were not bad. Sadly, this is neither number one nor number two.Set in 1909, "Death Smiles On A Murderer" begins with a fatal crash and what appears to be a rape, then it slows right down to a virtual crawl. There is a lot of background music, which is not a bad thing for a supermarket or an elevator, but not here.This film tries to be all things to all men – and women: Dr Frankenstein meets the zombies with a ghostly theme, detective novel, heck, there is even a hint of lesbian sex thrown in. Finally, it descends into silliness with a murder by what appears to be a supernatural cat, a scene that would have made Ed Wood cringe. It's an old story: jack of all trades, master of none.

andrabem 1906 - Greta (Ewa Aulin) is raped by her brother, the hunchback Franz (Luciano Rossi). They become lovers. One day she meets Dr. von Ravensbrück - it's love at first sight. Her brother Franz sees it all with bitter eyes. Greta gets pregnant from Dr. von Ravensbrück. Greta and her son die during childbirth to Franz's great grief.Three years later Walter von Ravensbrück (son of Dr. von Ravensbrück) and his wife Eva are drinking tea in the garden of their mansion. A black carriage led by black horses driven by a black-clad coachman is arriving - it is going very fast. Accident! The carriage flips over and the driver dies impaled on the wheel axle almost in front of their eyes. They discover an unconscious girl inside the carriage. She doesn't remember anything from the past, she doesn't even know her own name.This girl is, of course, Greta. Is she alive? Is she dead? What is clear is that she came like an angel of death. Her arrival will unleash a death carnival.There are other characters in this film - Dr. Sturges (Klaus Kinski) is making a research on resurrection. Inspector Dannick (Attilio Dottesio) is trying in vain to make sense of what is happening. There's a prying servant maid - Franz or Franz's ghost (Greta's brother) is haunting her. She will be the first to suffer a horrible death. Other deaths will follow and in-between a lesbian affair (one woman tries to kill another and then they both laugh and make love to each other - oh me oh my!), ménage-à-trois, parties, dancing , masks and deaths. The film ends with a Mona Lisa smile and a puzzled look.If Joe D'Amato tried at all to tell a story, he must certainly have forgotten all about it during the process of writing and filming. Anyway "La morte ha sorriso al assassino" is very stylishly filmed, excellent decor and costumes. The camera and editing are very awake and the film's colors are beautiful and soft as the countryside surrounding the mansion. The soundtrack enhances the mystery and mellow beauty of some scenes. Ewa Aulin is surrealistically unconvincing and sweet as the avenging angel that raises havoc all around.The hype is right: The film is really addictive. See the film and don't try to make sense out of the story, or rather, see and understand the film your own way.

Kurohambe 'Death Smiles At Murder' is an intriguing and interesting film for those who like cinema of the strange and bizarre. If anything, it reminds me of Mario Bava's equally strange 'Lisa And The Devil' with its dreamlike plot and sinister and foreboding atmosphere. Beautifully shot by the director himself Ariste Massacessi- (usually known under the pseudonym Joe D'Amato) and featuring a weird and convoluted plot, you will be tempted to re-watch the film to get your head around what indeed the film was about.This is not to say that the film will be for all tastes. If your one who likes films to follow logic and have carefully spelled out plots then you might give this a miss. The best way to describe it is as a period 'giallo' with the usual beautiful and sometimes naked protagonists thrown in. It's a shame that the director later ended up making hard core pornography because he really was a talented director and cinematographer on the evidence of this film.I saw it on a Dutch DVD that I picked up from a European export company.Highly recommended for lovers of strange film or Euro-Cult buffs.