Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Nigel P Buoyed by his film 'Vampyros Lesbos', Director Jess Franco quickly employed a very similar cast and crew for this typically leery-titled horror/drama.The mighty Soledad Miranda plays the wife of Doctor Johnson, whose experiments with embryos has caused him to be vilified by his peers and banned from continuing his work. Taking care to wear a series of tight shirts unbuttoned to reveal some handsome jewellery, he then goes through spiralling turmoil ending in suicide. His wife determines to get revenge on those who drove him to this.As with just about all Franco films, scenes of tension are accompanied by exotic and jaunty jazz music that sometimes works because it is so inappropriate and sometimes doesn't. The former Mrs Johnson's subsequent seductions-prior-to-murder are scored with grimly fitting incidentals, and together with Franco's obsession with close-ups and zoom-outs, concoct a heady, disorientating nightmare. Surprisingly, Franco regular Howard Vernon is the first person to cop it.Apart from making her name in 'exploitation' films, there's no denying Miranda's power as an actress. She is tremendous throughout despite (on the DVD I am watching), she is buried beneath unbefitting dubbing and subtitles, and has a genuine sense of presence that makes the routine seduction/death plot line far more interesting than it would have otherwise been. Her early death on the eve of what looked like global stardom remains a great tragedy.

unbrokenmetal The young and idealistic Dr Johnson (Fred Williams) proudly presents his work with human embryos, but has his expectations crushed by 4 experts (Howard Vernon, Paul Muller, Ewa Strömberg and Jess Franco himself) who ridicule the work of his lifetime and destroy his experiments. Dr Johnson commits suicide, and his widow (Soledad Miranda) decides she will kill the 4 enemies of her husband - in interesting ways. Meanwhile she keeps the body of the doctor and continues to talk to him as if he were still alive...A thriller with a remarkable straightforward story for a Jess Franco movie. Soledad Miranda is scorching the screen, the director gives her plenty of opportunity to stare with her dark eyes at her future victims. Not even a silly blond wig can damage her maniacal presence. The jazzy lounge music contributes a lot to the freaky atmosphere, but also the locations near Alicante/Spain are beautifully chosen. The only weak point to me is the role of the police inspector (Horst Tappert), because he seems to do a really lazy and sloppy investigation, considering there are several murder cases. Oh, and maybe it's the only time in cinema history that a car falls down a cliff and just breaks apart, it doesn't explode like it's full of dynamite - movie cliché avoided. Most likely it were only the costs which mattered, though.

vandino1 When a non-talent hack like Jess Franco admits he has little respect for his own work then why bother trying to argue with him? This pile of amateur-hour sleaze is a blatant rip-off of "The Bride Wore Black' written, directed and musically scored on what appears to be a drunken bender. The revenge plot of 'Black' couldn't be simpler, yet Franco can't hold it together. The dead-by-suicide doctor that sets off the vengeance is left in his bed by his maddened wife for God knows how long without the slightest change from decomposition (unless we are to believe that the wife killed off all the other characters in a few hours---nope, just directorial stupidity) and to cap it off the wife doesn't notify anybody about his death, yet the other doctors seem to know. She goes off on a killing rampage, yet the doctor-targets don't tell the authorities what they know about the wife's designs on them--in fact some of them simply allow her to kill them without resistance. Right. For instance, the obvious producers-need-nudity-to-sell-the-film lesbian scene concludes with Killer Korda simply putting an air-filled pillow over her victim, who promptly suffocates without the least struggle. Franco's directorial lethargy is so complete he has the last doctor-victim simply slump back in a chair and allow himself to be cut to pieces. And the topper is an abominably amateurish death-by-car-wreck finish---we're supposed to believe our "heroine" would die from a soft slide down an embankment that would barely cause a ripple to the shock absorbers? Oh, and there's a music score of sitar-laden late-60's go-go schlock that is slathered over the film without thought or point, except to prove Franco's incompetence is complete. Of course there are viewers who will love this film because there are always empty heads who enjoy any film they have eye contact with. What is really a stream of urine appears as a shaft of gold to these non-discriminating types who find "enjoyable" and "stylish" all the stupidities and sleazy goings-on, and sadly describe this dreck as "better than usual from Franco." That they would spend enough time watching Franco's body of work to be able to make such judgments is a pathetic admission of too much time on their hands and too little taste.

The_Void Nobody can deny that Jess Franco made a lot of rubbish in his career...but then he goes and directs a film like this, and it becomes easy to forgive him for past and future sins. She Killed in Ecstasy is thinly plotted and rather predictable, but it's also sexy and violent, and overall; an excellent slice of sleaze from a director who knows a lot about this sort of film. Franco attempts to inject a bit of substance into the film by way of a plot that involves the humanity of scientific discovery as well as emotional torment, which is also the reason behind all the killing. Franco seems to care more about sex than violence, and this shines through as all the kill scenes involve sex, but not all of them feature a lot of blood. The plot focuses on Mrs. Johnson; the wife of a scientist researching human embryos. After his work comes under scrutiny from a medical comity and he is labelled all manner of things, from 'criminal' to 'animal', he decides to take his own life. She doesn't like this very much, and so decides to take revenge on all involved by seducing and killing them all.The film features a host of sleaze regulars, including Vampyros Lesbos star Susann Korda. Korda provides a good lead for the film as she certainly looks the part and you can believe that many men would easily be seduced by her. She receives good feedback from the likes of Fred Williams and Howard Vernon, and despite the fact that this film is a cheap slice of trash; the acting isn't bad on the whole. Franco gives his plot more credibility with scenes such as the one that sees Mrs Johnson mull over the corpse of her dead husband. Given the type of film, there's a surprising amount of emotion going on. Franco has often said that he hates his body of work, and this film appears to be an attempt at making something with some meaning. The sex scenes are generally well worked, and the lesbian sequence in particular is really well done. Susann Korda also gets to don a number of sexy outfits, which is nice. The plot flows well, and since the film doesn't last long - there isn't a lot of time for it to get boring. Overall, She Killed in Ecstasy is hardly a great film; but it's better than you might expect and I can't say I didn't enjoy watching it.