review

SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE

In my review of THE RED QUEEN KILLS 7 TIMES I wrote:


"When the giallo comes crashing into the world of the Gothic - like in Bava's KILL, BABY... KILL! or Argento's SUSPIRIA - you would expect the picture to completely collapse."


Jane Birkin Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye

Case in point: Antonio Margheriti's SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE, a giallo that looks like a Hammer film, right down to the DARK SHADOWS-esque interiors. Set within the walls of an old Scottish castle, SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE weaves a sordid tale of family greed, duplicity, incest - depending on your definition - and murder, all within a Gothic framework. Its only true link to the giallo comes in the form of the murderer, a razor-toting killer who slashes the throats of his - or her - victims in tightly edited set-pieces. Everything else feels like a British melodrama. Highly disappointing for those of us who prefer our gialli to feel like, well, gialli.



Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye

Corringa has recently been expelled from her convent school. She travels to her family's old castle where she is greeted by her mother, Alicia, and her aunt, Mary. She is introduced to Suzanne, the French tutor of her supposedly crazy cousin, James. As Corringa unpacks and gets settled, she accidentally tosses her Bible into the fireplace with the rest of her books. At dinner, she meets another of the castles inhabitants, Doctor Franz. Franz is Mary's lover but is secretly having an affair with the sultry Suzanne. James makes an appearance, disrupting the dinner with his rather rude observations on everyone's character. James is being kept sequestered in the castle, having supposedly gone mad after he accidentally killed his baby sister when they were children. After everyone has retired for bed, Alicia is suffocated in her bedroom by an unknown assailant. Once she is discovered, she is buried in the family crypt, Franz telling everyone except Mary that her death was a natural one although he knows there is a murderer about. Corringa is told of an old family legend that says that if any member of the family is murdered by another, than the victim will return as a vampire to seek revenge. As more people are found dead, Corringa begins to fear the worst. Checking her mother's tomb one night, she discovers the coffin destroyed and her mother's body gone. Has Alicia returned to seek revenge?


Of course not. The killer is definitely flesh and blood. I don't think I'm spoiling anything by saying that either. Vampires who use razor blades are few and far between. The identity of the killer won't be too hard for anybody to pin down - unless, of course, you've never seen many of these films - but the motive is all but unguessable. Why is that?


Because it's ridiculous.


Antonio Margheriti's Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye

In fact, the majority of SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE is ridiculous. This is high melodrama with virtually no kink or suspense, the essential ingredients in the giallo film. Nothing in the film feels well thought out or well executed. Take the characters, for example. No one seems particularly worried about the fact that a murderer is in their midst nor does anyone exhibit anything close to a personality. Every character can be summed up in a single sentence and no one breaks from their rigid stereotypes. Even Margheriti's direction - normally the saving grace in many of his movies, the majority of which are all bottom-of-the-barrel stuff - is flat and uninspired. The set-pieces are all executed well enough but they're so compact and short-lived that no tension is sufficiently built up in the process. The screenplay - by Margheriti and Giovanni Simonelli - features passing nods to Poe in the form of an ever-present cat - the typical harbinger of doom - and a malevolent gorilla - James keeps the ape, which is also named James, as a pet - but lacks the dark irony and humor found in all of Poe's work. This is dime-store pulp at best.


Jane Birkin in Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye

SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE was made in 1973, smack dab in the middle of the giallo boom, a period of major activity that lasted from 1969 until 1976. Close to 100 films were released in that period, many of them classic gialli. SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE feels distinctly out of place. It has that mid-1960s feel to it, entirely unlike the ultra-modern, hyper-stylized gialli of the early 1970s. Maybe that's the problem, maybe not. Viewing SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE again for the first time in several years, I couldn't help but feel that this film lacks even the basic components of a successful giallo, no matter what decade it appeared in. It is an unsophisticated, uncomplicated, dull and vapid film. I expected more from the usually reliable Margheriti.


Not recommended.


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