At the height of the Italian giallo boom of the early 1970s, scores of filmmakers turned their hand to crafting their own unique takes on these lurid murder-mysteries. This volume of Giallo Essentials presents three distinctly different but equally thrilling examples of genre, featuring some of European cult cinema’s most recognizable faces.
In The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave, director Emilio P. Miraglia (The Red Queen Kills Seven Times) melds the giallo’s trademark twisty whodunit storytelling with gothic chills, as troubled aristocrat Alan Cunningham (Anthony Steffen, Django the Bastard) is haunted by the specter of his dead wife Evelyn, and the gruesome and untimely deaths of several members of his family. Next, Riccardo Freda’s (Double Face) The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire finds tough ex-cop John Norton (Luigi Pistilli, A Bay of Blood) drafted in to catch the acid-throwing, razor-wielding maniac who’s terrorizing the streets of Dublin. Finally, Sergio Martino’s (Torso) The Suspicious Death of a Minor melds giallo trappings with elements of the then flourishing poliziotteschi crime thrillers, as undercover cop Paolo Germi (Claudio Cassinelli, What Have They Done to Your Daughters?) hunts a Milanese criminal outfit following the brutal murder of a teenage prostitute.
Brutal violence, globe-trotting intrigue and abundant sleaze collide in these three quintessential gialli, each one fully restored from its original camera negative and presented alongside an array of incisive bonus features.
STARRING: Anthony Steffen, Erika Blanc, Luigi Pistilli, Dagmar Lassander, Claudio Cassinelli