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6 Degrees Entertainment

'Death Smiles on a Murderer: Special Edition'
(Ewa Aulin, Klaus Kinski, Luciano Rossi, Giacomo Rossi Stuart, et al / Blu-ray / NR / (1973) 2018 / Arrow Films UK)

Overview: A man discovers an ancient Incan formula for raising the dead, and uses it for a series of revenge murders.

Blu-ray Verdict: Simply put, a haunting and dreamlike gothic horror/giallo hybrid, 'Death Smiles on a Murderer' is a compelling early work from the legendary sleaze and horror film director Joe D'Amato ('Anthropophagus', 'Emanuelle in America'); here billed under his real name Aristide Massaccesi.

Presented here in a stunning 2K restoration, D'Amato's film is a stately and surreal supernatural mystery which benefits from an achingly mournful score by Berto Pisano, several shocking scenes of gore, and a typically sinister performance from Klaus Kinski as a morbid doctor.

OK, as many fans can only agree, this is not your typical D'Amato movie, if there is such a thing. There's graphic violence, a little gore, but nothing really over the top. But what this movie has, is a little style and maybe even some class.

It's very confusing, and includes everything from reanimation, to a three way love affair, to a murder mystery. The basic plot is about a young beautiful woman Greta, who shows up at a Villa and is involved in a horse carriage accident which impales the driver. A couple take her in since she has developed amnesia.

There's a series of flashbacks that attempt to cast some Intel on who she is, but not why she is there. Klaus Kinski has a small role as the doctor who attends to her, but has a totally different agenda which deals with a concoction he's working on to bring back the dead.

Soon the movie gets even more bizarre and even takes a little from Poe's 'Black Cat'. Everything looks pretty damn good in this movie, the sets, the actors, and the main thing I noticed is the main theme to the soundtrack is straight out of 'Suspiria'!

Both the husband and his Wife fall in love with Greta, and the Wife especially turns out to be rather jealous and walls up Greta in the dungeon. After that some even more bizarre happenings occurs resulting in the gruesome death of the Wife.

But what happened to the walled up Greta? Well, that little chore is up to the local Police Inspector, and he hasn't got a clue as to what is going on, because Greta has vanished. This all culminates in a fairly good, if not confusing, ending that seems to put most of pieces back in order. This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.78:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

Brand new 2K restoration from the original camera negative
High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original Italian and English soundtracks
Uncompressed Mono 1.0 PCM audio
Newly translated English subtitles for the Italian soundtrack
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for the English soundtrack
New audio commentary by writer and critic Tim Lucas
D'Amato Smiles on Death, an archival interview in which the director discusses the film
All About Ewa, a newly-filmed, career-spanning interview with the Swedish star
Smiling on the Taboo: Sex, Death and Transgression in the horror films of Joe D'Amato, new video essay by critic Kat Ellinger
Original trailers
Stills and collections gallery
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Gilles Vranckx
+ FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Stephen Thrower and film historian Roberto Curti.

www.ArrowFilms.com





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