Death Smiles at Murder

Ewa Aulin (The Seducers—70) and Klaus Kinski show up and stare, goggle-eyed at each other in a nameless European country estate circa 1900. Kinski is a creepy (what else) doctor/surgeon that treats young, nubile females; including Aulin when she’s the victim of a cut price stage coach crash.

Struck in the noggin with amnesia, Aulin is quickly installed at Kinski’s vast, spooky castle—a place full of bad incidents, evil thoughts, vengeful spirits, killer incest and just the sort of place you’d expect to hear anguished cries of pain from frightened victims who all die in gruesome, blood spattered ways. D’amato’s ‘first’ feature, he’s also responsible for the story and cinematography and gleefully packs the frame with odd shots and effective set-pieces that all melt together well in a quite standard tale fat with mad science, ghostly revenge and a mansion over-booked with suspects.

Fans of gothic Italian spookers will enjoy the gore and spot the reveal plot twists before they happen, but won’t be disappointed by a frame of it as it’s possibly D’Amato’s finest film. Well… the pussycat attack scene is class anyhow. AKA: Death Smiled At Murder.