Giallo Review: The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (1971)

When I began down my path of watching Italian horror films, I never expected to see many giallos with weird titles. But between this, The Red Queen Kills Seven Times, All the Colors of the Dark, What Have You Done to Solange?, the Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh and of course, Your Vice is a Locked Door and Only I Have the Key, I needed to see these movies. Jared Letourneau of THS has been kind of a curator of Giallo and other Italian horror films for us for the last six years. But, I think I may be catching up.

“A wealthy English lord is suffering a mental breakdown following the death of his red-headed wife, Evelyn, whom he feared was cheating on him. He tours local bars and dives, scouring for lovely red-heads willing to come back to his decaying castle in the country, where he seduces them, then tortures and kills them.”

The movie begins with Lord Alan Cunningham, a weathly aristocratic taking a red headed woman back to an old dark castle outside of London. She is a stripper and he lures these red headed women back to this castle and physically abuses them and eventually kills them. Alan suffers from mental distress after losing his wife Evelyn after catching her with another man.

One night Alan attends a seance and a mediums summons Evelyn causing Alan to faint. Alan is taken to a strip club where he meets Susan, another red head stripper. He does the same things as before but she barely escapes. Eventually Alan is cured and finds a new wife, Gladys who is blond. The sight of a red headed woman could send Alan spiraling.

The get back to his manor and we see the maids are all blonde women, but there is a painting of Evelyn that Alan is fixated on. Gladys appears jealous and wants the painting gone. When she suspects something, she investigates Evelyn’s Grave. But…

I wont give any more away. It’s on Shudder if you want to see the rest. There are subtitles, but you can buy a copy from Arrow video that offers dubbing.

Giallos are weird movies. The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave is no different. It is bizarre from the beginning. But eventually there is a twist, then another twist and it is actually surprising. The characters are well played and it has all of the classic Giallo tropes. Black gloves, naked women and of course a twist ending.

I really enjoy this one, my second viewing even more so.

IMDB.com has a rating of 5.7, big surprise

But I can’t go much higher. 6.4 for me.

Check it out on Shudder or Tubi 

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About Ray Marek III 699 Articles
I have been watching horror films since I was 6 years old. The story, one Saturday night, my mom and I were watching movies and she fell asleep on the couch. We had the channel set on HBO and the movie we were watching ended and the next one, A Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. This was some time in 1986. I watched then entire film, I was sitting on the edge of my seat. When my mom woke, she asked me what just ended and I told her, “Freddy”. That was all I talked about for weeks and finally she broke down and rented more horror films for me. She rented, the Texas Chainsaw Massacre part 2, Re-Animator, Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives and Halloween II. I watched all and fell in love with horror films forever. 5 Horror Films to Watch Inferno (1980) A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) The Beyond (1981) Friday the 13th VI: Jason Lives (1986) Horror of Dracula (1958)