Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye

Directed by Antonio Margheriti, Starring Jane Birkin,Hiram Keller,Francoise Christophe,Venantino Venantini,Doris Kuntsmann.

Man, I had a tough go with this one. Sure it looks good with it's Gothic style setting of a castle complete with damp basements and secret passage ways that open up behind stone walls. Young women running through long corridors in their nighties, rats devouring the flesh from forgotten bodies tossed to the cellar. An ape even puts in an appearance to wreak havoc on the castle grounds.All of this does not make an exciting story, and takes quite some time to get where it is going and in my opinion not worth making the trip. You would think death by nasty slashes to the throat, a mysterious cat which is always present during the killings and a family curse involving vampires could hold my attention. Hypnotically stylish, maybe too much for it's own good, this is a sophisticated horror film and those looking for a film with plenty of body counts and clever methods of doing the victims in are advised to look elsewhere.This killer's M.O. is the slashing of the throat.Of course a movie where the potential victims and killer are all situated at the same location creates many red herrings and this picture is no different.

A young woman Corringa ( Birkan ) arrives at her aunt's Scottish castle to find members of her family being killed off one at a time, a la Agatha Christie's Ten little Indians. I found most of Corringa's family to be pretentious, but her cousin Lord James MacGrieff (Keller ) is also an obnoxious rude, spoiled brat who, when first introduced ,clears the table of his mother's dinner guests with his blatant insults. Lord James MacGrieff is a strange bird who happens to keep an orangutan caged in his bedroom.

There is a little bit of kinkiness going on, including a bi-sexual slut and an incestuous relations, but that darn pacing did me in. Slowwww going.In my opinion a better film by director Antonio Margheriti is Danza macabra ( 1964 ) also known as Castle of Blood starring the impressive Barbara Steele and filmed in a sombre black and white medium.

My Thoughts: I wished the story elaborated more with the family curse, and the dead family members did return as vampires. As it is ,it's just another case for Scotland Yard.

My Rating: 2 Go Go Girls out of 5