The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave

E. A Solinas

at 8:58 pm

Don’t let the ghoulish title or the campy box fool you. “The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave” is no goofy zombiefest or cliched ghost story — instead it’s more of a manipulative mystery, with director Emilio Miraglia sprinkling the story with unexpected twists and giallo-like murders.

Evelyn Cunningham died in childbirth some time ago. Ever since, mentally-unbalanced Lord Alan Cunningham (Antonio De Teffè) has had a nasty new hobby — he has “attacks” where he lures young redheads to his rambling estate, and kills them horribly. Even a seance to contact his beloved Evelyn doesn’t help his mental state.

Then he meets beautiful Gladys (Marina Malfatti), and quickly marries her. But as Alan tries to get on with his life, the castle is haunted by a red-haired, white-gowned ghost that beckons him — and the murder of several people there. Alan is being slowly driven out of his mind, but has Evelyn come out of the grave — or is there something even more sinister at work?

“The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave” has many of the trappings of a giallo film — Miraglia even gives the audience a nudge-wink by having the mystery killer wear a pair of yellow (“giallo”) gloves. But this movie isn’t strictly a giallo — more like a modern gothic with a few twists of “House on Haunted Hill.”

It’s not the best of such films — it moves very slowly, and some of the scenes (such as the skeletal ghost-on-the-bridge scene) are just too silly. But it’s made up for with some incredibly spooky “hauntings,” mad camerawork, and the lush interior of the crumbling castle. Miraglia even throws in some bizarre, grotesque moments, such as the disposal of a body by dumping it into a fox kennel.

And the finale is a outrageous double twist that is unlikely, but very interesting — just when you think you’ve got the whole plot figured out, Miraglia yanks the rug out from under your feet. Even if the plot still has some big holes in it, it’s pretty entertaining and an exciting end to a slow-moving storyline.

Teffè plays the most difficult character of the piece — his character is really psychotic at the beginning, although by the middle of the movie he’s more pitiable than detestable. Malfatti is somewhat less compelling, but does well enough as Teffè’s wife, while Enzo Tarascio plays the smarmy playboy very well.

It’s pretty hard to find a decent print of this movie. Sinema Diablo’s is horribly distorted and not worth watching, the Alpha is very bad quality, and St Clair Vision is even worse, incredibly discoloured and scratchy. The best one I’ve seen is from Brentwood’s “Tales From the Boneyard,” which has excellent colour and sound, although it’s a little bright at times.

“The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave” is a lot better than its name would suggest, and its twisty spooky story is genuinely creepy in a “giallo” kind of way. Definitely worth watching.
Rating: 4 / 5

Norman Pitkin

at 10:07 pm

the dvd The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave [1971] (NTSC) [DVD] is a great rare movie and on amazon they state that the audio Language Italian when i put the dvd in my dvd player the audio Language is in English audio Language ..

the Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave [1971] (NTSC) [DVD] the red dvd cover version is in English audio Language and not Italian Language now other dvds of the same movie i don’t know what audio Language they are in as i don’t own them ones i only own this red cover dvd of the movie if anyone is going to buy this movie The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave . and you want it in english audio then buy the red dvd cover The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave [1971] (NTSC) [DVD] thanks to amazon lol
Rating: 5 / 5