A Dragonfly for Each Corpse
A Dragonfly for Each Corpse
| 17 September 1975 (USA)
A Dragonfly for Each Corpse Trailers

A killer is cleaning up the streets of Milan by murdering those considered as deviant. An ornamental dragonfly, soaked in the blood of the victim, is left on each body.

Reviews
AboveDeepBuggy

Some things I liked some I did not.

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ClassyWas

Excellent, smart action film.

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Roy Hart

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

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Billy Ollie

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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Bezenby

Paul Naschy once again knows what the people want by writing and starring in this over the top giallo full of murder, twists, sleaze, and transvestite roller coast shoot outs.Paul is a burly cigar chewing cop who likes to slap perps about, and is given a new case: that of tracking down a killer who is wasting the city's undesirables types, including junkies and hookers. Every time a corpse is discovered, a glass dragonfly is also found at the scene. I thought it was cool that Paul was allowed to keep these on the wall of his living room for some reason, but then his wife Erika Blanc ended up doing most of the work anyway, so maybe it was best she kept an eye on the stuff.Of course, polite society gets involved and it turns out they have just as many vices as those unclean types. Paul's friends turn out to be just as bad, what with the professor who is a necrophile who likes to have strippers lie in coffins, then there's the confusing love dodecahedron involving everyone else Paul knows, except the gay guy, because being gay is enough to have you killed in a film like this. Needless to say someone Paul knows is the killer, but as the body's pile up, can he unveil the killer before the killings get closer to home?The killer is dressed in the usual gialli uniform - black gloves, comfortable shoes, comfy socks, and has quite the collection of weapons at his (or her!) disposal. People are attacked with axes, umbrellas with spring loaded blades, knives and such like, but the blood is kept subtle. Nudity isn't however, which will keep you awake between the murder scenes.My absolute favourite bit was when Paul somehow uncovered a drug ring and the gang leader, fresh from doing a transvestite show, realises the cops are arriving on the scene, takes the time to dress back up in drag again before getting on a roller coaster and firing a gun blindly while on the ride. Simply delightful. This is also a film that isn't too concerned about how life like the dummies are, which makes things funnier. If a bad Paul Naschy film exists, I haven't seen it yet. Another daft winner!

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GL84

After a series of brutal murders, a Milan police detective and his girlfriend struggle to find the connection between the victims until a break in the case points them to a rather curious prospective culprit as the killing spree continues to terrorize the city.This here turned out to be quite the fun and enjoyable Spanish giallo. Despite not being from the prototypical country that produced these films, the fact that it feels so close in structure and overall tone to the Italian models make for quite an incredible time here. The opening starts off with some rather enjoyable old- school giallo set-ups in the opening ambush attacks on first the drug addict and a later scene of the prostitute out on her walk stumbling into the killer which seem like entertaining giallo set- pieces. With the emphasis on focusing on the black-gloved killer, the twisting story-line that brings along numerous red herrings and potential suspects winding along throughout here and outlandish, gory kills there's plenty of incredibly fun nods to the more proficient Italian models being produced as well. The most impactful part, though, is the sleaze and weirdness aspects here which is quite fun getting both of these involved in the film from the absolutely fun way it works the striptease burlesque show and the intervening display where she gets pimped out for the guy who enjoys necrophiliac sex-play before finding the killer involved in the proceedings, a rather inviting bit of topless armchair clue-solving and a really exciting foot-chase through an amusement park against a cross-dresser that ultimately ends with a gunfight on a roller- coaster that's a great action scene as well as the kind of enjoyably trashy aesthetic that comes with the idea of the man chasing him down while in drag. The fact that there's a lot to like here with the main mystery, from the reasoning behind the dragonfly pins and the connection to the past which comes with the whole meaning in the current rampage against the specific targets here makes this a wholly enjoyable and engaging story-line that plays out rather well in setting up the nice finale, which all manages to make this one fun enough to hold out over it's few flaws. The biggest issue here is the fact that there's not a whole lot of action here in between the confrontations, with this one tending to go for a series of action-packed spurts only to slow down quite a bit before ramping up again, and that does leave a rather sluggish pace at times. As well, there's the weird inclusion of the Nazi biker gang which really seems to be thrown in for no reason and makes no special significance to their appearance. Along with the rather underwhelming finale that just seems to end without much fanfare which is rather disconcerting, but does tend to stick out here but otherwise these here do hold this one back somewhat.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language, Full Nudity and drug use.

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Paul Andrews

Una Libelula Para Cada Muerto, or A Dragonfly for Each Corpse as it's more commonly known amongst English speaking audiences, is set in Milan where some drug addict low life named Franco Perotti buys his latest fix & heads home to inject but once there he is brutally murdered by a hatchet wielding psycho... Italy's finest Inspector Paolo Scaporella (Jacinto Molina under his usual Paul Naschy pseudonym) is on the case with the only clue being a small Dragonfly left on the body, Franco was the second to fall victim to the 'Dragonfly Killer' & as the bodies continue to pile up the pressure on Scaporella increases. It seems someone is waging a one person war on the drug users, dealers, prostitutes & the general scum of Milan. Scaporella has little to go on apart from the Dragonfly's & a drawing by one of the victims, a drawing of something that Scaporella can't quite make out but his wife Silvana (Erika Blnac) thinks she can which makes her the Dragonfly killer's next target...This Spanish production was directed by Leon Klimovsky & I personally thought it was nothing more than a below average murder mystery that tries to spice it's undercooked story up with some nudity & fairly gory (for the time) murders. The script by star Jacinto Molina (under that name) is your basic who dun-nit & not one that particularly impressed me, it starts off well enough with a couple of decent kills but then all sorts of unlikely things happen to stretch the story out & I found the climactic unmasking of the killer very underwhelming. The film states early on that the killer is trying to 'clean up' Milan & in the final reckoning that's all it amounts too, so in that respect we know the killers motives from pretty much the first five minutes & after that it's just a case of them being found out which in the end Scaporella's wife does! Why didn't they just put her on the case in the first place? Also there's the usual stupid unrealistic character actions, for instance if you knew the identity of a sadistic killer who had brutally murdered at least five people would you try to black mail them & even worse meet up with them in the middle of the night in a completely deserted & isolated location? I mean that's just asking for trouble, isn't it? I don't get the roller-coaster escape bit either, if your trying to escape from the police why get on a roller-coaster? I mean a roller-coaster just travels around the same track & will always end up back where it started, right? There really is very little chance of escaping anywhere on a fairground roller-coaster. The film moves along at a reasonable pace, it has a fair few murder scenes although they're not that graphic & it's watchable but it's just not very clever, the killer's motives & identity are both disappointing & could have used more thought.Director Klimovsky does OK, the film has that 70's sleazy horror atmosphere to it, there's a fair bit of nudity but it lacks gore or violence. Oh, isn't that title A Dragonfly for Each Corpse just great? The title is one of the main reasons I bothered with it & as many of you already know you can't judge a film by it's title. The fashions & facial hair are all very 70's & the film has a certain dated feel to it which I liked.Technically the film is alright, it's well made enough with decent production values. The film was shot in Spanish & I can honestly say the dubbing & voice acting is absolutely terrible which gives the film an unintentional & unwanted comedic element. Naschy sports a fine moustache in this one, he's all man...Una Libelula Para Cada Muerto is a by-the-numbers murder mystery that can't quite decide whether it wants to be a full on gory slasher or a thoughtful who dun-nit, it's somewhere between the two without totally satisfying in either department. Watch something like Tenebre (1982), The New York Ripper (1982) or Opera (1987) instead.

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The_Void

A Dragonfly for Each Corpse is a Spanish take on the popular Italian thriller known as the Giallo, and stars prolific Spanish horror star Paul Naschy. The Giallo was well established by 1974, and it's clear that director León Klimovsky knew this; as his film continually attempts to imitate the Italian films...but this isn't really a problem, as many of the actual Italian productions imitate each other, and it has to be said that the director hasn't done a bad job of making a non-Italian Giallo. The central plot theme has been seen in cinema many times before this film was released, and many times after; in films like Dario Argento's Tenebrae, and popular American thriller 'Seven'. We follow a killer who has taken it upon himself to clean up the streets, by picking off everyone that offends his eye. His trademark is a dragonfly, which is left at the scene of each crime, thus earning the killer the name 'The Dragonfly Killer'. We focus on the police investigation into the killings, which is lead by hard-bitten copper Inspector Scaporella.By keeping the focus away from the murders and more on the investigation, director León Klimovsky has passed up on the opportunity of making a really interesting movie. The way that the investigation is handled isn't bad, and there's enough intrigue generated to see it through; but the way that the film is handled takes the attention away from the murders...which is never good in a film like this. There is a fair amount of blood in this film, however, but it never reaches the highs that you'd expect it to given the splatter at the beginning. Paul Naschy manages to put in a good performance as the cop at the centre of the story, but some of the rest of the cast bring it down; and the film suffers from far too many nuisances with the script, which gets a little too ridiculous too many times. By far the biggest problem with the film comes at the conclusion. Giallo's are infamous for not making a lot of sense and leaving things wide open...but there's barely an explanation at all here, and it's a shame because it could have been the highlight. But even so, this is entertaining enough; and the hilarious roller-coaster getaway ensures that I won't be forgetting it soon.

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