Such a frustrating disappointment

Admirable film.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Here's yet another bizarre movie from Italian director Antonio Margheriti, made with funding and actors from both France and West Germany. Margheriti - who co-wrote the film, basing it partly on a novel by Peter Bryan - throws a hodge-podge of ideas and clichés into the movie making for an unconventional mix. On one hand, the film is a very old-fashioned old dark house mystery, with a group of interesting characters being assembled and picked off one by one for no known reason. All it lacks is the reading of a will to be complete.If you look at it from a different angle, this film is a throwback to Margheriti's early '60s Gothic horror movies like CASTLE OF BLOOD, what with the spooky old castle setting and lots of atmospheric trips through midnight graveyards, torch-lit cellars, dank tombs, and secret passages in the crumbling walls. You can almost feel the atmosphere drip from the screen in some cases. The film is littered with horror clichés, from the rotting rat-eaten corpse hidden in a back passage to empty broken coffins to heavy groaning noises in the dark and surprise attacks by bats and other assorted creatures of the night. The village superstitions are there too, with lots of mumbo-jumbo talk about vampiric family curses and the like, although it's plain that the killer in this film is strictly human. Bizarrely, someone also decided to throw a caged killer gorilla into the bubbling stew, purchased by one of the characters from a passing circus (!), which keeps escaping to play peekaboo at the windows and scare our pretty young heroine. It's like watching some cheesy '40s Monogram quickie all over again.Finally, and most strongly, the film is a gory giallo, in which the leading protagonists are killed off one by one by a mystery assailant whose identity is kept secret until the surprise finale. The script is littered with red herrings to keep you guessing as to his or her identity which makes for one confusing viewing experience. The film is quite violent for the time, with blood splattering on nearby walls during the murder sequences and lots of shots of mutilated corpses, although these now seem quite tame in a modern day light. And on top of all this, Margheriti throws in touches of humour and self-referencing to keep the audience on its feet.The acting is typical of the genre, the dubbing pretty good for a change. Jane Birkin is the pretty but vacant young heroine who is no Barbara Steele but quite cute in her own way. The various supporting characters are a clichéd mixed bunch, including a sinister doctor with his own hidden agenda (played by genre favourite Anton Diffring, great as ever), a priest, two old ladies, a prostitute, and an unlucky coachman who gets his throat slit with a straight-razor. Being an early '70s movie, there's also a fair amount of sex and sleaze thrown into the brew to keep it simmering nicely. The music is almost unnoticeable while the camera-work at times disorientating and annoying, but SEVEN DEATHS IN A CAT'S EYE is a worthwhile watch for Italian fans as a film which throws just about everything but the kitchen sink into the story - and remains consistently entertaining, despite the slow pacing, as a result of it. Remember to keep an eye out for that cool feline who gets to witness (along with the audience) the film's string of gore murders...

Don't watch this film tired or drunk or you'll be asleep in seconds. Not that I'm slagging off this film, it's just that this particular giallo is very dreamy and features people wandering around tombs, creaky old houses, and tunnels in near darkness. Perseverance however is rewarding, and having been knocked out twice trying to watch this I managed to watch it during the day and found an extremely stylish and atmospheric film that's low on gore and nudity but high on imagery and such like.Corringa turns up at her aunt's castle in some undetermined era (I'm guessing early twentieth century), to find her mother and aunt have been arguing about something or other. Turns out her aunt Mary ain't got a lot of cash but Corringa's mother isn't willing to give her a loan, seeing as how she can just sell the castle. Her aunt Mary's got a doctor 'friend' who she schemes with, and an eccentric son who keeps a pet gorilla. Things get weird when Corringa's mother dies and the so-called MacGrieff curse comes into play. That curse means that when a MacGrieff kills a MacGrieff, the victim will come back as a vampire! It's up to Corringa and major red herring James to find out what's going down, and it's all done in a mix of fog, flickering candles, cobwebs and that darn cat. Expect plenty of sweeping camera-work and gasping ladies. Antonio Margharetti's an old hand at these kinds of films, and I've never seen anything that's been less than good by the guy. Included in the mix is Venantino Venantini (of City of the Living Dead and War of the Robots) and the guy who looks like Peter Lorre (Werewolf in a girls Dormitory, Terror Creatures for the Grave). Do yourself a favour and try and get a cleaned up copy of this film. My copy was picked up in a street market in Rome and the visuals are so soft it's like someone smeared Vaseline on the screen. And I still enjoyed it! A nice Gothic setting for the giallo.

The beautiful Corringa arrives at a remote castle in the Scottish Highlands after being expelled from school. Once there we meet her mother,Aunt Mary, her mad son James. Also present are non family members who include Franz the Doctor who is there to treat the son and his lesbian girlfriend Suzanne. On the first night in the castle Corringa's mother is suffocated by an unknown assailant. At the funeral Angus the man who brought Corringa to the castle has his throat cut in the crypt after he goes back to rescue the cat who has been locked inside. Corringa's mental state begins to deteriorate after she is attacked by the cat while sleeping. In the morning the Doctor is confronted by a police inspector standing over Angus's body he asks the doctor to get him a death certificate.Meanwhile Corringa seems to be attracted to James and while visiting him is disturbed to find he keeps a caged Gorilla, she is also pursued by Suzanne who is attracted to her.Corringa confides in the local priest about her fears and her dreams that her mother will return as a vampire the priest tries but fails to convince her otherwise she runs off to tell James her fears and they kiss.Later someone lets the gorilla out of his cage. Corringa goes to her mothers tomb and is shocked to discover it has been wrecked as she flees from the tomb she runs into James and they end up making love. Later Mary walks in on Franz and Suzanne making love (he is also seeing her) and storms out Franz chases after her. Franz tries to blackmail Mary with a guily secret about her dead daughter whom everyone believes was killed by James. Suzanne leaves franz's room and tries to seduce Corringa but she is rejected and runs out. Franz is later murdered in the corridor by an unknown killer. The priest arrives and goes up to see James hes discovers him sitting over the body of his dead Gorilla who has been killed. Suzanne confronts Mary over her covering up of Corringa's mothers death and the police are called they open the coffin and find Franz's body instead. James appears in Corringa's room and tells him he knows who the killer is before he can he has to leave the room as the police believe him to be the killer. James retreats into the castle catacombs and finds one of the servants badly beaten he tells him he must save Suzanne as she is next, James runs off to help her but arrives too late as she is killed while packing to leave. Corringa discovers Mary standing over the body and runs away believing her to be the killer Corringa flees to the basement an discovers a rotten body and her mothers body. The killer is revealed to be the priest who is not really the priest (He's the rotten body)!!He tells Corringa he has just killed Mary he reveals himself to be a distant cousin who wants all the family money but he is shot by the police before he can kill her. This is a good giallo which is quite quick moving and atmospheric at times the killer was quite a surprise I recommend this to any fans of Giallo cinema.

SEVEN DEATHS IN THE CAT'S EYE is not really a standard "Giallo" by any stretch of the imagination. It's actually a 1970's Italian variation on the Old Dark House genre--it even hearkens back to early sound films such as THE MONSTER WALKS and silent films such as THE CAT AND THE CANARY--but with a Hitchcock and Tennessee Williams twist, and all done in the stylish Gothic manner that Italians do so well. Jane Birkin is a girl home from boarding school to an old castle with the ultimate dysfunctional family. Hiram Keller, of FELLINI SATYRICON fame, is superb as James, the outcast of the home who turns out to be the only sane one. It's a florid, over-the-top performance that makes me want to search out more of the late Mr. Keller's obscure European films. And it's a hoot to see (but not hear) Serge Gainsbourg as a Scottish police inspector (he's dubbed). The mysterious cat motif works well, and there is a sly sense of humor and good fun throughout the entire film, but enough murders and atmosphere and mystery to make the experience well worth you time. This is not the kind of film to over-analyze--just enjoy it and let yourself go along for the ride as if you are on a roller coaster or in a fun-house. The widescreen transfer looks nice and the beautiful, rich colors come through well. I can imagine pulling this film out again every year or so and still being entertained. Recommended!