Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by Ian West ★★★★½ 18

  “Take these flowers as a proof that I love you!"

  Joe D’Amato’s Death Smiles On A Murderer is a bizarre, hallucinogenic, eurogothic jam that features sexual love triangle seduction mixed with violently vengeful murders in the vein of Poe. Pepper in some incest, cemeteries during the day, psycho murder cats, and Klaus Kinski briefly appearing as a nutjob doctor salivating over Incan secrets of reanimation and even on his first film Joe D’Amato was very much ‘on brand’

  That’s just for starters, numerous atrocities show up pleasantly paced during the runtime: An impaled body with guts spilling out, Klaus Kinski shoving a pin in someone’s eye, a double barreled shotgun skinning the face off a screaming victim, incestuous rape, a…

• Review by Lou (rhymes with wow!) ★★★½ 4

  Deliciously gothic and weirdly erotic, Death Smiles on a Murder is a wonderful slice of Joe D'Amato bizarreness. The movie has an almost dream-like quality to it, which had me clueless as to what exactly was unfolding on screen. All I know for certain is that when you give Klaus Kinski some beakers you'll end up with magic. Also, there is no such thing as too many cat jump scares.

  I need to search out some more Ewa Aulin movies.

• Review by Tony the Terror ★★★★½ 7

  Ummmmm this was amazing and I can’t believe it’s only the first time I’ve watched it! It’s got a super giallo name, but it’s a trap because it’s not even close to a giallo and I ain’t even mad.

  Just likeBob, I had to pull up the wiki page to get ahold of the plot because while the whole thing looks gorgeous, I was completely lost but once I understood better what was happening, I was in love with this crazy supernatural mindfuck of a movie. It’s got turn of the century Austrian period costumes, a super gory and super silly shotgun to the face, a cat claws a guy’s face to death, and a twist at the end that…

• Review by 🍁 Alatorre's Nightmares 🍁 ★★★★½ 4

  #13: Joe D'Amato Week
  for The 2024 Cult Movie Challenge!

  I'm signing a petition to bring back movies filmed with nothing but zooms. When done well I genuinely believe they're a much more creative way of playing with the information on camera. Just hire a good focus puller because as soon as I watch a frame out of focus I start tweaking.

  If you're lucky enough and still haven't seen this beauty then take my advice: Don't you dare to read that synopsis before the credits roll. DON'T! STOP, COME BACK AND LISTEN TO ME...

  This is the first movie of its kind that really puts in big trouble the gear mechanism on my brains trying to comprehend a minimal…

• Review by WraithApe ★★★½ 6

  Unnecessarily convoluted murder mystery that draws heavily on Gothic literature for inspiration; especially Poe's The Black Cat and The Masque of the Red Death. If you're anything like me, you'll have a lot of questions right from the opening scene - most notably, who are these people and what have they got to do with the story? The woman, Greta, appears again very quickly but of the two men apparently vying for her affection, one appears only as an apparition to a different character altogether (Gertrude, the housekeeper) and the second leaves it almost to the end to make a re-appearance. Throw in an Incan re-animation subplot, with both Klaus Kinski and the wild-eyed man from the opening scene doing…

• Review by Matt Winfield ★★★★ 2

  ⛄Daily Horror Hunt #31 (Jan. 2021)⛄
  [8] Directed by Joe D'Amato.

  Blessed be to Wikipedia, cause goddamn was this one ever a mess to try and comprehend. Makes total sense when reading up on it afterwards thanks to a real thorough plot breakdown, but trying to figure out this story on the fly was hard on the brain to say the least. Twisted love triangles, Incan undead sorcery, Klaus Kinski doing his best Dr. Frankenstein impression, plenty of winks 'n' nods to Edgar Allan Poe, and some absolutely BRUTAL gut splaying and facial disfiguration that guarantees you never forget Joe D'Amato is behind the camera. There's definitely a lot to take in here.

  But thankfully, like most 70's Euro horror…

• Review by {Todd} ★★½

  "My name is greta, my name is greta" -Creepy Parrot.

  - Horror Hunt 31 (Jan '21): boxd.it/aya9m "Joe D'Amato"

  What?

  I tried really hard to understand it and couldn't. That said the film has Klaus Kinski and a murderous cat so it's not all bad. I like some of the flowy style, the score was kind of fun, and there are sparks of brilliance but overall this was a drag for me.... I wish I enjoyed this more... oh well.

  Not really, but sure.

• Review by sakana1 ★★★½ 20

  Vibes for days; tone over tale.

  Ewa Aulin, so beautiful her natural death cannot be accepted.

  Men and men and men, determined to reverse death; to supplant God. To claim ultimate power over man; over women.

  A moment during which convention might be overturned: a married couple, each exchanging secret, lustful glances with a guest they both desire, and with whom each has had sexual contact. The glances last for what feel like hours; the arousal and delighted are mutual and unmistakable.

  But monogamy is rigorous and essential and, in service of the norm, murder is deemed preferable to polyamory; a lack of fidelity demands death.

  Gore and gore and gore; blood and decay and fury. All rolled into one…

• Review by laird ★★★½ 3

  As I started to nod off, this Eurohorror-Gothic-mad-doctor-Edgar-Allan-Poern-revenge-from-beyond-the-grave movie got better. It's like my mind needed to sink down a level of consciousness to get onto its wavelength. The compression of time and intercutting between flashbacks and fantasy combined with the lazy dubbing and sloppy censorship edits (that were maybe made by a rogue projectionist) just added to the overall weird dream state vibe. At some point we as movie audiences allowed "making sense" to have some sort of supremacy status on the list of criteria for a "good movie." Screw that noise, I'd rather experience something first and understand it later, if ever (In that respect, this movie is more like GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE than I would have ever imagined).

• Review by Slig001 ★★★½

  Death Smiles on a Murderer is a stylish Italian horror film that takes influence from a whole range of different genres. The result is an interesting, though rather confused, hodge-podge. The story focuses on the idea of an ancient Incan formula that has the ability to raise the dead. The film is directed by Joe D'Amado and is a lot less trashy than most of his ouvre. Klaus Kinski is the headline star despite the fact that he's actually barely in the film. A lot of the story is imparted via flashback which can make the film a little difficult to follow. However, it does also keep it interesting as often later scenes give additional meaning to things that we…

• Review by Scott R ★★½ 1

  Cult Challenge 2023
  Week 21, May 21 - 28
  Joe D’Amato

  The plot starts with an intriguing set up with some creative cinematography. This intrigue dies down pretty fast though and we are left with boring mundane scenes filled with dull acting and poorly established characters…

  Supernatural Spoilers for a movie from 1973!

  I don’t think the script is very good at all. We seem to be jumping around in the timeline, flashing backwards and forwards. One scene we’re hunting birds in the woods and the next we’re at tea time and the next we’re with mad scientists in a laboratory. If the screenplay was better and these characters were more established, this jumping around might not be so incoherent…

• Review by belial_carboni ★★★½ 1

  A stylish gothic tinged giallo from Joe D'Amato. This one was hard to follow with a lot of intertwined characters and side plots. But what it lacks in its story it makes up for with some beautiful visuals, solid atmosphere and the good ol D'Amato viciousness.

  Gory, violent and mean spirited you can see D'Amato honing in on his unique style. There's also a lot of supernatural mystery at play and if I was supposed to solve anything then I definitely failed! Something about resurrecting the dead, playing outside in autumn and scandalous love triangles?

  We have some decent performances along with Klaus Kinski playing his usual creepy weirdo self (I always just assume he acts the same way in…