Italian filmmaker/sleazebag Joe D’Amato (Aristide Massaccesi being his real name), best known for his work as a cinematographer on A Quiet Place to Kill and What Have You Done to Solange? before staking out his own territory through his horror/softcore and hardcore porno crossovers such as Porno Holocaust and Anthropophagus, is typically regarded as a purveyor of all things XXX and sexploitation. Flaunting carnality with naked women aplenty, D’Amato’s name is synonymous with prurient cinema of the 1970s and 80s. Which makes his first solo foray into the director’s chair, the gothic horror period piece/Giallo crossover Death Smiles on a Murderer something of a curious if not somewhat disjointed outlier in the dirty moviemaker’s catalog.
Mixing elements of Mario
Bava’s Kill, Baby…Kill! with the
tropes of the Giallo subgenre as well as some soft but notable amounts of sex
and nudity, this oddly experimental, occasionally over the top and often
visually stunning unfinished business ghost story vengeance thriller marks one
of the few times in the director’s oeuvre that he served up something a bit
classier and more respectable than his usual fare. Starring the Swedish actress and sex symbol
Ewa Aulin (better known as Candy)
with Luciano Rossi, Giacomo Rossi Stuart of the aforementioned Kill, Baby…Kill! and an inspired cameo
from Klaus Kinski fresh off of Aguirre,
the Wrath of God, Death Smiles on a
Murderer is a near avant-garde series of fragmented scenes which gradually
boil down to an unfinished business ghost narrative involving a young woman
named Greta (Aulin) who appears to have died in childbirth…or has she?
Often gory to the point of
being laughably over the top and leaping about timelines and places with
reckless abandon, Death Smiles on a
Murderer is equal parts sloppy and splendid with some moments working
beautifully while others fall flat. Photographed
by D’Amato himself with an inspired if not unfitting jazzy Grindhouse score by
Berto Pisano (released separately on vinyl by Arrow Films), Death Smiles on a Murderer is equal
parts Edgar Allen Poe with elements of The
Black Cat coming into play, murder mystery and plain old drive-in
trash. Costume and production design is
sound though there are times when some of the loose ends show in the editing,
such as a couple moments where Kinski and Aulin amid their interactions break
character just before cutting to the next shot. 
While admittedly the closest
thing to a real feature film D’Amato has offered up in a career full of trashy
blue movies, Death Smiles on a Murderer is
difficult to gauge as the fragmented narrative with subplots and red herrings
that are never paid off come and go along with scenes that work wonderfully while
others don’t work at all. The credits
and poster are somewhat misleading in how they overplay Kinski’s involvement in
the picture, who more or less takes a backseat to sex symbol Ewa Aulin strutting
about either half naked or sporting decomposing facial makeup. For newcomers to D’Amato, Death Smiles on a Murderer may be as
good a place to start as any, but for this sort of gothic horror thriller
subgenre I’m inclined to stick with Mario Bava myself.
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki