Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Mathilde the Guild Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Leofwine_draca Coming from the man noted for his gory video nasties and the endless amount of softcore and hardcore pornography later in his career, DEATH SMILES ON A MURDERER is a surprisingly tranquil, dream-like horror movie which is more in line with the superb Italian Gothic wave of the early 1960s than the gory giallo antics that the title suggests at. Joe D'Amato (or Aristide Massacessi as he is otherwise known) directs a horror film for the first time as well as handling the photography, so you know straight away that this is going to be beautifully shot, visually appealing viewing experience which makes full use of slow-motion and strange camera angles. The fragmented plot is told in segments and in flashback, with some of the events being pure fantasy, so viewers will no doubt struggle to try and make some sense of the almost circular storyline where there is no sense to be had. Instead, the concentration is on providing a number of memorable eerie sequences, all containing an ethereal atmosphere and highlighted by a truly astounding and haunting score from composer Berto Pisano.The lead is taken by the baby-faced Ewa Aulin, an object of lust who begins the movie as a corpse on a stone slab. Later revived by ancient magical means, Aulin turns into a ghost-like creature who proceeds to seduce a wife and her husband, scenes which fill out the expected sex quota of the movie. The jealous wife later bricks Aulin up behind a wall (heavy shades of Poe exist throughout the movie) but finds herself haunted at a ball by a masked figure in a gown, who goes on to commit a string of gory murders. But instead of sticking to the mind-numbing slice-and-dice routine of the '80s slasher movies, all of the murders are presented in imaginative and shocking ways - a shotgun blasts the face off an innocent serving girl in a horrible moment, a man is bloodily slashed to death with a straight-razor and even a cat becomes a weapon of death come the gruesome finale.As well as the strong production values, there are some fine performances to be had from the leading cast members Angela Bo and Giorgio Dolfin, as the husband and wife caught up in events they cannot possibly understand. Aulin is excellent as the woman who may or may not be a ghost and D'Amato successfully contrasts her beauty by cutting to a rotting, zombie-like face in some strong moments of horror. A top-billed Klaus Kinski turns up in a large cameo appearance as a sinister doctor also experimenting with raising the dead and inserts a needle into a girl's eye in one of the many memorable images in the film. Also on hand are Giacomo Rossi-Stuart (CRIMES OF THE BLACK CAT) as a potential victim, and sleazy Luciano Rossi (VIOLENT NAPLES) who actually gives the best performance in the movie as the incestuous hunchbacked stranger. At the end of the day, DEATH SMILES ON A MURDERER provides plenty of atmosphere, suspense and real moments of horror as well as fulfilling the resident sex-and-gore quota, and as such stands as a firm addition to the Italian Gothic cycle; flawed, but at (many) times brilliant.

BA_Harrison 'I don't understand. None of this makes any sense!', exclaims one exasperated character towards the end of Death Smiles at Murder. Having just sat through this thoroughly confusing mess of a movie, I know exactly how he feels. The story, by the film's director Aristide Massacessi (good old Joe D'amato using his real name for a change), is a clumsy mix of the supernatural, murder/mystery, and pretentious arty rubbish, the likes of which will probably appeal to those who admire trippy 70s garbage such as Jess Franco's more bizarre efforts, but which had me struggling to remain conscious.Opening with a hunchback mourning the death of his beautiful sister (with whom he had been having an incestuous affair, before eventually losing her to a dashing doctor), Death Smiles at Murder soon becomes very confusing when the very same woman (played by Ewa Aulin, who stars in the equally strange 'Death Laid an Egg') is seen alive and kicking, the sole survivor of a coach accident that occurs outside the estate of Walter and Eva von Ravensbrück. After being invited to stay and recuperate in their home, where she is tended to by creepy Dr. Sturges (Klaus Kinski in a throwaway role), the comely lass begins love affairs with both Mr. and Mrs. Ravensbrück (meaning that viewers are treated to some brief but welcome scenes of nookie and lesbian lovin').'So far, so good', I thought to myself at this point, 'we've had hunchbacks, incest, some blood and guts, and gratuitous female nudity'—all ingredients of a great trashy Euro-horror; what follows, however, is a lame attempt by Massacessi to combine giallo style killings, ghostly goings on, and even elements from Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Black Cat', to tell a very silly, utterly bewildering, and ultimately extremely boring tale of revenge from beyond the grave.This film seems to have quite few admirers here on IMDb, but given the choice, I would much rather watch one of the director's sleazier movies from later in his career; I guess incomprehensible, meandering, surreal 70s Gothic horror just ain't my thing! 2.5 out of 10 (purely for the cheesy gore and nekkidness), rounded up to 3 for IMDb.

Michael_Elliott Death Smiled at Murder (1973) ** (out of 4) Joe D'Amato directed this extremely bizarre and downright confusing film that tries to mix Gothic horror with the giallo. I'm not exactly sure what the hell the film is about but it goes something like this. After a carriage wreck, a young woman (Ewa Aulin) is left without her memory so she stays with a husband and wife who both take a sexual liking to her. There's also a strange murderer going around and there's also a weird doctor (Klaus Kinski) who is trying to create a formula that will bring the dead back to life. Before long, the wife kills the young woman but soon she reappears. Is it a ghost or something else? As I said, this film makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. There are several other story lines that I could have included in the plot but I'm not exactly sure what they had to do with anything either. D'Amato does a good job with the cinematography, which added with the music score makes for some nice atmosphere. Aulin is easy on the eyes and delivers the best performance in the film but overall this thing it too much of a mess to really enjoy. The film's pace, although gets quite tiresome after a while.

Indyrod Death Smiles at Murder-Aristide Massaccesi (aka Joe D'Amato) This is not your typical D'Amato movie, if there is such a thing. There's graphic violence, a little gore, but nothing really over the top. But what this movie has, is a little style and maybe even ~~gasp~~ some class. It's very confusing, and includes everything from reanimation, to a three way love affair, to a murder mystery. The basic plot is about a young beautiful woman Greta, who shows up at a Villa and is involved in a horse carriage accident which impales the driver. A couple take her in since she has developed amnesia. There's a series of flashbacks that attempt to cast some Intel on who she is, but not why she is there. Klaus Kinski has a small role as the doctor who attends to her, but has a totally different agenda which deals with a concoction he's working on to bring back the dead. Soon the movie gets even more bizarre and even takes a little from Poe's "Black Cat". Everything looks pretty damn good in this movie, the sets, the actors, and the main thing I noticed is the main theme to the soundtrack is straight out of "Suspiria". In fact, you could pretty much say ~~stolen from Suspiria~~.Both the Husband and his Wife fall in love with Greta, and the Wife especially turns out to be rather jealous and walls up Greta in the dungeon. After that some even more bizarre happenings occurs resulting in the gruesome death of the Wife. But what happened to the walled up Greta? Well, that little chore is up to the local Police Inspector, and he hasn't got a clue as to what is going on, because Greta has vanished. This all culminates in a fairly good, if not confusing, ending that seems to put most of pieces back in order.