The Film (5/5)

    Joe D'Amato is best known in horror circles for a series of films that he made in the late 70's and early 80's that got added to the U.K. Video Nasty list Absurd and Anthropophagus. As well as others such as Beyond the Darkness (Buio Omega), Emmanuelle and the Last Cannibals (Trap Them and Kill Them), and the notorious horror/porn combination films Porno Holocaust and Erotic Nights of the Living Dead. For the most part D'Amato (Aristide Massaccesi) would direct porno films in his native Italy, but would break into other genres, like horror and sword and sorcery (with the Ator films). and in the late 80's start the studio Filmirage which produced some quite entertaining genre fare.  However, early in his career D'Amato directed a an addition to the then popular Italian giallo genre Death Smiles at a Murderer that blended elements that could be seen throughout his other horror works, such as sexual obsession, extreme violence, and necrophilia, so much so, that it feels like a early declaration for his horror-genre obsessions.

    Death Smiles on a Murderer follows Greta (Ewa Aulin) a amnesiac woman who falls into the lives of a Walter (Sergio Doria) and Eva (Angela Ro) after a tragic carriage wreck leaves her companion dead. Walter calls in Dr. Sturges (Klaus Kinski) to examine  Greta, but could not find anything physically wrong with her, he does find a pendant that has a formula for re-animating the dead. He promptly leaves and begins experimenting on the dead in his lab, leaving Greta to live for the time being with Walter and Eva who individually fall in love with her. However, when Eva sees Walter having sex with Greta, she acts out, and attempts to kill Greta by burying her behind a wall in shades of Edgar Allan Poe's Black Cat.  Of course, this is not the end of Greta, and she will have her revenge.

    Death Smiles on a Murderer is a Joe D'Amato film that went completely under my radar until it arrived in my mailbox. However, as it unraveled its narrative machinations I would find myself transfixed, and soon found myself obsessed with this newly discovered giallo. Immediately upon conclusion the film would enter my top 5 gialli.

     D'Amato, who worked as a cinematographer prior to his career as a director, really brings his best and most stylish work to this effort, and really makes this an effective and atmospheric effort from a visual standpoint. It has to be the best D'Amato film I've seen on just the level of just the cinematographer and direction. We then get a gorgeously melancholic soundtrack from Berto Pisano which helps set the downbeat, but appropriate tone for this film. The performances from Ewa Aulin down to Klaus Kinski and beyond are perfect, and really work well with the overall style of the film.

Audio/Video (4/5)

     Arrow Video does their usual fantastic job with Death Smiles on a Murderer. The film is brought to Blu-ray in a gorgeous 1:85:1 1080p AVC encoded transfer. It looks natural, with excellent textures, color reproduction seems to be accurate, and black levels are accurate. There is some minor damage from the source material including some occasional hair line marks that appear at the bottom of the screen, but overall nothing to complain about.

   Audio is handled by an LPCM mono track in both English and Italian, both tracks sound quite solid with dialogue and score coming through clear and crisp.

Extras (4/5)

    The disc kicks off with a newly recorded commentary by Tim Lucas that goes into the feature, but also D'Amato's career. We also get a quite short archival interview with D'Amato from 1989, that is quite interesting, and is specific to this film.  Arrow manages to nab a 43 minute interview Ewa Aulin who played Greta in the film as she discusses not just this film, but her career at length. We also get a fantastic video essay by Kat Ellinger who goes into a discussion about D'Amato's career, his themes, and how they tie into Death Smiles on a Murderer. There is also a booklet of liner notes with contributions by Stephen Thrower and Roberto Curti.

Overall

    Death Smiles on a Murderer has immediately become one of my favorite gialli after a singular viewing. The Blu-ray from Arrow Video looks and sounds amazing, and is loaded up with a brilliant slate of extras. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.