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Not gritty or effective enough to count as a true ‘giallo’ flick, this one (also known as The Night She Arose from the Tomb) aims to meld two hoary old horror plots into one cohesive tale. Individually, each half of the movie kinda works; as a whole, it’s a slow and generally uninvolving mess.

Plot A tells the tale of a murderously bereaved widower who kidnaps young redheaded gals and dispatches them in unpleasant fashion. Once our killer finds himself a nice blonde gal to marry, he seemingly retires from serial murder...or does he?

No sooner has the murderer settled down to domestic life before another homicidal goofball shows up. Is this a new killer? Or has married life not satisfying enough for the former slasher? And what’s all this got to do with “Evelyn” anyway? She’s been dead for years after all!

The movie offers a handful of mild Italian-style horror trappings, though those familiar with the more intense giallo movies will undoubtedly be disappointed. A case of two mediocre stories shoehorned into one misshapen whole, The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave is neither as gothic nor irretrievably goofy as its unwieldly title suggests.

Falls to the age-old horror movie blunder: it's just plain old boring.

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originally posted: 12/06/02 05:58:13
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