*. Fans of gialli, and I certainly count myself among them, should admit to their being spoiled. With lots of intelligent if bizarre scripts, flourishes of stylistic gore, and talents like Bava and Argento directing you can’t go wrong. Even a mediocre giallo is usually a good time.
*. Seven Blood-Stained Orchids is a mediocre giallo. The story here comes from the pen of the insanely prolific Edgar Wallace. In fact this was the last of a series of Wallace adaptations by Rialto, and, a German-Italian co-production, is considered by some to mark the transition from the German krimi to the Italian giallo. I can’t say much about this because I don’t know the krimi genre very well, but this is about as yellow as it gets.
*. What does that mean? Well, there’s a serial killer, dubbed by the media the Half-Moon Maniac, stalking beautiful young women. We see a lot of shots from the killer’s point of view, revealing only his black gloves. There are red herrings galore, and a convoluted back story explaining the killer’s motivations. I’ve actually read commentary on this movie where the killer’s identity is said to be obvious but I certainly didn’t find it so. Even at the end I wasn’t entirely sure what had been going on.
*. Umberto Lenzi borrows all the motifs but his heart doesn’t seem to be in it. There are enough pointless zooms to make your head swim and some odd angles that only rarely serve any purpose or score any style points (the overhead shot of the dead cats being one of the few exceptions). There are no good kills, even with the employment of a power drill. One naked corpse has paint dripped over it, turning her into a Pollock. That’s very giallo too.
*. But as I said, even a mediocre giallo is still pretty good. They’re basically slasher films made with a flash of art and intelligence. Or, put another way, slasher films made before art and intelligence went completely out of style.
Alex on Film 
Are the cats dead??
I seem to recall that’s what happens.
This is an old review (like three or four years old) that I just got around to posting. I think the cats got poisoned.
Argh!
It’s very sad. The killer poisons some milk. One of the cats isn’t quite dead and fixes the woman who put out the milk with an accusing glare before expiring.
😱 no-o-o! Animal cruelty is not a thing I want to see in a movie.
What’s with posting old reviews? What’s out this week? What kind of critic are you, posting these horrible images of dead cats? You’ve clearly upset fraggle, and you’re upsetting my wee ones too! You horrid, horrid man!
Nothing wrong with old reviews. These are not *recycled* reviews as they’ve never been posted before. Unlike some so-called review sites out there . . .
I’m sure you’re kittens have nothing to worry about. I mean, you wouldn’t poison their milk. Would you? Are you wearing black gloves?
The wee ones are disturbed that you would post such a horrid image. Nobody wants to see dead cats without at least a warning. boo!
No spoiler alerts or trigger warnings here. Show the kittens some Hugo videos! That will make everything alright.
No, it’s an indication of the two-faced nature of your discourse that one day it’s cute dogs, the next dead cats.
What’s the quiz theme tomorrow, bums, vomit or torture? Seesh…
Done all of those already. Think I’ll make the next quiz an impossible level of difficulty just for kicks.
Last week’s went down like a lead baloon. Are you sure that’s not your kitchen floor, since you’re a well-known cat disrespecter?
Last week’s was pretty easy. Not my fault you pulled so many blanks.
My kitchen has a white tile floor. So the corpses show up even more starkly.
That genuinely does sound like a giallo title.
“…before art and intelligence went completely out of style.”
So your blog is out of style? I’ll give you fifteen minutes to work out if that’s a compliment or an insult.
Well, I meant in movies. But I’m a dinosaur anyway.
Have to disagree there – pretty sure art and intelligence has gone out of style everywhere. I keep up with the hip by looking at the latest Google searches. Did you know Primark has opened a new shop in Tamworth?
You see? I don’t even know what a Primark or a Tamworth is.
Haha! Primark, my friend, is a clothes shop. I don’t think anyone quite knows what a Tamworth is, but we go with the flow.
Are you a Tamworthian? Have you been to the world-famous Snowdome? I just Googled it.
I have never been to Tamworth, although the Snowdome is certainly on the bucket list! I imagine you’ve probably now made Tamworth a Google trend.
Well, I did my part.
Yes, there it is, right next to ‘cheryl dog’. You’ve done Tamworth proud!