Seven Blood-Stained Orchids

Seven Blood-Stained Orchids (Sette Orchidee Macciate Di Rosso) (1972)

Runtime: 92 minutes

Directed by: Umberto Lenzi (RIP)

Starring: Antonio Sabato, Sr., Uschi Glas, Pier Paolo Capponi, Rossella Falk, Marisa Mell

From: Several Italian companies

I paid tribute to a memorable director that recently passed away, and I am glad I saw a good movie for this purpose: 

I knew that after I had heard the sad news of Umberto Lenzi passing away, I needed to soon watch one of his films in tribute. While I need to rewatch some to give them more proper reviews, in the past 5 years or so I've seen eight (including this movie) of his motion pictures; most were poliziotteschi but there was also the infamous Nightmare City, which is his insane version of a zombie picture. He's an Italian genre director in the best of ways; the stories are wild and over the top, there's plenty of sleaze, many badass moments... I've only seen a small percentage of his work but I've enjoyed most of it so I was saddened to hear he passed away. As I need to see more giallo in general, why not go with something I could easily track down, and it's one of the many genre efforts which has a great title.

The plot: A woman (Giulia) escapes “The Half-Moon Maniac” (at least that's their name in the dubbed version on Amazon) and she-along with Antonio Sabato, Sr.-has to solve a case which involves her and six other women (explaining the title of the movie; it's not as random as it sounds). Even their nickname has an explanation: the killer leaves a silver half-moon medallion with the corpse of each victim, because... well, there's an explanation as to why.

If you're expecting this to be stylish like an Argento giallo, then you should expect to be disappointed; you'll also be crestfallen if you think this will be a masterpiece. Yet I can still say it's good. The deaths were fine overall, with one pretty memorable. There was an interesting connection that tied all the women together and the mystery aspect was satisfactory, although Giulia having trouble remembering faces was a little convenient. The killer wore black gloves and sometimes used a small knife as a weapon, so they definitely fit in the genre. This definitely is a Lenzi picture, in that there's plenty of sleaze and several women appear topless. There's also wackiness involving hippies, and there's also a homosexual element and as it's Italy in the 1970's... it's not the most nuanced portrayal but I have seen worse.

If you want to see a giallo which focuses hard on the mystery aspect (yet still has some good horror moments), this may work for you.