She Killed in Ecstasy

She Killed in Ecstasy (German: Sie tötete in Ekstase Spanish: Mrs. Hyde)[1] is a 1971 West German-Spanish erotic thriller film directed by Jesús Franco. The film's plot borrows elements from previous Franco films Miss Muerte and Venus in Furs. The film's productions staff includes many cast members and nearly the same crew as his previous film Vampyros Lesbos.

She Killed in Ecstasy
Directed byJesús Franco[1]
Written byJesús Franco[1]
Produced byArtur Brauner[1]
Starring
CinematographyManuel Merino[1]
Edited byClarissa Ambach[1]
Music by
Production
companies
Distributed byCinerama Filmgesellschaft mbH (Munich)[1]
Release date
  • December 10, 1971 (1971-12-10) (Germany)
Running time
77 minutes[1]
Countries
LanguageGerman

Plot

Dr. Johnson (Fred Williams) lives in bliss with his beautiful wife (Soledad Miranda) until his unorthodox experiments with human embryos causes a medical committee to reject his findings and orders him to discontinue his work. The unstable doctor slashes his wrists in the bathroom. Devastated, his wife vows to seduce and kill the woman and three men "responsible" for the suicide.

Cast

[1]

Production
Xanadu in Calp, where Mrs. Johnson lives.

The film was shot in July 1970 in Calp, Spain, less than a month after finishing his previous film Vampyros Lesbos (1971).[1] Franco utilized the same cinematographer, film editor, and film composers as he had on Vampyros Lesbos as well as some of the cast including Soledad Miranda, Ewa Strömberg and Paul Muller.[1][2]

The architecture of Ricardo Bofill features prominently in the film, in particular Xanadu.

The film re-uses plot elements from Franco's previous films Miss Muerte and Venus in Furs (1969).[3]

Release

She Killed in Escstacy was released on December 10, 1971, in Germany.[1]

The film was released on DVD in the United States by Synapse Films in 2000.[4] It was subsequently re-released by Image Entertainment in 2004.[5] Both versions are currently out of print.

Severin Films released the film on April 14, 2015, for the first time on Blu-ray in the United States.[6]

Reception

The online film database Allmovie gave the film their lowest rating of one star out of five, but noted that "A distinctive visual style, replete with surrealistic photography by Manuel Merino, sets this film apart from scores of similar sex-horror entries flooding the market in the early 1970s."[7] The assistant professor Danny Shipka of Louisiana State University, referred to the film as "one of Franco's strongest of the 70's", praising actress Soledad Miranda opining to it as the "most intense performance of her career".[8] Shipka went on to note that the film contains all the excesses of Franco's filmmaking including "stilted dialogue" and "scenes that stretch out for extra ordinary periods of time".[8]

See also

Notes
  1. "Sie tötete in Ekstase". filmportal.de. Retrieved October 23, 2012.
  2. "Vampyros Lesbos - Erbin des Dracula". Filmportal.de (in German). Archived from the original on December 29, 2013. Retrieved October 23, 2012.
  3. Shipka 2011, p. 205.
  4. "She Killed in Ecstasy". dvdempire.com. Retrieved 2011-03-31.
  5. "She Killed in Ecstasy". dvdempire.com. Retrieved 2011-03-31.
  6. Gardner, Gerald (1988). The Censorship Papers: Movie Censorship Letters from the Hays Office, 1934 to 1968. Dodd Mead. p. 74. ISBN 978-0-396-08903-2.
  7. Firsching, Robert. "She Killed in Ecstasy (1970)". Allmovie. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
  8. Shipka, 2011. p.220

References
  • Shipka, Danny (2011). Perverse Titillation: The Exploitation Cinema of Italy, Spain and France, 1960–1980. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-4888-3.
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