The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave (Italian: La notte che Evelyn uscì dalla tomba) is a 1971 Italian gothic film directed by Emilio Miraglia.
The story follows Alan Cunningham, a wealthy English aristocrat recently released from a mental institution after the death of his unfaithful, red‑haired wife, Evelyn. Haunted and unstable, he copes by luring red‑haired women (usually dancers or sex workers) to his gothic estate, where he stages sadistic S&M “games” that appear to end in their murder, reflecting his obsession with punishing Evelyn’s memory.
On the advice of his cousin George and his doctor, Alan tries to rebuild his life by going to London, where he abruptly marries Gladys, a blonde stripper who seems to calm him and becomes lady of the manor. After their return to the family castle, strange occurrences begin: eerie noises, apparitions, and hints that Evelyn has literally come back from the grave, as relatives and associates start dying under mysterious circumstances. Gladys, increasingly terrified, suspects Evelyn may have faked her death or that her ghost is seeking revenge, while Alan’s fragile sanity deteriorates amid the apparent haunting.
Tropes:
- Animal Assassin: Crusty Caretaker Albert is murdered when the killer holds a snake against his neck and it bites him.
- Bedsheet Ladder: The opening scene has Alan using a bedsheet ladder in an attempt to escape from the mental institution. He reaches the ground, but is recaptured by the institution staff before he can make it over the fence.
- Bondage Is Bad: Haunted and unstable, Alan copes by luring red‑haired women (usually dancers or sex workers) to his gothic estate, where he stages sadistic S&M “games” that appear to end in their murder, reflecting his obsession with punishing Evelyn’s memory.
- Boulder Bludgeon: The killer uses a rock to bludgeon Aunt Agatha to death while she is spying on Gladys at the crypt.
- Buried Alive: After having a snake bite Albert, the killer rolls the dying but still alive groundskeeper into an open grave and fills it in.
- Coffin Contraband: While searching the family crypt for Evelyn, Alan discovers the stolen silver hidden in one of the coffins.
- Creepy Housekeeper: Aunt Agatha is Alan's invalid aunt, whom Alan has taken in as staff at his mansion. She creepily glides around the castle in a motorized wheelchair and shuns Alan's new wife Gladys.
- Crusty Caretaker: Albert the groundskeeper is constantly skulking around the estate. He carries a shotgun with him everywhere and is blackmailing his employer over the Disposable Sex Workers. He is also Evelyn's brother and resents Gladys trying to take her place as Lady Cunningham and threateningly tells her to leave the estate.
- Death by Woman Scorned: After George poisons Gladys, he then reveals that he and Susan are an item and he has just been using her as stooge. Enraged, Gladys grabs a knife and—instead of stabbing the man who has fatally poisoned her—she chooses to stab the 'other woman'.
- Discreet Drink Disposal: Alan gives Gladys a sleeping draught to drink before he goes out into the storm to look for Evelyn. As soon as he has left the bedroom, Gladys pours it into a pot plant.
- Disposable Sex Worker: Haunted and unstable, Alan copes by luring red‑haired women (usually dancers or sex workers) to his gothic estate, where he stages sadistic S&M “games” that appear to end in their murder, reflecting his obsession with punishing Evelyn’s memory.
- Faking the Dead: Susan, with the collusion of George, fakes her murder at Alan's hands so she can returns and pose as the zombie Evelyn.
- Fed to the Beast: After murdering Aunt Agatha, the killer transports her body to the fox pen and places it inside, where it is mauled and gnawed on by the foxes.
- Fourth-Date Marriage: Alan proposes to Gladys on the night they meet (and sleep together) and Gladys accepts.
- Gaslighting: In the final act, it is revealed that the “haunting” was a human conspiracy: George and Susan (a red‑haired stripper Alan previously targeted) have been impersonating Evelyn’s ghost and engineering the scares to push Alan into complete madness and gain control of his fortune.
- Gothic Horror: A hybrid of a Gothic film and a Giallo film. The Gothic elements include a castle, a crypt, a séance, and a vengeful ghost evoked by a portrait that haunts the main character.
- Hand of Death: The killer is only seen as a gloved hand when they strike down Albert and Agatha.
- Love-Interest Traitor: Alan meets and marries Gladys, which appears to be part of him getting over the death of his first wife Evelyn. However, the meeting between Alan and Gladys was engineered by Alan's cousin George and Gladys is a co-conspirator in George's scheme to drive Alan insane so George can inherit the family fortune and title.
- No Honor Among Thieves: George arranges the deaths of his co-conspirators so he will not have to share the spoils with them.
- Obfuscating Disability: Aunt Agatha glides around the house in a motorized wheelchair, supposedly having been paralyzed for the last seven years. However, when she follows Gladys into the grounds and Gladys goes into the crypt, Agatha getaway up out of the wheelchair to get a better view, revealing the paralysis has been an act.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Alan's mental state continues to unravel as Evelyn's brother and Alan's aunt are each killed by a mysterious killer. When he sees a zombified Evelyn beckoning to him from her tomb, he breaks down completely. When Alan is taken away for permanent institutionalization, Gladys and George celebrate, as they had been trying to push Alan back into insanity, so that he would gain control of Alan's fortune and estate. However, Alan appears along with Richard Timberlane, the doctor who treated him for his first mental breakdown. Alan had suspected he was being manipulated all along and had faked his most recent breakdown to lure out the members of the conspiracy against him.
- Sham Supernatural: The zombified Evelyn Alan encounters is actually Susan posing as Evelyn as part of a Gaslighting scheme.
- Spooky Séance: Alan attends a séance in which the medium contacts Evelyn, causing Alan to faint.
- Tampering with Food and Drink: After Alan is permanently institutionalized, George and Gladys celebrate with champagne. However, George has laced the champagne with strychnine in order to dispose of Gladys.
- This Bear Was Framed: After murdering Aunt Agatha, the killer dumps her body in the fox pen, where it is mauled by the foxes, in an attempt to make it look like she was attempting to feed the foxes, collapsed and was eaten by the foxes.
- Whip of Dominance: Alan uses a bullwhip to establish his dominance over the sex workers he brings back to his castle for his sadistic S&M "Games".
- Woman Scorned: After George poisons Gladys, he then reveals that he and Susan are an item and he has just been using her as stooge. Enraged, Gladys grabs a knife and—instead of stabbing the man who has fatally poisoned her—she chooses to stab the 'other woman'.
- You All Look Familiar: Aunt Agatha hires five identical looking maids to serve Gladys when she becomes the lady of the house. While there are good reasons why Agatha would not hire a redheaded maid, it is not clear why she hires five identical blonde ones.