Jess Franco’s She Killed in Ecstasy offers the director’s own swirling abyss of an obsessive narrative; ostensibly yet another remake of Franco’s Diabolical Dr. Z where the death of a scientist drives a grieving woman to bloody revenge, Jesus’ incredible ingenue Soledad Miranda carries the weight of the surreal narrative on her lithe shoulders and the whole wonderfully retro vibe to the proceedings make for what may be the director’s most fully-realized cinematic endeavor.
Synapse entertainment worked with the only materials they were given in 1999 and produced a dvd with a very faded and blown-out image which nevertheless preserved the way the film must have looked in some grimey European movie theater in the sixties but the original German licencees were either holding out on Synapse or in the proceeding years found better materials since recently they’ve been circulating beautifully remastered video materials for this film which have recently found their home on NTSC disc through Image Entertainment along with another remastered update to Jess Franco/Synapse’s Vampyros Lesbos. Even though the Synapse DVD appears to be very slightly longer than this remastered disc (primarily to the new transfers PAL origins) the difference between the two is literally night and day.
Written and Directed by Jesus Franco (as Frank Hollman)
Starring Soledad Miranda, Fred Williams, Howard Vernon, Jonathan Walker, Paul Muller, Ewa Strömberg, Beni Cardosi, Rudolf Hertzog, Karl Heinz Mannchen, Germán Robles
Music by Manfred Hübler, Siegfried Schwab and Bruno Nicolai
Cinematography by Manuel Merino
Edited by Clarissa Ambach
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