User reviews

Dr.Johnson conducts revolutionary experiments with human embryos he keeps in jars around the lab.When medical committee rejects his findings and orders him to stop his work,the doctor becomes depressed and commits suicide.His beautiful wife decides to seduce and kill three men and one woman 'responsible' for his suicide.Of course,two of the potential victims include Howard Vernon and Jesus Franco himself."She Killed in Ecstasy" is a pretty good Spanish horror film.The photography is excellent and easily captures the natural beauty of the lead actress,Soledad Miranda.There is plenty of nudity,but the film is quite tame.Still there is a really hot lesbian scene between Soledad Miranda and Ewa Stromberg,who was also in "Vampyros Lesbos".So if you are a fan of Jesus Franco you can't miss this film.7 out of 10.

Dr. Johnson (Fred Williams) is happily married with his beloved wife Mrs. Johnson (Soledad Miranda) and is researching human embryos using animal cells. When he brings his findings to the Board of the prominent Dr. Franklin Houston (Paul Müller), Prof. Jonathan Walker (Howard Vernon), Dr. Crawford (Ewa Stroemberg) and Dr. Donen (Jesus Franco), the committee rejects his researches and destroys his laboratory. Dr. Johnson has a nervous breakdown and commits suicide, and the disturbed Mrs. Johnson seeks revenge, seducing each member of the Board and killing one by one while having sex with her victims.

"Sie Tötete in Ekstase" a.k.a. "She Killed in Ecstasy" is a movie of revenge that uses a storyline very similar to François Truffaut's "The Bride Wore Black" with a grieving woman seeking revenge on the responsible for the death of her beloved lover. However, this film follows the usual style of the director Jesus Franco, with kinky sex, nudity, lesbianism and murders. The hot Soledad Miranda is very beautiful and sexy. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Ela Matou em Êxtase" ("She Killed in Ecstasy")

"She Killed In Ecstasy" must be one of Jess Franco's most artistically well-made films (I say "must be", because the man has made almost 200 movies, so it's hard to be sure!). Of course, there are scenes that make him come off as a hack (especially those involving physical violence), but at least the film is not boring, and it is helped immeasurably by the mesmerizing presence of Soledad Miranda. She is almost able to convince us that a woman would go to bed with her ten minutes after she had first met her (!), or that a man would go to bed with her even though he knows she is a killer out to get him (!); the story is still implausible, yes, but without her it would've been laughable. She is also able to suggest the rage and sorrow of her character, and indeed one thing that sets this movie apart from other revenge thrillers, such as "I Spit On Your Grave", is that it doesn't try to justify or celebrate the heroine's vengeance; instead, it presents an initially normal woman who seems to be getting more deranged by the minute because of her own actions. (**1/2)

This has gotten a renewed life, following the "Vampyros Lesbos Sexadelic Dance Party" CD, which includes music from "Vampyros Lesbos", "Devil Came From Akasava", and this remake of "The Diabolical Dr. Z". Basically, a young scientist is barred from continuing his experiments in mixing human and animal DNA by the local medical board. He goes home, mopes, and eventually commits suicide. His wife, the lovely Soledad Miranda, is quite upset, and proceeds to use her femininity to lure the doctors responsible into sexual situations, before disposing of them. There is a lot of Cornell Woolrich's "The Bride Wore Black" here, juiced up to 60's level sex and sleaze. Franco pops in as a scientist, and it's interesting to see Howard Vernon playing the same role he played in "Diabolical Dr. Z". Other than the flaky psychedelic Jazz soundtrack, this is one of Soledad Miranda's best films, and she tackles her role mucho gusto. Franco's notorious Zoom overuse is toned down here, and he keeps it moving along nicely. Not as twisted as his 70's takes on similar material, but more well done than much of his catalog.

If ever there was a film director who epitomized the term Eurotrash it surely is Jesus Franco. His films are a curious mix of art and trash. Some of them are terrible but some of them are great. She Killed in Ecstasy is undoubtedly one of the latter. I can think of very few film-makers who treat plot-dynamics with such extreme indifference as Franco, so, really there is no point whatsoever detailing the storyline. All you need to know is that it is unashamedly unrealistic and absurd with plot-holes so enormous that it is entirely pointless taking them even slightly seriously. Like Franco's other best films such as Eugenie, Vampyros Lesbos or A Virgin Among the Living Dead, this film relies on a combination of eroticism, mild horror, surreal imagery, some visual flair, astonishing music and an iconic female lead. Similar to those other films, this movie is, to put it mildly, not for everyone.

Like the majority of his films, this movie has been produced on a minuscule budget, and it shows. But while Franco cannot escape from the cheap and rushed approach, impinged upon him by budgetary constrains, it is the things that the film gets right that are so remarkable. First off, that soundtrack. Wow. Very similar to the score for Vampyros Lesbos, the music here is extraordinary. Composed and performed by Manfred Hübler and Sigi Schwab, it's a highly infectious upbeat lounge classic that defies description. I don't know if Franco spent a disproportionately large slice of his budgets on his music scores but if he did then the gamble paid off, as the soundtracks to his best early 70's movies are pure gold and have helped make these little movies timeless. A very similar thing could be said about She Killed in Ecstasy's other trump card – Soledad Miranda. Honestly, I cannot think of anyone else like her. On paper she wasn't given a great deal to do in her Franco collaborations but I have rarely seen an actress with as much screen presence; she's frankly mesmerising. Despite the artificiality of these films, Soledad is never less than convincing. And in this film she is possibly at her absolute peak. She owns the picture. And Franco lovingly films her. Despite the abundant nudity and eroticism in her scenes it NEVER feels gratuitous with Soledad. Her presence is almost ethereal at times. I don't know if this has something to do with the real-life tragedy of her early death but, in any case, she is a treasure to be appreciated and her appearance in the handful of cult films she made with Franco is a testament to a screen presence that is equally beautiful, erotic, mysterious, vulnerable and confident. The other cast members are serviceable at best, although Howard Vernon is always kind of fun. But special mention must go to Horst Tappert as the police inspector, in all my years of watching films involving ineffectual policemen in pursuit of serial killers, I have never seen a more hopeless and hilariously unconcerned law enforcer. It looked suspiciously likely that he prepared for this particular investigation by smoking industrial quantities of marijuana.

Negative aspects of the movie? Well, despite the soundtrack, the presence of Soledad and the nice visual touches, She Killed in Ecstasy suffers from one of the most common faults to be found in Franco's output – the pacing. His films never exactly move along at a fast tempo and this one is no different. His filming style seems to favour editing together LONG single takes, rather than a series of shorter edits. This results in some scenes seeming to go on far too long and the film drags at times despite it's short running time. One unusual result of this is when these long, fairly uneventful scenes are combined with the completely contrasting upbeat soundtrack. It makes for a pretty disorientating effect, watching a slow scene to a soundtrack you just can't help tapping your feet along to. It certainly is unique and, along with the presence of Soledad, makes these slow sections not just bearable but, for the most part, hypnotically enjoyable.

This little cult item is definite proof that back in the day Jess Franco was making some films that offered something completely different in a good way. This is a classic of the sexploitation genre that I wholeheartedly recommend to fans of European cult cinema and the wonderful beauty that is Soledad Miranda.

After a doctor commits suicide when his research into human embryos is terminated , his widow (Soledad Miranda) seduces and then exects a relentless vendetta against a medical committee (Paul Muller , Howard Vernon , Ewa Strömberg and Jesus Franco himself) that considered it too inhumane . As she starts her revenge by luring each member of the committee into compromising situations and then killing them one by one. Along the way , a police inspector (Horst Tappert) is investigating the strange murders

An erotic and eerie horror tale about a seducing widow who murders enemies to appease her insatiable thirst for vengeance . This is a passable yarn by the prolific writer/producer/director Jesús Franco , considered to be one of the best films in his second period . Unforgettable and attractive Soledad Miranda as a charming woman who seeks for a merciless vendetta upon those she holds responsible . This fragile beauty appeared in numerous comedies, dramas, B-movies, and horror films, mostly in Spain , over thirty films altogether from 1960 to 1970 . In 1970 Soledad was in a car accident on a highway in Portugal and she sadly died . Ironically, before this tragic accident, the powerful German film producer Artur Brauner had offered her a contract which would have made her a great star. Soledad was destined to become a legend .Her biggest break came from legendary director Jess Franco, who cast Soledad in such cult classics as Count Dracula , Eugenie De Sade , Sex Charade , The Devil Came from Akasava and Vampyros Lesbos. She was director Jesús Franco's favorite leading lady and he was planning on starring her in his next film, The bare-breasted countess (1973). After Soledad died due to a tragic car crash , Jess discovered and cast Lina Romay, who went on to appear in 100 of his films and married him in 2008. Soledad is generally regarded as Franco's greatest discovery and not until the years after her death has she become a cult starlet with fans all over the world now discovering the beautiful, doomed actress. This Sie tötete in Ekstase or She killed in ecstasy (1971) is a pure psychedelic movie , being well produced Artur Brauner from Constantine Films and Spanish producer Arturo Marcos but in short budget . Being one of a batch of films Jesús Franco made for German producer Artur Brauner in 1971 and 1972. Shot in the touristic city Benidorm , posing as a fictitious city in which lives the wonderful Soledad Miranda -though she was was dubbed- along with her husband played by Fred Williams . This vintage terror motion picture , a classic in some circles , was professionally directed by Jesús Franco who never considered the film to be a horror story, but instead felt it was tale of "anguish" . Franco is really influenced by American thrillers , B-Horror movies and German expressionism . The picture was really cut , and it has several versions both , soft and hard . Initial releases of the film were met with negative reactions from film critics , while the general critical reaction had been poor , however ,today is considered to be an acceptable fim. Soledad Miranda is well accompanied by a good cast with plenty of familar faces in the Franco cinema , such as: Fred Williams as the doctor who commits suicide , Paul Muller , Howard Vernon , Ewa Strömberg , Horst Tappert , and of course Jess Frank or Jesús Franco himself , as he used to appear as a secondary or a cameo in many films . Special mention for musical score composed by synthesizer , full of strange sounds , jazzy , shouts and psychedelic soundtrack from Manfred Hübler and Jesús Franco as David Khune . Shot on Spanish location in gorgeous exteriors from Benidorm, Alicante, Comunidad Valenciana, Xanadu building, Partida Manzanera 2, Calpe, Alicante, the Dream like labyrinth house and Calpe, Alicante, Comunidad Valenciana for outdoors of El Xanadu.

The film has a lot of titles , as the German version is : ¨Sie tötete in Ekstase¨or ¨Dr Jekyll and Miss Hyde¨ , the French version titled "Crimes dans l'extase" was used, while the original American release title was spelled "Vampyros Lesbos" and US version titled ¨She Killed in Ecstasy¨ . The motion picture was strange and regularly directed by Jess Frank , here using continous zooms, surprising close-ups , including blood drops , scorpions , butterfly , other insects and and kites . Jesus Franco was a Stajanovist filmmaker who realized around 200 movies . However , here uses his trademarks , as he pulls off a complex narration , extreme zooms , and lousy pace . As the picture belongs to Franco's second period in which he made so-so flicks . Jesus uses to sign under pseudonym , among the aliases he used, apart from the names Jess Franco or Franco Manera, were Jess Frank, Robert Zimmerman, Frank Hollman, Clifford Brown, David Khune , Toni Falt, James P. Johnson, Charlie Christian, David Tough , among others . Franco used to utilize usual marks such as zooms , nudism , foreground on objects , filmmaking in ¨do-it-yourself effort¨ style or DIY and managing to work extraordinarily quickly , realizing some fun diversions, and a lot of absolute crap .

While I noticed that there were quite a few very positive reviews for this one, mine will certainly not be among them. Some described this as being among director Jesús Franco's best films, though I just don't see it. To me, the film was poorly made, had a plot they 'borrowed' from "The Bride Wore Black" and was just an excuse to show a lot of flesh. The plot, for the most part, seemed relatively unimportant and several times throughout the movie I saw mistakes that should have been eliminated had anyone really cared about producing a quality film.

The film begins with some insane (or at least completely amoral) doctor doing experiments on viable embryos. While he assumes folks will hail him as a great man and humanitarian, not surprisingly he's attacked by the medical community and his license is revoked. He becomes depressed and ultimately kills himself. His wife, a bit of a nut-job herself, blames four people for his death and goes about killing them. Inexplicably, all these murders involve her taking off her clothes and showing off her pubic regions.

My biggest problem isn't the gratuitous nudity but the way the film was made. Too much emphasis was made on the nudity and too little on constructing a more believable story or interesting murders. There just wasn't a lot of intelligence in constructing the plot--and little style. Plus, the killer wife drug her dead husband's corpse around with her--but he clearly was sweating. And, in one scene, a shroud is pulled away from a dead blonde--and you can see her moving!! She is supposed to be dead and dead people aren't supposed to move! How can this be a great film or among Franco's best?! It was sloppy and these scenes should have been re-shot. Overall, a sloppy film and one that should have been much better.

The incredibly beautiful Soledad Miranda (here billed as Susann Korda) embarks on a trail of bloody revenge, killing those she held responsible for her controversial scientist husband's suicide. As the title suggests she uses her sexuality to lure men plus a lesbian to their deaths. The murders are quite nasty and there is plenty of nudity, including full frontal. Spanish director Jess Franco always pops up in his films, usually in very small roles but nice to see him get quite a big part here. People so often like to refer to his countless bad movies but given a decent budget and crew he was a very capable director, this being a good example. We are treated to some of his trademark camera zooms but here they are zooms of scenery as opposed to female genitals! The cinematography is good and the film comes with a cracking musical score, it was shot in sunny Spain and features an incredible looking residential building called Xanadu. There are some huge plot holes and goofs, for example a car goes crashing down a cliff with two people inside but a side shot clearly shows it to be empty. German is the language with some actors being dubbed, for me this was a bit of a shame and I felt that it did not fit the location. I love watching Franco's movies, both the good and the bad, this is far from being my favourite but I overall I enjoyed it and it is a decent Euro horror/erotic thriller.

Frano is on again/off again more than probably any director in history. His days with Soledad Miranda were arguably his best, as can be seen in this tasty tale of revenge.

Miranda plays a recently widowed woman who seeks out revenge upon the people she blames for her husband's suicide. She first seduces them and then kills them. The preying mantis metaphor is slapped on a little thick, as the later victims know what's going to happen to them, yet do nothing to stop it.

The film is played out in a dreamy kind of pacing. Little sound and dialogue, distanced shots, slow camera movements; it's like a lethargic daze echoing the detachment of the lead character. Franco takes his time unfolding the seduction and revenge, and he displays more flair for cinema than many would believe him capable of. The film is far from flawless though; the story is never complex, acting is either too subtle or over stated and the dialogue is pretty simple. Also, the character motivations lack strength all around, which robs the film of most all emotion.

Of the MANY Franco films to choose form, I would suggest this one for a view, especially to those unfamiliar with the director.

7/10

You never know what you're going to get with a Jess Franco film; whether it's going to be a well-done horror picture ("The Awful Dr. Orloff"), a trippy head scratcher ("Venus In Furs"), an ineptly put-together adventure movie ("The Devil Came From Akasava"), vile and sleazy garbage ("Ilsa The Wicked Warden") or stylish, good-looking junk ("The Girl From Rio"). Having over 140 (!) films to his credit, this slapdash director is certainly a dicey proposition at best. "She Killed In Ecstasy" (1970), I feel, falls into that last category. A German-language film that was shot in Spain, it is yet another filmization of Cornell Woolrich's "The Bride Wore Black," which had been excellently brought to the screen by Francois Truffaut just two years earlier. But Franco is no Truffaut, to put it mildly, and he seems to have only a single trick in his director's kit--zoom in, zoom out; zoom in, zoom out...and that gets tiresome very quickly. Soledad Miranda (here credited as Susann Korda, for some reason) plays the widow seeking murderous vengeance on the quartet of doctors who denounced her husband's embryo experiments (an even touchier subject today!) and led to his suicide, and gorgeous as she is, she's no Jeanne Moreau. (She may do lesbian, but she sure ain't a thespian!) The seductions of the four doctors (one played by Dr. Orloff himself, Howard Vernon; another by Franco; and still another by a beautiful blond woman) are well done, but the homicides themselves are fairly lame and unconvincing, and a funky, sitar-laced, completely non sequitur soundtrack does not help matters one bit. The film doesn't wrap up after 80 brief minutes so much as suddenly stop and fade; very strange. On the up side, "She Killed In Ecstasy" features some striking sets and gorgeous scenery, and the DVD that I just watched from Image is one of the crispest-looking I've ever seen; an absolutely lustrous, first-rate transfer. By the way, I can almost imagine a 21st century updating of this film's classic story line; call it "She Killed ON Ecstasy"!

Nobody can deny that Jess Franco made a lot of rubbish in his career...but then he goes and directs a film like this, and it becomes easy to forgive him for past and future sins. She Killed in Ecstasy is thinly plotted and rather predictable, but it's also sexy and violent, and overall; an excellent slice of sleaze from a director who knows a lot about this sort of film. Franco attempts to inject a bit of substance into the film by way of a plot that involves the humanity of scientific discovery as well as emotional torment, which is also the reason behind all the killing. Franco seems to care more about sex than violence, and this shines through as all the kill scenes involve sex, but not all of them feature a lot of blood. The plot focuses on Mrs. Johnson; the wife of a scientist researching human embryos. After his work comes under scrutiny from a medical comity and he is labelled all manner of things, from 'criminal' to 'animal', he decides to take his own life. She doesn't like this very much, and so decides to take revenge on all involved by seducing and killing them all.

The film features a host of sleaze regulars, including Vampyros Lesbos star Susann Korda. Korda provides a good lead for the film as she certainly looks the part and you can believe that many men would easily be seduced by her. She receives good feedback from the likes of Fred Williams and Howard Vernon, and despite the fact that this film is a cheap slice of trash; the acting isn't bad on the whole. Franco gives his plot more credibility with scenes such as the one that sees Mrs Johnson mull over the corpse of her dead husband. Given the type of film, there's a surprising amount of emotion going on. Franco has often said that he hates his body of work, and this film appears to be an attempt at making something with some meaning. The sex scenes are generally well worked, and the lesbian sequence in particular is really well done. Susann Korda also gets to don a number of sexy outfits, which is nice. The plot flows well, and since the film doesn't last long - there isn't a lot of time for it to get boring. Overall, She Killed in Ecstasy is hardly a great film; but it's better than you might expect and I can't say I didn't enjoy watching it.

This was only my second Soledad Miranda film, and it took me a while to get to it after being somewhat underwhelmed by EUGENIE DE SADE (1970), perhaps her most acclaimed collaboration with Jess Franco.

Anyway, I found SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY (which I watched via quite a satisfactory VHS dub) to be generally enjoyable and, typically of this period in Franco's career, rather good to look at (despite its obvious 'cheapness'). This, in fact, was one of the criticisms I leveled at EUGENIE DE SADE when I posted my first impressions of it on the 'DVD Maniacs' Forum: after the relative aesthetic beauty of THE DIABOLICAL DOCTOR Z [MISS MUERTE] (1965), EUGENIE…THE STORY OF HER JOURNEY INTO PERVERSION (1969), A VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD (1971) and, to a lesser extent, LUCKY THE INSCRUTABLE (1967), I had found the leap into extreme realism (in the film's ambiance if not the plot's logical progression, which I had discussed with Francesco at the time) rather too jarring – BUT I'm digressing here, so back to the topic at hand…

SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY is aided immeasurably by its great pop soundtrack, with which I personally had no problem whatsoever. [Another brief parenthesis here: Francesco had told me that some of the same music is also featured in another notable Franco/Miranda collaboration, VAMPYROS LESBOS (1970), which I have yet to watch…so that's surely a point in its favor already!] The film is essentially a remake of the superior if more traditional MISS MUERTE, but with a few interesting plot changes: here, the controversial doctor is the husband and not the father of the leading lady, making for an even more intense revenge scenario; the girl, then, commits the murders herself this time around rather than relegating them to a subordinate a' la Miss Death; finally, even though in this case the deadly weapon is nothing more complicated than a dagger, the visual depiction of the 'murders' themselves (due, no doubt, to the more tolerant censorship prevalent in the late Sixties) is a lot more vicious. Similarly, a lot more eroticism is allowed here too, some of it purely gratuitous, but most effective during the lesbian sequences featuring Miranda and Ewa Stromberg (whose relationship, I felt, echoes the rather moving one between Maria Rohm and Margaret Lee in Franco's masterpiece VENUS IN FURS [1968]).

For the true Franco fan, the film's cast has been wonderfully assembled, beginning with Soledad Miranda herself, of course: though her performance is slightly overstated by the end, here she is perhaps even more compelling and seductive than in EUGENIE DE SADE (though I still think that one is the better film overall); regulars Howard Vernon, Paul Muller and Ewa Stromberg – not forgetting Franco himself – as the stuffy and arrogant doctors who condemn the girl's scientist husband, all of whom are subsequently helpless to resist her 'attentions' when she confronts them!; Horst Tappert as the rather lethargic (yet amusing) Police Inspector, who never even thinks of interrogating Mrs. Johnson (the name of Miranda's character) when the bodies start piling up and fails even to prevent her own suicide! Actually, the only actor who failed to convince was Fred Williams as Dr. Johnson, whose lengthy brooding and subsequent hysterics after he is expelled, tended to bog down the film's first half!

As such the film's pace is rather uneven: initially slow moving and fairly dull, where I really wanted the Williams character to die so that his wife's revenge plan could be put into action! Sure enough, it picks up speed from then on with the girl actively, almost nonchalantly, stalking her 'prey' (in alternately lush and common surroundings, at first in public and then privately), yet always allowing – or, we might say, compelling – them to make the first move towards their own demises! The ending, unfortunately, is somewhat hurried and quite poorly staged – though, in hindsight, its foreshadowing of a real-life tragedy (Soledad Miranda's own death in similar circumstances occurred before the film was even released) leaves a definite impact which, I would argue, goes far beyond Franco's own wildest expectations for his film!

Needless to say, I look forward now to seeing more films featuring this enchanting actress (her other work with Jess Franco above all), particularly VAMPYROS LESBOS and, in view of its thematic similarities with MISS MUERTE and SHE KILLED IN ECSTASY itself, the hopefully upcoming NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT (1970).

Filmmaker Jess Franco basically rehashes his earlier effort, "The Diabolical Dr. Z", for this routinely plotted but very sexy, atmospheric revenge thriller. The highly enticing (and sadly short-lived) Soledad Miranda plays the wife of a scientist (Fred Williams) whose experiments - involving injecting human embryos with hormones from other species - are soundly rejected by the medical community. The husband goes insane and later kills himself, and the fiercely dedicated wife takes it upon herself to avenge hubby by first seducing and then slaughtering the members of the medical council: Dr. Houston (Paul Muller), Professor Walker (Howard Vernon), Dr. Crawford (Ewa Stromberg), and Dr. Donen (played by Franco himself).

"She Killed in Ecstasy" dares to pace itself deliberately (yet only runs an hour and 18 minutes), establishing an effective mood. As befitting a Franco film, there is gore and there is nudity (we are treated to an especially sexy scene with Miranda and Stromberg), but these elements are actually not quite as prevalent as one might think; this picture is more than just pure sleaze. The Euro-cult cast of actors & actresses (also including Horst Tappert as the requisite police inspector on the case) play their roles capably enough, but ultimately the feature is all about Ms. Miranda, a haunted avenger if ever there was one. We really do get a sense of just how much she loved her husband.

Interesting sets and Franco's typical fine use of locations help to offset a rather lively jazz-rock music score that doesn't always fit every scene, and an unfortunately abrupt ending. Overall, "She Killed in Ecstasy" is solid, and some Franco admirers hold it up as one of his best efforts (at least, as far as his collaborations with Ms. Miranda go).

Seven out of 10.

Soledad Miranda. Two words that should send any hot-blooded fan of classic exploitation cinema beating a tad faster. In "She Killed in Ecstasy", Miranda is spectacularly sexy as she sets about to avenge her deceased husband wearing a number of disguises.

Jesus Franco himself appears as one of the doctors responsible for Miranda's husband's untimely end.

This is one of Franco's best movies. It moves at a good pace, it's sexy and stylish and doesn't outstay its welcome. Although the ending is a little hurried, this is a satisfying revenge thriller.

Accompanied by a wonderful '70s soundtrack from Manfred Hübler and Sigi Schwab, this is a genuine pleasure to watch.

It's a genuine tragedy that Miranda died just as her biggest films were about to be released. She remains one of the silver screen's most beautiful stars.

8 out of 10.

There's no denying that Jesus Franco's films are low-budget and kitschy, but that doesn't mean that they can't be enjoyable, or that they aren't suitably well made for what they are. So it's no big deal that, for example, a story of suicide and vengeful murder is paired with a jaunty, lively soundtrack that wouldn't sound out of place in a 60s beach party movie, or maybe a flick highlighting go-go dancers. On the other hand, 'She killed in ecstasy' isn't especially lengthy - yet about one-third of the runtime languishes in exposition that's frankly repetitive as it presents. If this were a drama of at least, say, 100 minutes this wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing, but this title is too short and carries itself too loosely. Even once the narrative begins in earnest the film somewhat dallies; under the guidance of another director one might say that the filmmaker were letting the cast explore each beat in their own way, but I hardly think this was Franco's style or intention. The end result is that a story that should be cheekily fun and stimulating feels exactly as campy and low-grade as it is, without the benefit of the heartiest sex, violence, or questionable exploitation that would best get one's attention. 'She killed in ecstasy' seems like a sadly misleading title; 'She flounders in sorrow' would be more accurate overall.

This is all the more sad because this picture was one of the last that star Soledad Miranda made before she died, all too young, at 27. The premise is very promising. The "crimes" and "blasphemy" of which Dr. Johnson was accused instead show the medical board to have been judgmental, moralizing, unscientific Luddites, further endearing us to his avenging widow. The cast give solid performances - Miranda above all leans into the enraged mental state of Mrs. Johnson - and while editing is a little overzealous, the feature is capably made from a technical standpoint. The costume design, hair and makeup work, set design and decorations, and filming locations are all wonderfully fetching. And Franco's screenplay seems perfectly fine on paper - not particularly complicated, but filled with swell ideas that could have been explored to rich, tantalizing ends if more care were taken. However, for all the possibilities and advantages 'She killed in ecstasy' can boast, ultimately the execution comes across as weak, and lackluster, not entirely fulfilling what we desired of it.

It could and should have been an entertaining, unserious, sexy, violent romp. There are even glimmers of a psychological thriller than manifest in the very last stretch, and there are parts of this that I absolutely love. What we get, however, is regrettably one or two steps down from tapping into its utmost potential, and I can't help but feel a little disappointed. I don't dislike this picture; I want to like it more than I do. But based on the concept and those involved - and for as long as it took me to find it to watch - it simply falls a tad short. Now, with all this said, if you're a fan of those involved, and on board with Franco's approach to film-making, it's still worth taking a look. Just bear in mind, though, that 'She killed in ecstasy' suffers from touches of deficient craft that robs us of the totality of what it portends, and of what we expect from the director. Alas.

Jess Franco certainly liked to get the most out of a story: he reused the basic premise for his 1962 film The Awful Dr. Orloff (which borrowed heavily from Les Yeux Sans Visage) for several more movies, and She Killed in Ecstasy has virtually the same plot as Miss Muerte (1966), which itself was inspired by Cornel Woolrich's 1940 crime novel The Bride Wore Black.

Fred Williams plays Dr. Johnson, who is expelled from the medical association for his unethical experiments, mixing animal and human hormones in the embryonic stage. Being branded a criminal and a charlatan by his peers drives Johnson mad and he takes his own life, leaving his beautiful young wife (Soledad Miranda) to take revenge.

Mrs. Johnson uses sex to lure those she holds responsible to their fate: Prof. Jonathan Walker (Franco regular Howard Vernon) has his throat slit and his penis severed and Dr. Franklin Houston is stabbed in the neck with scissors; Dr. Crawford (Ewa Strömberg) is a lesbian, which means that she too is able to be seduced (Franco loves him some sapphic sex), before being smothered by an inflatable pillow. While this sounds like good sleazy fun, it all becomes rather tiresome -- seduce, kill, repeat -- and no amount of nudity from Miranda can make up for the lack of imagination (or the lack of gore, the kills being really tame).

Thankfully, the film is quite short.

3.5/10, rounded down to three for the fact that Franco couldn't be bothered to reshoot the scene where a fly lands on the actor's forehead, and for the daft ending, where Mrs. Johnson kills herself by driving her car down a slight incline.