Tuesday, December 11, 2018

cinema history class: bloody pit of horror

Session: Italian Gothic Horror Month, Week 4
Movie 2: Bloody Pit of Horror (1965)
Directed by Domenico Massimo Pupillo

As always, there may be spoilers here. And the trailer may be NSFW and/or NSFL

Plot:
The crew and talent from a photoshoot are stuck in a castle with loon who fancies himself a centuries-old excutioner. Hilarity ensues.

Reaction:
It's unclear how much this was an earnest attempt to make a serious horror movie. The fact is, it's pretty goofy. Mickey Hargitay (not exactly known as a great actor) prances around in his red tights, cowl and cape, is more wrestler than executioner.

Actually, this film kept reminding me of the old Batman TV show. The henchmen are dressed in matching striped shirts which reminded me of characters from the old TV show (though Sean recognized them as matching outfits from some other movie -- I forget which). The deadly spider web trap reminds me of the bedeviling contraptions that the villains always stuck Batman and Robin in before the cliffhangers. And the fight scenes are only missing the onscreen "OOFS" "POWS" and "BAMS." To be clear, this movie was made before Batman, so I guess it wasn't ripping that show off. Maybe the creative minds behind that show had seen this movie.

At any rate, this was enjoyable to watch and worth many a good laugh. It probably would have been well-suited to being sent up in MST3K, though I don't think it ever was. It's not a great movie by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm glad I saw it.

Oh, and it was filmes in "psychovision," whatever that is.

Ratings:
Me: 9.5
Christina: 8.5 (10 for fun, 7 for the film itself)
Dave: 8.7 (9.2 for entertainment, 8.2 as a movie)
Sean: 4 out of 4

3 comments:

  1. And it's about as gay as gay can get...

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  2. I would imagine that, if even a cinema-savvy group such as ours might be learning of this film for the first time (in 2018, no less), it would be rather doubtful that the producers of the BATMAN 1966 TV Series, would have been influenced by it.

    More so, they took their cue from the BATMAN comic books that had been published prior to the creation of the TV show – and just “upped the ante” in terms of color (still a TV novelty in 1966), costuming, melodramatic dialogue, and visual and graphic style!

    In fact, the generally accepted story behind the initial creation of the show is discussed (and illustrated) in THIS BLOG POST of mine, to which you even commented!

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    Replies
    1. I knew gthat comment woul come back to haunt me...

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