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Did these filmmakers have any idea how twisted a picture they were making? It doesn’t matter because this Italo torture orgy has has remained a freakout favorite ever since. Mickey Hargitay likely asked, ‘do you really want me to act this nuts?’ and then fully complied with Massimo Pupillo’s request to burn, stab, choke and roast his mostly female victims in orgasmic glee. It’s all still more than a little disturbing — or screamingly funny depending on one’s orientation. Severin’s Blu-ray sources original printing elements, lending incredible video and audio quality to this artless yet stunning exercise in sex & death insanity. We also recall an interpretation given this gem by Brit film critics. Co-starring Walter Brandi & Luisa Barrato, plus eight willing special guest torture victims.

Bloody Pit of Horror

Blu-ray

Severin Films

1965 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 87 min. / Street Date November 26, 2021 / Il boia scarlatto, The Crimson Executioner / Available...

Oh, here’s another reason to love Italian cinema: they will jump on a known property faster than you can say The Asylum. But I’m talking less about the new, self-conscious models of mockery and more of the Use the Name, a Setting, and a Character school of “flattery”. For instance Patrick Still Lives (1980), the unofficial sequel to Patrick (1978), the surprise Australian hit, isn’t even a sequel but rather a reboot: same premise, similar setting, same name. All the boxes are checked for my kind of flick, and it has the added bonus of being rung through the Italian filter to end up in a place far removed (yet equally as entertaining) from the original. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Patrick Still Lives (Aka Patrick vive ancora) opened in Italy in May; Wikipedia (that beacon of true report) notes that “It is known primarily for...

August’s home media offerings are wrapping up in a big way this week, and I hope you’ve got your wallets ready because there are a ton of releases that genre fans are going to want to add to their collections. Fulci fans should be excited for the arrival of both The House by the Cemetery and The New York Ripper in 4K, courtesy of Blue Underground, and Severin is having their own Fulci fiesta this week, too, with their releases of Aenigma, Demonia as well as the recent documentary Fulci for Fake.

Scream Factory also has a killer lineup of titles headed home on Tuesday, including the Collector’s Edition of Tales from the Darkside: The Movie and the Universal Horror Collection: Volume 6.

Other Blu-ray and DVD releases for August 25th include Dead Pit, The Beast Must Die, The Last Victim, Live Feed, Gemini, Hallucinations, and Alien Scum.

It is truly amazing how crowded the zombie market was in the early ‘80s, at least in Europe; after the success of George Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) begat Lucio Fulci’s unofficial “sequel” Zombie (’79), the floodgates were opened and the undead made their (slow and shuffling) move at the box office. Amidst the barrage was one Burial Ground (1981), a film that boils down a zombie flick to its very essence: people get munched, and they get munched good. Forget social subtext; Burial Ground barely has text.

Aka The Night of Terrors, Burial Ground was released on its home turf of Italy in the summer, with the U.S. not receiving a release until late ’85 before dropping on video in early ’86. There’s really no need to mention reviews from the mainstream: what do you think they would say that would in any way add to the discourse beyond...