Bloody Pit of Horror

When a group of photographers and models sneak into an apparently abandoned castle to do a photo-shoot, they are immediately asked to leave by the castle's inhabitant, Travis Anderson (Mickey Hargitay). But when he recognises his ex-fiancé Edith (Luisa Baratto) amongst the group, he changes his mind and gives them the freedom of the castle. Lurking in the castle's dungeons, where the group have set up, is the preserved body of an executed serial-killer named The Crimson Executioner, and when his coffin is disturbed, his spirit is released and enters the body of Travis. Soon enough, bodies are dropping like flies while the 'hero' Rick (Walter Brandi), desperately attempts to save them.

Former Mr. Universe Mickey Hargitay made a moderately successful career for himself after appearing in the excellently madcap Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) with his wife Jayne Mansfield. He was mainly employed in B-grade Italian horror movies such as the twisted Delirium (1972), and he is just about the only good thing is Bloody Pit of Horror, also known as The Red Hangman, A Tale of Torture, and most hilariously, Some Virgins for the Hangman. Although his role is completely ridiculous, he has a hulking presence that brings a likability to Travis, even when he is wide-eyed, tightening the hold of a rack. Plus I couldn't imagine anyone else being able to pull off those red, spandex pants.

The sets have a bright, technicholour warmth about them, reminiscent of some of the classic Hammer horrors and Roger Corman's Poe adaptations, that give the film a nicely Gothic, if slightly camp, feel. But ultimately it is as effective as wrapping a ribbon around a turd, failing to cover up the sheer atrocity of its direction. It is so over- the-top and silly that the film ends up feeling like a cartoon, containing torture scenes that include a woman stuck in a giant web with a spider so badly constructed, I don't know if it was meant to be real or not. That said, I still found this quite fun, but I don't feel good about it.

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This is definitely a MUST PURCHASE DVD for any die-hard euro-horror fan! This ridiculous and extremely entertaining 1965 Italian horror-romp stars Mickey Hargitay (Jayne Mansfield's husband) as "The Crimson Executioner". He struts around bare-chested wearing red tights and admiring his muscular body in the mirror as he rubs it all over with oil. When a film crew comes to his castle, he starts torturing and killing them off one by one, overacting all the way! Mickey is a true ham and jumps around the screen like a lunatic throughout. One great highlight is a room with a giant spiderweb and a hungry spider. And then, of course, there's the torture chamber. There's a rotating torture device that Mickey ties bikini-clad women up to and as it turns a sharp blade rips and tears at their skimpy brassieres and lightly scrapes their flesh! And with Mickey running around half-naked throughout in his red tights, were they also going for a gay audience? It's all quite tame by today's standards, but at the time, this must have been quite a sensation! It's a great sleaze-trash classic NOT TO BE MISSED! The DVD presents the film in it's U.S. 73-minute abbreviated version. 9 minutes were trimmed out of the complete version ("A Tale of Torture") by it's American distributor. The deleted scenes are included as a supplement (including the alternate title sequence), but it's too bad they didn't restore the footage back into the film. Something Weird offers the complete 83 minute version "A Tale of Torture" on VHS under the "Bloody Pit" title so you would have thought this would be the same print. BUT it's not... maybe because the print used here looks a lot better than the "Torture" print and it's fully letter boxed whereas the "Torture" print was only marginally letter boxed. Also, the movie has never looked better than this transfer...the colors are vibrant and sharp and the detail is quite good (although there is some minor artifact). So, having the deleted scenes as a supplement only was probably a good decision.

SPOILER: BLOODY PIT OF HORROR is a camp offering with homoerotic overtones. The reason for this is Mickey Hargitay, Jayne Mansfield's muscleguy husband. A group of models, a book publisher, his secretary, a horror writer, and a hairdresser encrouch on an old castle(the same one visited by a group of dancers in THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA)to shoot photos to be used as the basis for illustrations on pulp horror books. Hargitay is the master of the castles, and initially orders the group to leave, but relents when he sees the secretary, who used to be his girlfriend. Hargitay becomes unhinged when he sees the sexy goings-on of the models and dons red tights, a medallion and a hood, believing himself to be the late "Crimson executioner". He tortues the scantly clad lovelies in the dungeon with boiling oil, the rack, an iron maiden, a giant spiderweb and a revolving thingamajig with swords that kinkly peel of parts of the models lingerie the closer they revolve to it. The male characters are also dispatched in various ways(the coolest: the hairdresser attempts to drive for help and is shot with an arrow by one of Hargitay's servants in the middle of a left turn, and corpse slumps over the steering wheel, the car going in a continuous circle). Hargitay, who is dubbed with the rest of the cast(it's an Italian flick), goes way over the top. Give it a looksee if your a masochist or lover of models in distress!

Jayne Mansfield and her husband, Hungarian bodybuilder Miklos "Mickey" Hargitay were in Italy to shoot PRIMITIVE LOVE when Mickey took time off (about a weekend, judging from the quality of the movie) to shoot this one based (allegedly) on the writings of the Marquis DeSade. I have read some of the Marquis' books and while they are full of sex, violence and politics they describe no one like The Crimson Executioner. Okay here we go. Some people arrive at a remote castle to shoot photos for the covers of pulp novels (they are popular in Europe to this day!). The owner of the castle lets them use his dungeon but suddenly up pops some guy in red tights and a Lone Ranger mask claiming to be the 300 year old Crimson Executioner and it is his duty to punish them for their immoral behavior. I know we are supposed to sympathize with the innocent victims but the models up to this point are depicted as so self centered and empty headed it is hard to feel sorry for them even as we watch them being tortured. Then again maybe it is because the ordeals are so unconvincing. I mean, the girl on the rack has her arms bent even as C.E. is turning the wheel; and somehow I doubt the mechanical spider device he dreams up was widely in use back in the 17th Century. One very effective moment has one man trying to drive for help only to be shot through the neck by an arrow. The car drives aimlessly in circles with his dead body at the wheel. Nothing else in the movie approaches that level of intensity. Walter Brandi is good as the hero. He was also in THE VAMPIRE AND THE BALLERINA and SLAUGHTER OF THE VAMPIRES. Femi Benussi, who seems to get the worst of the tortures (maybe because she is blonde) was also in TARZANA, THE WILD GIRL. Mickey Hargitay also played Hercules once and did a few other movies too. Arnold Schwarzenegger once said Mickey was one of his role models. Does that mean Arnold might remake this movie? Let's hope someone talks him out of it.

Mickey Hargitay(aka Mister Jayne Mansfield) pulls all the stops in his demented ham-and-cheese portrayal of a man possessed by "The Crimson Executioner"...a sadistic monster of barbaric times. Gasp as you witness him cruelly torturing a crew of photographers and models who have decided that his dank stone castle is a perfect spot for a photo shoot. While flexing and posing his oiled-up, muscular body in the horrified presence of these helplessly bound captives, he randomly hurls crack-up dialog about how irritated he is by these scrawny plebeians, and how perfectly ripped his awesome body is. What possible retort could an unfortunate victim deliver once slapped with such self-aggrandizing harangue? How about "OH! You are an EGOTIST!"?

HA! ...yes...it's *THAT* good...

BLOODY PIT OF HORRROR labors for Gothic horror atmosphere (mostly by virtue of stone castle sets immersed in garish color-filtered mood lighting), though the upshot is a slumgullion of juvenile comic book shocks tinged with cheap psychedelia and homoerotic S&M weirdness.

A high-camp Eurokitsch favorite...recommended. 6.5/10