Monthly Archives: June 2020

Bloody Pit of Horror (1965)

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One from the to watch pile…

Bloody Pit of Horror (1965)

Film: Honestly, I never been able to figure out if Something Weird Video never fail to hit the mark, or miss the mark. I guess, in the ‘so bad it’s good’ stakes, they can comfortably do both! Either way, you know with Something Weird Video, you are going to get something unexpected and that you possibly haven’t seen before.

With this release The Bloody Pit of Horror aka Il Boia Scarlatto written by Robert McLoren and Robert Christmas (aka Romano Migliorini and Roberto Natale respectively), and directed by Max Hunter (aka Massimo Pupillo), Something Weird seem to take a step back and give us something that feels a little more like regular horror, even though it boldly claims to be based on the writings of the Marquis De Sade himself!

Book publisher Daniel Parks (Alfredo Rizzo) wants to create new book covers for author Rick (Walter Brandi) and so has taken a photographer, Dermott (Ralph Zucker), his assistant Edith (Luisa Baratto), and a bevy of attractive models (played by Rita Klein, Barbara Nelli, Mia Tahi and Femi Benussi) and their male counterpart (Nandi Angelini) to what they think is an abandoned castle.

They break in and quickly find it isn’t abandoned, but instead it is inhabited by a retired actor, Travis Anderson (Mickey Hargitay) who coincidently is Edith’s ex-fiancé! He initially rejects their proposal to photograph in his house but after seeing Edith, allows them one night… on the condition they don’t go into the dungeon at all!

You see, many years ago a cruel torturer named The Crimson Executioner, was executed in that very dungeon, and maybe, just maybe, if his spirit is disturbed, he’ll wreak bloody vengeance…

This film is like a saucy TV special ripping off a Mario Bava film. It has a bit of the charm of a Bava film, just a pinch, but without maybe the technical skill that Bava was able to achieve. It has fight scenes straight out of the Adam West Batman TV show (minus ‘BIFF’ and ‘SHLOCK’ of course) and torture scenes where the female cast.. well, sound more like they are into it.

By the way, I have to thank this film for introducing me to a crime I’d never heard of before… ‘deliberate murder’!

Score: ***1/2

Format: The Bloody Pit of Horror was reviewed on the Something Weird Video region 1 DVD which was released about 20 years go, which means the image isn’t great. It’s presented in a 1.85:1 image which is clear, but contains artefacts but no so many that it’s unwatchable. The audio is presented in Dolby Digital Mono and does the job, but it won’t strain your sound system.

Score: **

Extras: Something Weird Video always provide interesting and, well, weird extras. This DVD is no different.

Deleted Footage from The Bloody Pit of Horror is just that. Some deleted scenes and an alternate opening.

Except from Privative Love featuring Jayne Mansfield and Mickey Hargitay which is a bizarre song and dance sequence from the film Primitive Love, aka L’amour Primitivo, a film from Luigi Scattini.

Except from Cover Girl Slaughter is apparently a part of a documentary about the women and men who are photographed for the covers of the pulp ‘true crime’ mags of the mid 20th century. I’m not sure if how much of a ‘documentary’ it was.

Bloody Pit of Horror trailer. What it is is what it’s called.

Gallery of Exploitation art featuring Horrorama Radio-Spot Rarities is a cool collection of poster art from exploitation movies, with radio adverts for OTHER film played over the top.

Score: ***

WISIA: It ticks all my boxes so yeah, it’s getting rewatched!

Haunt (2019)

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One from the to watch pile…

Haunt (2019)

Film: In 2018 I was pleasantly surprised by a film which I thought would be a little more than a one trick pony called A Quiet Place. I think it’s a film that could have easily been fairly terrible in the hands of someone who couldn’t direct either people or tension properly. In a fantastic move, we discovered that Jim from the TV show, The Office, John Krasinski is it only an amazing actor, he’s bloody good at directing both people and tension!

Who would have thought? (That’s unfair: I honestly have no idea what his educational or professional pedigree is)

Another part of that film’s appeal was the script, written by Krasinski along with Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who along developed the original story, who here act not only as the writers, but also co-direct. Was it a fluke? Well I watched Haunt to find out!

It’s Halloween, but Harper (Katie Stevens) has no intention of going out with her sorority sisters. See, Harper is having boyfriend troubles… that is, Harper’s boyfriend is an alcoholic who has been abusing her.

Eventually, after much coercion from Bailey (Lauryn Alisa McClain) she agrees to go out to a club even though she has no costume, with two other girls, Mallory (Shuyler Helford) and Angela (Shazi Raja), where they meet up with a couple of young men, Evan (Andrew Lewis Caldwell) and Nathan (Will Brittain). After they get bored of the club they decide to go to one of those ‘haunted house’ attractions.

Unfortunately for them, this is a special haunted house attraction… even though the actors running the house are wearing cheap, vacu-formed plastic Ben Cooper-styled Halloween masks, they aren’t kidding when it comes to the scares… or the killing… can out heroes make it out of the attraction alive?

Well I have to say that this film was a damned surprise and paid off at every corner. This film has a thrill a minute, surprising violence for a modern horror film (which usually shy away from letting you actually SEE the violence) with some solid acting, awesome make-up effects and some surprises that you probably won’t see coming… I know I didn’t!

It reminded me very much of the film The Strangers, not just because of the masks, but if that film was a home delivery meal, this is the dine-in.

As a side note, I’m note usually a fan of acoustic covers of songs by breathy voiced ladies, but the cover of Rob Zombie’s Dragula over the end credits was surprisingly good.

This was a gripping film that had me captivated from the start and just kept delivering. Very happy.

Score: ****1/2

Format: Haunt was reviewed with the Australian release DVD which is presented in a 2.39:1 image with a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track, both of which are perfect.

Score: *****

Extras: Only two extras on this disc:

The Sound of Haunt is a fascinating, albeit brief, look at sound design with Mac Smith from Skywalker Sound. I’d love to see a massive feature about horror movie sound design but, no: 4 minutes is all you get.

Behind the Haunt is another far-too-short looking at the genesis and making of the film. Oddly, after a mini-doco about sound design, the audio in this one is hollow and awful.

Score: **

WISIA: Oh yeah, Ill be watching this again, and honestly, I wouldn’t mind a sequel, which is a sentence I’m not used to saying.