As a teenager in the 1980s, I along with many others became obsessed with a trailer compilation tape called Mad Ron’s Prevues from Hell. It featured some of the most insane-looking horror and sleaze trailers known to man. If a movie was featured on Mad Ron’s then you generally wanted to own it. So it goes, for this unique gothic horror from 1965, directed by Domenico Massimo Pupillo (Terror Creature from the Grave, Love: The Great Unknown and Django Kills Softly) and starring former Mr. Universe, Mickey Hargitay (The Loves of Hercules, Lady Frankenstein and Delirium). Hargitay, was married to Hollywood legend Jayne Mansfield between 1958 and 1964 and as such was seen as a key marketing tool in selling the movie, if you watch the trailer his name is mentioned almost as often as the name of the movie.

Anyway, Bloody Pit of Horror tells the story of a group of photographers and models who wind up at what appears at first glance to be an abandoned castle, to shoot a photo strip for a Fumetti (an Italian comic). After breaking into the castle, the group eventually discover it is inhabited by a former actor, Travis Anderson (Hargitay). Anderson is a recluse and is reluctant to let the group use his castle, preferring to preserve his solitude, however upon realising that one of the models is his former fiancée, Edith (Luisa Baratto, The Devil’s man, Coup D’etat and Golden Chameleon) Anderson reconsiders and allows the group to stay and film, but they must stay out of the dungeons. A request, to which they cannot accede, and when one of the male models is tragically impaled on a set of spikes it triggers a succession of disappearances. Anderson tells the group about the castle’s dark past as the home of the infamous Crimson Executioner, a murderer who was put inside the iron maiden for his crimes, but not before he placed a curse on anyone who enters his castle. Has the Crimson Executioner returned to reek retribution on these unsuspecting victims, or is there something else going on here?

Bloody Pit of Horror is a genuinely oddball movie, part kinky bondage flick and part gothic horror, it straddles that line perfectly with beautiful gothic sets, elaborate set pieces and special effects by Carlo Rimbaldi who would go on to win an Oscar for his work on E.T. The performances are solid across the board, particularly Hargitay, Baratto and Walter Brandi (The Playgirls and the Vampire, Curse of the Blood Ghouls and Terror Creature from the Grave), who stars as Rick, as the standout performers. However, the one way in which the film truly stands out is stylistically, with beautiful sets and a glorious of use of colour, particularly red, the film never fails to look colourful and sumptuous. This new Blu-ray from Severin films is a joy to behold, the print looks perfect, it has been lovingly restored and looks better than ever, the colours are so vibrant, they literally leap off the screen. In fact, the whole package is as sumptuous as those set designs. Alongside the film, the Blu-ray features an audio commentary with film-maker David De Coteau and film historian, David Del Valle, an alternative opening sequence and the all-important trailer, and comes packaged in an attractive slipcase. 

Overall, this is a brilliant release for an underappreciated classic of Italian/American cinema. A dark kinky tale, very loosely based on the writings of the Marquis De Sade that still manages to pack a punch.