Der Todesfluch der brennenden Hexe

I've just recently discovered the Italian horror film. This one is pretty decent. I could have been much improved with a little effort at editing. Everything is set up nicely for revenge. You have the evil of witch burning as an innocent victim is set afire. She curses the people who put her there and we all know she'll be back. Nasty stuff begins to happen in the dukedom as the plague begins to decimate the population. The bad guys prosper pretty well, isolated from the rest of the rabble, but then a young woman (Barbaba Steele) returns. To keep her quiet, the patriarch of the castle pushed her off a cliff. She comes back to help her sister who has been forced into an ugly marriage with the young master. There are a series of efforts to kill this woman and things come to a satisfactory ending for the audience. The problem is the pacing. It drags on and on. There are these meandering trips through the castle, seemingly going nowhere. The whole effort to cover up a murder seems so convoluted. Let's just say there are simpler ways to go about these things, especially when you wield a lot of power. Still, I mostly liked it. Visually it is interesting and the acting is quite good.

After hearing so much about the often ballyhooed Black Sunday film which predates this one I finally got the chance to check out both films for myself. Black Sunday a.k.a the Mask Of Satan is also a Gothic b/w Italian horror film that features Barbara Steele as it's main character. Every review that I came across recommended the Mario Bava movie without any reservations whatsoever and made constant references to it's beautiful cinematography, period detail and atmosphere. I was super anxious to see this unanimously lauded classic. However, once viewed, I did not find the Mask of Satan to be that great of a movie. Yes, it was beautifully filmed and yes it was quite atmospheric but it was also flat, boring and predictable. It's dated violence and special effects did very little to help liven things up. The eerie soundtrack that seemed to constantly be playing was too loud and it actually served to slaughter, in it's infancy, any tension that possibly might have been building. The film felt like a major let down after hearing so much about it. It was o.k. but nearer to a novelty than a classic. The Long Hair Of Death was a film which I had heard absolutely nothing about. I only just learned of it's existence when it was recently scheduled to be released on blu ray in the near future. The cover art was intriguing and there was Barbara Steele again. So I found the movie on YouTube and set out to see if it was worth adding to my collection. Little did I know what a treat I was in for. This movie is similar in look and feel to Bava's film yet it is superior to that film due to it's character development and it's bizarre and intermittent flashes of kinky eroticism. The pacing is glacial in this one also and yet it doesn't feel quite as moribund as "Sunday". The camera work is lovely and lush and is perfectly enhanced by vividly detailed decorative sets and costumes. The acting is better in this one too although the dialog is pretty standard for this type of fare. All in all, I prefer The Long Hair of Death to Black Sunday on any given day and will be purchasing a copy on blu ray ASAP.

The great Antonio Margheriti, Italy's second-greatest Gothic Horror director (right after the unmatched Mario Bava), and the wonderful Barbara Steele, Horror's single greatest leading lady ever made two magnificent films in 1964. One was the insanely brilliant "Danza Macabra" (aka. "Castle of Blood"), which doubtlessly ranks among the greatest Gothic Horror films ever to be made. The other is this atmospheres and wonderfully macabre gem called "I Lunghi Capelli Della Morte" aka. "The Long Hair of Death". Maybe not quite as essential a masterpiece as "Danza Macabra", "The Long Hair of Death" is yet another glorious film by Margheriti, which once again proves that Barbara Steele is the ultimate goddess of Horror.

The film is magnificently set in the 15th century, when accused witch Adele Karnstein is burned in a rather bizarre stake ritual. While she is being lead to the stake, her oldest daughter Helen Karnstein (Barbara Steele)is forced into sex with the Count whom she has begged to set her mother free. Just before being consumed by the flames, however, the condemned witch puts a curse on the responsible Count and his ruthless son, vowing to take revenge from beyond her burning grave...

This is only a very vague description of the first ten minutes of the film, but since I would hate to spoil any of this gem's wonderful spooks, I will leave it there. The storyline is fascinating and truly macabre, and includes trademark Gothic elements such as curses, resurrection and revenge as well as the black plague. As in all Gothic Horror films by Margheriti, the atmosphere is incredibly eerie and haunting, yet beautiful at the same time. Gloomy castle corridors and dark tombs make an excellent setting for this film's wonderfully creepy storyline. Barbara Steele is, as always, brilliant and absolutely wonderful. As always when reviewing a film with my favorite actress, I get the feeling of not finding the right words, since I simply cannot praise this wonderful actress enough. The other performances are good too, especially Halina Zalewska, who plays the second female lead, is worth mentioning. It's also fun to see a small supporting performance by Italian Cult-cinema regular Nello Pazzafini. Pazzafini's name isn't very well-known, but he was omnipresent in Italian films of many genres in the 60s and 70s, mostly in Spaghetti Westerns, Gialli and Poliziotteschi. This is one of the earlier films I've seen him in. It is, of course, Barbara Steele who is the main attraction, however. As said above, the atmosphere is wonderfully eerie and the settings are great. The film is beautifully shot, even though my copy isn't in the best quality. The score is also very cool and contributes a lot to the film's haunting mood. For all the horny Horror fans out there, an additional quality of this film should be revealed: In one love-making scene Barbara Steele's left breast is revealed! (I am not sure, however, whether it belongs to Barbara Steele or a body double). All things considered, this is yet another great Gothic Horror gem with the genre's undisputed goddess, Barbara Steele, and no Horror/Cult-cinema lover should consider missing it. 8.5/10

"I lunghi capelli della morte" by Antonio Margheriti is a classic b/w Gothic movie. Take a flickering candle, go down into the crypt, past the spider webs - and you wouldn't be surprised if Bela Lugosi was lurking in the shadow. Actually it's Barbara Steele which you can't complain about, either. Giorgio Ardisson plays Kurt, the son of a Count, who commits a murder, blames it on a witch, the witch is burnt and leaves a terrible curse behind - maybe the story is not something new, but it matters most in this movie to show how a man is slowly trapped in a revenge plan - so slowly that for most of the running time, he doesn't even realize the torment already began. That not much is happening, as sometimes reviewers do say, is done on purpose: Kurt would like to move, but he is becoming aware more and more of his helplessness, his inability to hide. "I lunghi capelli della morte" is a movie with intensity, atmosphere and beauty in its black and white imagery, and while I just wanted to check out the first chapter for the disc quality when the DVD arrived in the mail, I ended up watching it till the end - it was mesmerizing and really that good. Fans of the genre, don't miss it!

A woman is burned for being a witch. Her daughter, Helen Karnstein (Barbara Steele) vows revenge, but is pushed off a cliff before she can carry it out. The younger sister, Elizabeth (Halina Zalewska), grows up and is forced to marry the man who framed her mother. Then one stormy night, Helen rises from the grave. Elizabeth's husband immediately falls for Helen and together they plot to get rid of Elizabeth. Will Helen really help kill her sister, or is it part of a plot to finally get revenge for her mother's death?

If you're a fan of either Italian B&W ghost stories or Barbara Steele, there's a lot here to enjoy. There's just something about B&W that seems to work for me in a ghost story. B&W makes Gothic lookwell, more Gothic. Color never works as well for me with this kind of movie. The eerie passageways of the castle, the witch burning scene, and the dead corpses in the burial chamber are especially creepy in The Long Hair of Death. But my favorite scene, filmed in all its B&W glory, has to be Helen's appearance in the chapel after having been brought back from the dead. To quote Martha Stewart, "It's a good thing."

Barbara Steele made a boatload of horror films that I enjoy. In fact, she's in my all time favorite - Black Sunday. I have no way of knowing if this is true, but she appears to be having more fun with her role in The Long Hair of Death than I've noticed in some of her other movies. Regardless, there's no denying how mesmerizing she is here. It's impossible not to focus on her in every scene in which she appears.

I suppose I should give the usual warning to those more accustomed to the pace of modern horror. The Long Hair of Death is slow going. Those who require a killing or an explosion every five minutes should probably just skip it.