Der Todesfluch der brennenden Hexe

Well, it's obvious that The Long Hair of Death takes a lot of its influence from the Mario Bava masterpiece 'Black Sunday', but even so; Antonio Margheriti's film manages to deliver a good horror story in its own right. The plot is pretty much your classic Gothic horror yarn, and focuses on a small village. A woman is accused of being a witch and promptly put to death. However, her eldest daughter knows the real reason for her death revolves around the lord, and she's promptly killed also. The youngest daughter survives and is taken in by the murderous lord's family, eventually marrying his son. Soon after, a deadly plague threatens the village; and the older daughter reappears to avenge her mother's death. The main standout of this movie is definitely the atmosphere - director Antonio Margheriti does an excellent job of giving the movie a foreboding feel through the eerie black and white cinematography and the imposing sets. The plot can drag a bit at times, which is a shame; and so it's lucky that Margheriti was able to give the film an atmosphere as it keeps it going when the plot takes a downturn.

Another standout about this film is, of course, the fact that it has a leading role for Barbara Steele. Of course, she was almost certainly cast because of her success in Black Sunday, and as such; this isn't her greatest performance, but she's always nice to see and she does play the resurrected woman well. It does quite often seem like Margheriti is dragging the plot out and this is a shame as the film is overlong as a result and it has to be said that The Long Hair of Death would have benefited from a shorter running time. Antonio Margheriti made some good films in his career, though the fact that he doesn't get good recognition along with the likes of Sergio Martino and Lucio Fulci doesn't surprise me. This film was released in between Margheriti's successes with The Virgin of Nuremberg and Dance Macabre, and although I prefer both of the mentioned films; this one is still worth seeing for the Italian Gothic horror fan. The film boils down to a somewhat predictable ending, but it's a nice ride getting there and overall, despite the fact that The Long Hair of Death may not be the most successful film of it's type - it's still worth a watch.

"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!

The Long Hair of Death was one of the cycle of Gothic horror films released by Italian studios in the 1960's. Like the majority of them, it was filmed in black and white for budget reasons although from today's perspective this does give the film a certain atmosphere and classy look. Set in the 15th century, a young woman is accused of being a witch and is burned to death. She casts a curse on the house of the men responsible and returns from the grave many years later to enact deadly revenge.

The director here was Antonio Margheriti working under his anglicised moniker Anthony Dawson. Margheriti was a director who made films in most of the Italian genres, from peplums and spaghetti westerns to gialli and poliziotteschi amongst others. He displays some care with the Gothic horror genre taking care to build a moody atmosphere and slowly constructing the story. But the main draw here is probably Barbara Steele. This British actress was the queen of the 60's Gothic horror film, appearing in movies from both sides of the Atlantic although she is primarily associated with the Italian strain of the sub-genre. Her strong, seductive features were perfectly suited to these films and, once again, she is more aggressor than victim here.

This is a fairly typical entry in the Italian Gothic sub-set. It's a solid entry, if not in the upper bracket. It does have some well-staged scenes and nice location photography though and it ends on a satisfyingly macabre note. While it obviously benefits considerably by the presence of Steele. The title doesn't really mean an awful lot but it sounds 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.

I think this is one of Barbara Steele's better horror films. It does have a creepy Gothic atmosphere - and great Gothic music to go with it. I like quite a few of the Italian horror films from the 1960s - 1970s - this is one of them.

This film surrounds a witch and lust. A woman with two daughters is taunted by a man who lusts for her - so much so he would force her into making love to him. She refuses him and is accused of witchcraft and therefor put to death. The older daughter is later put to death and leaving the youngest daughter alive. She grows up and marries... later on the older daughter (apparently a witch) comes back from the dead to seek revenge on those who harmed her family.

Good late night flick!!

7/10