Vierges pour le bourreau

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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"Il Boia Scarlatto" aka. ("Bloody Pit Of Horror") must be one of the cheesiest Italian Horror films ever made, and yet (or, more precisely, therefore) it is about as much fun as a film can get for my fellow lovers of Horror from Bella Italia. This was made in a time when Italian Gothic Horror was at its peak - and while a variety of genuine Italian Gothic masterpieces was brought to screen around that time (such as Margheriti's "Danza Macabra" and "The Virgin of Nuremberg", Caiano's "Nightmare Castle", everything that Mario Bava made...), director Massimo Pupillo came up with goofy, but incredibly fun productions such as "5 tombe per un medium" (aka. "Cemetary of The Living Dead", an absolute priority on my list of films that I have yet to see) and this "Bloody Pit Of Horror". Pupillo's films have since gained a certain cult-status among Italian Horror enthusiasts, and this film illustrates why. While "Bloody Pit Of Horror" is an immensely cheesy film that, in spite of a cool Castle setting, has zero scare moments, it is very imaginative in terms of (nowadays demure) sleaze and nasty torturing devices. Several centuries ago, a dispiteous mass murderer, the Crimson Executionner, was put to death with one of his own gruesome devices. In present time (1965) a couple of people - a photographer, an editor, a writer and several sexy chicks - are looking for a castle to make photos for a Horror book. We all know how (cheesy low-budget Horror) fate is - they happen to enter the castle where the Crimson Executioner was executed centuries ago...

The film stars Mickey Hargitay, Jayne Mansfield's muscle-man husband, whose acting skills are not exactly awe-inspiring. The performances are generally awful, but that only makes the film more fun. The film begins with a Marquis de Sade quote, and the castle setting is awesome. The crimson executioner must be one of the goofiest (and most hilarious) villains ever in a Horror flick - He wears a ridiculous red hood and only talks about himself in the third-person ("The Crimson Executioner will torture you"). His evil deeds are accompanied by a stereotypically goofy 'eerie' score that resembles the "Treehouse Of Horror" theme from the Simpsons. The torturing devices are actually very imaginative, I don't wanna spoil the fun so I won't give a description. "Il Boia Scarlatto" guarantees pure fun and is an absolute must see for my fellow Italian Horror buffs and lovers of amusing trash. If this film doesn't put a smirk on your face, you lack humor entirely! Enjoy!

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.

It's really hard to score THE CRIMSON EXECUTIONER. On one hand, it's a horribly made little film that is embarrassingly bad. On the other, it's so terribly funny because it is so bad! The film begins with some really obnoxious people breaking into an old castle to take some publicity pictures. However, it turns out the place is NOT unoccupied and the crazy owner tells them to get lost. Oddly, however just moments later he asks them to stay. So, they do and over the course of an evening, the crew members and models are killed off one at a time by the crazy homeowner--who thinks he's the reincarnation of a sicko named the Crimson Executioner. Actually, the guy's outfit makes him look a lot like Diabolik from another Mario Bava film, but that's neither here nor there.

The film is filled with lots of sadistic torture and is reminiscent of the German film, THE TORTURE CHAMBER OF DR. SADISM (talk about a great title). However, unlike the German film, this one is much sillier and the horrible punishments really don't look all that realistic--just cheesy. But, because it is made so poorly (with horrible dialog and action throughout), it is worth seeing to have a few laughs. Otherwise, if you do skip it, your brain might appreciate it!