La sorcière sanglante

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

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.

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

"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!

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.