Bloody Pit of Horror, 1965

Bloody Pit of Horror (Italian: Il boia scarlatto) is a 1965 gothic horror film. The film, set in Italy, stars Mickey Hargitay, Walter Brandi, Luisa Baratto and Rita Klein, and tells the story of a group of women modeling for a photo shoot at a castle when the owner of the castle becomes the Crimson Executioner, bent on their deaths.

Plot:
A group of individuals including the writer Rick (Walter Bigari), Daniel Parks (Alfredo Rizzo), his publisher, his secretary, Edith (Luisa Baratto), their photographer, Dermott (Ralph Zucker) and five young models enter a seemingly deserted castle to take photos for a horror photonovel. The castle is actually occupied by a former actor, Travis Anderson (Mickey Hargitay). Anderson initially desires to send the group away, but recognizes Edith (who was once his fiancée) and changes his mind, but places the dungeon as off limits for the group. The group ignores this warning and proceed to take photos there anyway. This angers Anderson, who dons a costume and takes the identity of the Crimson Executioner, who was hanged centuries earlier for the crime of having his own private torture chamber. Anderson eventually kills each member of the group until Edith and Rick remain. Anderson succombs to his own torture devices and is killed by the poisoned barbs on the “Lover-of-Death” machine. Edith and Rick then escape with their lives.

Reception:
Critical reception for the film has been mostly negative with some critics calling it “trashy”. In his analysis of the film, Roberto Curti noted his derivation from fotoromanzi and fumetti neri, and dismissed the film as “decidedly campy.” Italian critic Roberto Guidotti marked the film as “a comic-strip movie, with a story told through a series of scenes, pictures and pacing that are more akin to comics than cinema. Inside the empty spaces, that open continually, immobilizing the story, one would often be tempted to insert a few captions and balloons.” In his book Italian Horror Film Directors, Louis Paul described the film as “a laughable yet disturbing and sadistic entry in the [horror] genre”, and “an exercise in homophobia and the debasement of women masked as entertainment.”