HAUNTED WORLD is, hands down, the best of the hundreds of Hercules films churned out in Italy in the 1960's (if you think Hollywood today is an assembly line -- look at all the Hercules/ James Bond flicks done in Italy in the 60's -- there are more than stars in the sky, literally.) HAUNTED WORLD is all about Bava ... Bava ... Bava. He's the difference between this and any of the other hundreds of Hercules films -- some very good, some decent, some appalling -- and it's a prime example of why Mario Bava was, arguably, the greatest pulp director, ever. Reg Park is a terrible actor -- but it doesn't matter. Christopher Lee is dubbed -- but it doesn't matter. The producer had about twenty bucks and change for visual effects -- doesn't matter. What counts here is BAVA. He, through sheer force of visual genius (and I'm not kidding -- watch a bunch of other cut-rate fantasy/sci-fi films and you'll go back to Bava every time) -- well, he elevates this into something like psychedelic poetry, dammit. The scenes of Hercules going to the masked Oracle are probably my favorite ... the way she moves her arms, and the lights flicker ... it's the Grateful Dead at the Fillmore West, it's early Pink Floyd at the UFO Club. It's pure, unadulaterated movie magic for Chrissakes. This ranks with DANGER: DIABOLIK and the sadly unavailable ERIK THE CONQUEROR as pure Bava escapism. Dive in.
Review of Hercules in the Haunted World
