Bloody hell...

Some time ago I wrote about a couple of older crime movies that I had been watching. Well, I decided to again return to the shadowy halls of cinema history and watch:

The Bloody Pit of Horror (1965).

Some are of the opinion that it's a classic film that horror connoisseurs should watch, but my question is, why? It's terrible and I have a very good tolerance for terrible horror films.

Sure it shows it's age, but that's no excuse. Roger Corman's The Tomb of Ligeia and Masque of the Red Death are both from 1964 and they are awesome. Campy as hell, but in my opinion, very good. So the Bloody Pit can't hide behind age as an excuse.

The fact is that the acting is either non existent or completely over the top. The props are cheap and incredibly poorly made. The story is fine as it goes, but certainly nothing original. Of course it didn't help my viewing experience that the dubbing was atrocious. (The original language is Italian).

The biggest sin is the writing. If you and your friends are in mortal danger and a couple have been killed, why would you grab a member of your group who has no idea of what's going and repeatedly say “There's no time to explain” while leading her away? “What's going on?” and “There's no time to explain” repeats back and forth several times. Just say, “we're in danger, so and so is dead, we have to leave now.” is this so hard?

Bottom line: The Bloody Pit of Horror is in my opinion worth skipping. If you're going for some kind of completionist record, fine, otherwise skip it.

The one interesting bit is the only famous actor; Mickey Hargitay. In the bloody pit, he plays the villain, and seems to be the only one who really tries. But that's not the interesting part.

He was Mr. Universe in 1955 and his second wife was none other than Jayne Mansfield. One of their children is Mariska Hargitay, most famous for her role as Olivia Benson in Law&Order: Special Victims Unit.

His final screen appearance was on Law&Order: SVU with his daughter in 2003 before dying in 2006 at the age of 80.

In 1980 a TV movie, The Jayne Mansfield story was produced with fellow Mr. Universe alumni Arnold Schwarzenegger as Mickey.

Funny world we live in...

That's me until next time, so have a great week!