Bloody Pit of Horror

1965 Horror 87 minutes (Italian version); 74 minutes (U.S. cut) Directed by Massimo Pupillo

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About Bloody Pit of Horror

A writer, his publisher, a secretary named Edith, a photographer, and five models enter a castle to shoot a horror photonovel. Travis Anderson (Mickey Hargitay), a former actor who lives there and was once engaged to Edith, lets them stay but closes the dungeon. They photograph it anyway. He puts on the red hood of the Crimson Executioner, a torturer killed centuries earlier in an iron maiden, and begins killing the crew. Edith and Rick are left. Anderson dies on his own device, the Lover of Death, whose barbs are poisoned.

Cast & crew

More about Bloody Pit of Horror

Massimo Pupillo directed, from a story and script by Roberto Natale and Romano Migliorini. Francesco Merli and Ralph Zucker produced it. Luciano Trasatti was cameraman and Gino Peguri wrote the score. The Italian title is Il boia scarlatto. Italy opened it on 28 November 1965 at 87 minutes. Pacemaker Pictures released a 74-minute U.S. cut on 16 May 1967, on a double bill with Terror-Creatures from the Grave. American ads said it was based on the Marquis de Sade. It was not. A 1972 Italian reissue was titled Io... il Marchese de Sade.

Themes

  • a photo crew in a closed dungeon
  • an actor who becomes the executioner
  • a torture machine that kills its owner
  • Crimson Executioner
  • iron maiden
  • photonovel
  • Balsorano
  • Mickey Hargitay

Making

Exteriors were shot at Balsorano Castle. Interiors used Palazzo Borghese at Artena. Zucker, who produced, also plays the photographer.

Reviews

Roberto Curti called it decidedly campy and tied it to fotoromanzi and fumetti neri. Roberto Guidotti described a comic-strip movie, with pauses where captions and balloons could sit. Louis Paul called it laughable, disturbing, and sadistic.

Look

Luciano Trasatti shot the castle exteriors at Balsorano and the interiors at Palazzo Borghese in Artena.

Music

Gino Peguri wrote the score.

Preservation

The shorter English-language cut and deleted scenes were issued by Something Weird Video. Severin Films released a North American Blu-ray in 2021.

Notes

  • Walter Brandi plays Rick, Luisa Baratto plays Edith, Alfredo Rizzo the publisher Daniel Parks, and Ralph Zucker the photographer Dermott.
  • Hargitay later said he "wasn't any more of an accomplished actor than a taxi driver," and still thought the performance worked.
  • The U.S. cut dropped mostly expository scenes. The Italian gross was 65 million lire.
  • Femi Benussi is one of the models, Annie.

Scenes

  • Anderson bars the dungeon, and the models pose there anyway.
  • He dies on the poisoned barbs of the Lover of Death.

Also available

  • Internet Archive (BloodyPitOfHorror)
  • Something Weird Video DVD (Image Entertainment)
  • Severin Films Blu-ray (2021)