Director: Mario Bava
Year: 1961
Country: Italy/West Germany
Alternate Titles: Ercole al centro dalla Terra; Hercules at the Center of the Earth; Hercules vs. the Vampires
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
Arriving in a small village, the legendary muscleman prepares to undergo his marriage to the woman he loves and learns that she’s afflicted with a strange disease that requires him to travel to Hell to retrieve a special object to cure her and return to the human world to save her.
Review:
Overall, this was a fairly strong peplum if somewhat lacking genre outing. One of the better features here is the rather fun way in which it sets up a believable storyline for either type of genre fare to emerge from. The arrival of the legendary hero and his friend to the village to set about marrying the woman he loves only to come across the news of her ailment that sends him on a dangerous quest is the type of simple-minded story for this type of feature. The deceit and treachery shown here that bring about furthering the need for the quest works nicely as it gives the human villain some touches on whether or not the whole thing will be worthwhile which paints him to be the perfect figure in these types of stories. The trickery that he uses to pull it off is quite ingenious with the revelation about her condition known already to the audience but not to him so the reason for everything taking place has some believable touches that help to make this rather fun.
That allows for a strong setup to showcase the journey through the underworld which sets up the majority of the film. The usual series of trials and tribulations that must be accomplished to successfully complete his task allows for a solid bit of action fighting through the tangled mess of tree roots guarding a sacred apple, dispatching an indestructible rock monster, and passing ponds filled with fire among other such obstacles to overcome. With these all setting up the usually expected feats of strength and bravery atypical of the genre, there’s a great sense of fun here seeing them play out with the kind of whimsical approach to the setpieces featured here including a slew of fantastical special effects to accomplish everything that he needs to make the scenes come off as thrilling and exciting. As well, with a highly exciting finale involving the race to get to his girlfriend and stop the evil ruler’s plans getting some great action as well, there’s a lot to like here.
This one does have some big problems holding it back. The main issue here is the bizarre and disjointed storyline that tends to offer up some human villains only to tie everything together in a confusing manner. The whole point of the journey to the underworld is to save his love for his supposed wife from her condition, yet everything that transpires afterward to get the escaping daughter into the storyline as a reason to keep fighting makes for a highly convoluted means of continuing the storyline. It doesn’t add much to the film, serves to eat up time it doesn’t really need when a villain is already present in the film, and everything is then dropped so quickly it makes switching things up feel even more curious. With this section also feeling less like a genre effort overall and keeps the chills quite low in favor of a more adventurous feeling. These are what hold it back the most.
Overview: ****/5
A far more effective peplum than outright Horror effort, there’s a lot to like here with only a few minor drawbacks that are featured here to hold it up over the few nagging flaws featured here. Those with an appreciation of this particular approach, curious about the genre mash-up attempted, or are fans of the creative crew will have plenty to like here while most others out there might want to heed caution.
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