Director: Riccardo Freda (as Robert Hampton)
Year: 1962
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: Maciste all'inferno; Maciste in Hell
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
With their village in turmoil, the outbreak of violence against a woman suspected of being related to the witch who was sent to Hell a hundred years ago forces the muscle-bound hero to descend into Hell itself to battle the imprisoned witch and end the curse affecting the village and his friends.
Review:
For the most part, this was a fantastic mixture of peplum and Gothic horror. One of the finer features here is the ability to provide a fun narrative that sets both of these features into motion and does not have either one feel out of place. The initial introduction to the film concerning the witch burned at the stake, offering profane curses on the villagers surrounding her who are overjoyed when the flames are shown to consume the body before turning into a century-later time-jump with main action is a great main start. With the setup offering talk of strange supernatural activity taking place and people behaving strangely, the threat of the witch’s curse regarding its toll on them sends the village into a genuine panic as they try to take out the one local woman who they suspect to be the reincarnated witch complete with the mob swarming after her and requiring aide from the hero himself is a fantastic Gothic horror starter setup with the talk of remote villages beset by supernatural action and blaming everything on a curse from years earlier complete with the kind of panic suitable for such a situation.
This allows for the film to develop into more of its peplum origins as the original witch who instigated the curse must be retrieved from Hell and required to journey into the underworld to do so. Setting into motion the kind of prototypical quest setup where he must overcome a series of obstacles to complete his mission. Uprooting the sacred tree guarding the entranceway to Hell and battling past the creatures along the way, it sets him up for a mystical journey through the underworld where he battles past blazing walls of pure fire, removes huge wooden or stone objects from his path, and basically performs immense feats of strength in rapid succession to journey across the fire and brimstone landscape on his quest that provides some fantastic stunts alongside the thrilling action. With his journey impeded by the need to save others struggling in the underworld against other tortures being inflicted, there’s a great series of action featured here including some chilling bits of the ethereal witch’s taunts and laughter echoing throughout the landscape.
This leads immensely well into the final half where the action comes together at a fantastic pace. The series of interactions and pep talks with other denizens offered the usual sense of courage and honor that had been his main purpose before being broken down by the ordeal. As this means one last ordeal confronting the witch and getting to return to the surface world to get everything sorted in a fun fashion, there’s plenty of solid work here that makes this come off quite well. There are some issues here, mainly with some of the more bizarre setpieces that seem to disrupt the pacing more than anything. With the cutaways back to the couple accused of witchcraft and set to be burned offering up necessary context for the journey, it’s a shame they don’t do much to help keep the running time going similar to the interactions with the witch trying to tempt him with her beauty form that makes for a rather stupefying series of baseless and repetitive scenes that offer nothing. Likewise, the need for a slew of flashback scenes to past interactions that were accomplished with other actors in the role simply to get the running time up is a bit perplexing, and when combined with the cheesy low-budget look of everything here are what brings this one down.
Overview: ****.5/5
A spectacular mix of genres that comes off quite nicely, there’s quite a lot of fun to be had in both aspects here which helps to make this far more fun than had it just been a simplistic genre effort. Give this a shot if you’re a fan of either genre attempted here, are curious about the genre mash-up featured, or appreciate the creative crew while most others might want to heed caution.
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