Director: Giuseppe Veggazzi
Year: 1963
Country: Italy
Alternate Titles: Katarsis; Sfida al diavolo
Genre: Supernatural
Plot:
After meeting with an old friend, a monk goes to visit a former member of his friend group for help in recalling an experience years ago where he and his friends decided to visit an eerie castle while out looking for some fun, and discover the demonic host and his deadly plans.
Review:
Overall, this was a generally dull and lifeless Gothic horror effort. What tends to be the best part here is the general atmosphere of the castle once the group arrives and sets about staying there. After the first half, getting to the point of the story where it’s all revealed in flashback, where the group barges into the castle and begins to explore it, which is what allows this one to meet the requirements of the gene involving the presence of the dark, empty castle filled with thick cobwebs, barely-lit candelabras, and a thick air of neglect. Spurned on by this and the rampant food and drink available, their party seems all the more understandable as they fail to realize their host is in the room with them and sending them out on a quest to uncover a specific body within the castle as this provides the bulk of the film where they wander around the various rooms and hallways, lit only by their candles and filled with cobwebs and medieval decorations, looking for the spectral figure of their quest. This is chilling and atmospheric and comes together well enough to be quite likable.
Beyond that, however, there isn’t much to this one. The main issue here is the utterly inconsequential and useless padding that goes on before the film even comes close to getting started. While this is mostly explained by background information on the production, that still doesn’t excuse the mindnumbing sequences placed here to counteract the lack of running time with the scenes being uninteresting and unimportant to the final film since there’s no reason why we’re forced to follow this spy thriller stalking the one guy, the trips to the nightclub to meet up with the girlfriend, or the scenes involving the priest trying to explain what’s going on. It all makes for a difficult time caring about anything when it’s not that important to the film proper, and with the group initially portrayed as the careless thugs they are before they arrive at the castle, this is even more apparent. Moreover, the reason why they should undertake the mission in the castle is quite flimsy and makes little sense, and the scenes have an atmospheric touch through the location and concept, for the actual execution is interminably overlong without much of anything happening. With a cheap look that doesn’t help matters, this is a slow and generally unimpressive genre effort.
Overview: *.5/5
A mostly uninvolved and barely worthwhile genre effort, there’s little to this one that makes for an interesting experience and is more of a curiosity piece than anything else. Those with the most hardcore appreciation for this style or who are fans of the creative crew will have anything to get out of this one, as most others out there should outright avoid this for other entries in the genre instead.
This review is part of our ongoing series of reviews for Italian Horror Month, every November on the site:
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