Review: Hercules in the Haunted World

A plague has besieged the city of Icalia, Hercules (Reg Park) arrives to find even his beloved Deianira (Leonora Ruffo) in a virtual zombified state. The Oracle informs Hercules that he must venture to the depths of Hades, the land of the dead in order to lift the curse. Christopher Lee plays the treacherous Lyco, who wants Deianira for himself and to rule Icalia unimpeded with his forces of darkness. George Ardisson and Franco Giacobini play Hercules chief helpers, the latter as the rather bumbling but well-meaning Telemachus.

 

Mario Bava (“Black Sunday”, “Black Sabbath”, “Kill, Baby…Kill”, “Danger Diabolik”) making a Hercules movie with Christopher Lee was always going to be something I needed to check out even though I knew going in that Lee didn’t do his own English-language dubbing (nor did he for Bava’s “The Whip and the Body”). This colourful 1961 film is insane but lots of fun. How insane? At one point a dead guy says to a dead girl he just met two minutes ago: ‘You belong to me now’. That’s insane. Wait ‘til you see the seaweed monster. Actually, it’s meant to be made out of stone, but I’m sorry it looks like a mixture of seaweed and tree bark and it’s the weirdest, creepiest thing ever. Bava does a great job here with fairly minimal resources, really putting his own directorial stamp on the film. The sets and lighting are particularly stellar, giving the film an otherworldly and at times Gothic horror vibe. Speaking of horror, towards the end Hercules gets attacked by zombies, basically. Bava had to Bava I guess, bless his heart. It’s a strikingly beautiful and colourful film (with Bava serving as his own DOP), with multiple colours of light in nearly every scene, which is something I always like in a film. Bava’s conception of Hades (where the bulk of the film takes place) is fascinating and imaginatively done on a likely low-ish budget.

 

Reg Park is quite likeable in the lead role, and Christopher Lee’s villain is a treacherous bastard who you wish had more screen time. There’s also a hilarious and silly performance by Franco Giacobini as Telemachus, a likeable idiot if ever there was one. My one gripe with the film is a minor and perhaps silly one – wouldn’t Hercules be far more impressive if he didn’t have two helpers on this mission? Sure, one of them doesn’t last long and the other one is idiot Telemachus, but I’ve never really figured Hercules for a team player. He’s more the whole team.

 

A more mystical, trippy, and weird Hercules film than I was expecting. This one has its maker’s stamp all over it and it’s greatly to the film’s benefit. A lot of fun, even for someone like me who isn’t especially a fan of “Hercules” films. The screenplay is by Bava, Sandro Continenza (“The Inglorious Bastards”), Franco Prosperi (Bava’s “The Evil Eye”), and Duccio Tessari (the director of “Three Tough Guys”).  

 

Rating: B-

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