HERCULES IN THE HAUNTED WORLD (1961)
Article #726 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 3-11-2003
Posting Date: 8-8-2003
Directed by Mario Bava
Featuring Reg Park, Christopher Lee, Leonora Ruffo

Hercules must descend into the netherworld to recover a stone that will cure his love.

It is very fitting that the Hercules movie directed by Mario Bava and featuring Christopher Lee would be the one with the highest horror content of them all; both the journey to Hades and the atmospheric climax place this movie firmly in the horror genre as well as the sword and sandal genre. Bava certainly adds some good visuals to the mix, though in all honesty, I can’t really give the best evaluation; my copy of the movie is not only horribly dubbed and in only fair condition, but also badly panned and scanned at that. I really suspect that this one requires a much better presentation to do a fair evaluation of it. I hear there is a good DVD available; this will be something to keep in mind come upgrade time. At any rate, if you’re a horror fan, this is the sword-and-sandal movie to try out.