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Long Hair Of Death
[Sinema Diable/Eclectic DVD]
1964; b&w
Directed by Antonio Margheriti
Starring: Barbara Steele, George Ardisson, Halina Zalewska, Umberto Raho & Laura Nucci
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I've reviewed a bunch of movies on the Sinema Diable imprint, mostly for Candy For Bad Children, and I've come to the conclusion that whoever is behind this company (the most popular, and pretty much only, rumor I've heard is that Sinema Diable is owned by Glenn Danzig) has an obsession with obscure horror films featuring European ladies with long flowing hair, preferably with plots that are long and meandering but provide the viewer with many scenes of said ladies in peril, exacting revenge, walking around in '60s mod / Goth girl lingerie and, occasionally, stripping in a coffin. No coffin stripping in this movie, unfortunately, but Long Hair Of Death does feature Barbara Steele in a double role, first as the sexy daughter of a soon-to-be-burned-at-the-stake witch and second as the ghostly apparition of the sexy daughter of a witch who was recently burned at the stake, both of which afford the viewer many scenes of Steele in peril and exacting revenge in her lingerie. The details covered in this last sentence in essence sums up much of the plotline but I'll elaborate a little bit just so you can get a better idea of what you're in for should you choose to accept the challenge of trying to sit through this movie. And I'll focus all of my attention to the parts of the movie featuring our lovely leading lady, because she is the obvious selling in point. So first we see Steele as Helen, a woman desperate enough to hit the sheets with the local evil count in a futile attempt to save her mother - the aforementioned witch - from meeting her untimely and unfair fiery fate. After learning her amorous efforts were in vain, she takes off running through the woods where she herself meets an untimely fate at the hands of the same count, in the form of him tossing her off a cliff. Later, her sole remaining sibling Elizabeth (who has since grown up and been married off to the son of the count) visits her sister's grave and calls upon her mother's spirit to save her from the horror of being married to the unattractive, queeny and whiny son-of-a-count. (She's been told her mother's ashes are buried there, along with her sister's body, you see.) This causes a raucous storm to suddenly appear, followed by a torrential downpour, followed by a bolt of lightening hitting the tombstone, causing the corpse to come back to life. This is totally the best scene in the movie—not just because Steele reappears after being absent from the screen for a while, but because reanimated corpses are a dime a dozen in European horror movies from this era; what you don't come across every day - for reason's unbeknownst to me - is a maggot filled corpse that reanimates into a totally hot chick clad in a flimsy nightie. Anywhoo, Helen then uses this new lease on life to infiltrate her sister's marital castle as Mary, a woman who has come to bewitch, bed down and otherwise torment the son of the man who ordered her mother's death oh those many years ago and that seduce and destroy mission pretty much takes up the remainder of the movie. Overall I had mixed feeling about this one. On the one hand, the plot dragged on endlessly and in the end didn't make all that much sense. On the other hand, Barbara Steele was pretty awesome in both roles and looks fantastic throughout. I'd recommend it to fans of hers and mid-'60s Euro horror in general; the rest of you can always hit the mute button and put a CD on or something to make the experience more pleasant.
—Bunny
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