the Whip and the Body: (1965. dir: Mario Bava) Ah, those Italian horror-meisters! The intoxicating use of color, and of shadow as both color and pace-setting device! Absolutely mesmerizing. Since most of the film involves voluptuous Italian women creeping in nightgowns down gloomy castle hallways and skulking in tombs, you could set it to a Pink Floyd record and call it a slow-moving light-show. Somewhere I read that Christopher Lee considered this the best of his Italian films, and he's got to be right about that. Certainly he is at his bad-assed sexiest as the whip-wielding Heathcliff in this giallo-flavored Wuthering Heights set at the sensuous Italian seaside, with the beautiful Daliah Lavi as his fruitcake-nutty Catherine. People keep getting offed with daggers through the throat, there may or may not be muddy footprints leading up from the tomb, and a sadistic ghost may or may not be taking a horsewhip to the lovely Italian lady on a semi-regular basis. Too tame to be a true giallo, it's still one of the most sensuous horror films I've seen. If I had a dungeon, this would be showing in widescreen on continual rotation.
Horror Hotel: (1961. dir: John Llewellyn Moxey) In Europe, it was called City of the Dead, more dignified but misleading. Really it's a city of Satan-worshippers who've traded their souls for immortality, obviously a whole different thing. It's got no pretentions at all, this little b&w classic, and atmosphere to spare. The town is constantly swathed in thick blankets of fog; the Satanists need beautiful outsiders for their human sacrifices, and there you have your jumping-off point. Lee plays a college professor who feels rather keenly about the history of witchcraft, so much so that he sends his star pupil to do research in the old hometown. I wouldn't show it opposite Curse of the Demon, but I'd feel comfortable pairing it with Night of the Eagle or Carnival of Souls, and that's high praise for me.
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