Talk us through itAn assorted group of photographers, Book Publishers, and Hotties, are in back country Italy looking for a Castle to use as a setting for a shoot to adore the pages of a horror anthology. They come across what appears to be a derelict castle that we all know was once the home of the infamous Crimson Executor, a psycho from medieval times. Turns out the castle isn't so derelict and our group of victims aren't welcome in the dungeons. In one of those turn ups that can only ever happen in a bad movie the castle owner spies a chick he used to have a scene with and allows our torture fodder room and lodgings for the night. It appears the avenging spirit of the Crimson Execution is unleashed! Add in a giant spider, henchmen in form fitting pants and tees, and a maniac on the loose. Ladies and Gentlemen we have all the ingredients for a rollicking good time, queue the T&A, let's grab the popcorn and kick back with this little beauty!
Review“My perfect body... in the poisonous clutches of The Lover Of Death!“ - Travis AndersonJust when you thought it was safe to come back to the site, another review section crops up like a bad case of acne. Due to popular demand, i.e three people asked for it, this is the first entry in our schlock section. We reserve the right to at any moment unleash a real bad movie on an unexpecting audience and are not going to apologise for doing so. Actually our parent site decided we should have a schlock section to celebrate a new blog that is hitting the web any day now. Well hello Mill Creek and let's get down to it. In between journeys through solid Italian horror and the odd giallo that hits the spot you are quite likely to run into the odd movie that the entire country of Italy are probably hoping the world will forget, Bloody Pit of Horror is just such a movie. Naturally since ScaryMinds is going barking mad on "B" grade we immediately dug this little gem out and hoisted it's colours to the mast of the good shop HMAS Schlock. The various Muses that Writers Migliorini and Natale called upon in their film scripting careers were clearly on an extended vacation when the duo decided to knock this one out. Naturally we all loved the movie here in the ScaryMinds central bunker and decided we should share that love. Drop your linen and start your grinning, grab some of that “B” grade honey, we're going in. 
I'm not quite sure how to describe the antagonist in this one without offending various special interest groups and blowing my PC street cred. The dude certainly has a few roos bouncing free in the top paddock, is a couple of cold ones short of a six pack, and any other term you can think of that will not inflame the mentally challenged lobby. Please note I'm not talking about the Young Liberals here, but hey if the hat fits friends and neighbours. Any wise our resident Castle Owner has decided his body is the perfect specimen and must be oiled in seclusion from the rigours and immoral stance of modern society. Specially those flossies that are only too willing to ply him with beer to get their evil way. Unfortunately our nutter has taken up residence in the exact same castle that the infamous Crimson Execution used to carry out torture and murder in due to political correctness gone mad in 18th Century local Judicial circles. Those bloody lepers were getting away with blue murder I tells ya. Probably not helping things is a rather large spider web, complete with eight legged denizen, and a fully equipped torture chamber down in the Dungeon. It's all dressing up as the Crimson Execution and torturing to death the local peasantry on a Friday night around these parts, and isn't it nice to see local traditions being maintained. A good witch burning or stoning would have rounded out festivities nicely one feels. I don't want to offend our gay readership, if we even have one, but things aren't exactly Rugby club and Penthouse Mansion down the local Castle that dripped blood. In fact you could be forgiven for thinking the friends of Dorothy had moved in and any day now some pink triangles will be appearing on the castle gates. Our Psycho is pretty dramatic and is obsessed with oiling himself up and running around in tight crimson pants. You don't have to have a well developed gaydar to see what influences are running rampant here. Add in a hatred of women that far surpasses the normal misogynist stuff going down in my neighbourhood and henchmen who are prone to moustaches, and you pretty much have to wonder if the cause of unpleasantness was probably a Mardi Gras float interruption. It's always one thing or another when you are trying to add the bunting. Of course the whole gay subtext could simply be the Italian love of dramatic entertainment. There's a certain Operatic quality to our Antagonist who is forever bounding around making grandiose statements. I leave it to the individual viewer to draw their own conclusion. Not content with madmen in tight crimson pants running around torture chambers the movie also touches bases with a giant arachnid of the genesis dodgy I believe. Said spider lives in a web constructed out of rope, lazy arsed spider for mine, that naturally traps at least one scantily clad lovely as things prance along in the movie. What's awesome about the eight legged freak is that it is clearly fake, the two strings holding it up are a dead give away, and the fact that the movie makers decided that it should be included in the first place. If the Crimson Executioner doesn't get you then apparently the spider will, or so the thinking must have gone over aperitifs when they came up with this fillum. 
Of note, and lovers of schlock shouldn't be surprised by this, our female cast members or at least those surviving any length of time gradually lose more and more clothes as events unfold. Either this movie was sponsored by the Italian lingerie industry or we might have to touch base with the concept of exploitation. I'm not saying one of the movie's selling points is young lovelies charging around in their knickers and bras, but it certainly breaks up the tedium of listening to the Crimson Executioner making grandiose statements about his perfect body and the ravages of girlie debauchery. So if you don't like watching chicks in lingerie then this may not be the movie for you. God alone knows I had to watch it twice, in slow mo, with a box of tissues, to ensure this review covered the full grandeur of the female acting going down here. To Director Massimo Pupillo's credit Bloody Pit of Horror does romp along like a day at the Rugby. There's no lagging going down with this movie and you certainly wont be left wondering if you shouldn't fast forward through the slow bits. Pupillo gets the structure and background happening quickly before launching into the main event, which is after all why we are here. If you can stand listening to the Crimson Executioner's soliloquies of weirdness, oh and various young ladies in various stages of undress, then the film will pay back your time spent in country. Before closing the innings on this one I should point out that the props put early Dr Who episodes to shame. No really, every expense was spared here. Luckily we are put on notice right from the first scene where the Crimson Executioner is being imprisoned in a plywood torture box replete with rubbery blades that shimmy more than a beach bingo movie. I'm always slightly in awe of movie makers who have no budget but still go that extra yard in fascinating us with how incredibly bad they can make the props. Mickey Hargitay (Travis Anderson) simply steals every scene he is in as the overly dramatic antagonist with an ego about the size of Queensland. I know some drag queens who would love to be able to camp it up to the share levels of brilliance Hargitay achieves here. Sorry if I'm sounding anti, I loved every second Hargitay was on screen. If only there had been a sequel and Travis Anderson had of somehow survived the first movie. More on Hargitay in the wrap. Walter Brandi (Rick) is our squared jawed hero for the evening, pretty standard role including overly dramatic fight scenes that probably didn't need a stunt double. And Luisa Baratto (Edith) starts out pretty frumpy but won me over by the time she was down to her black knickers. Come on it's that sort of a movie, you don't watch them for future “A” list Thespians people. Gino Peguri provided the score that shows complete mastery of a Hammond organ and an inability to work out just how Dario Argento got the best out of his composers. Hint, it didn't involve a Hammond organ. The score here is horrendously bad but somehow works with the visuals, not too sure how it achieved that to be honest.
Summary ExecutionI actually quite enjoyed Bloody Pit of Horror and was well entertained by a story of Psycho killers, giant spiders, and overly dramatic henchmen. The movie doesn't appear to take itself overly seriously and avoids dragging at any stage. While I applaud the great dark genre movies I also have a love of the other end of the spectrum, albeit that would be the love normally reserved for ginger haired relatives. Full apologises to the current and future Australian Prime Minister, we're right behind you Ms Gillard here at ScaryMinds. Oh and Bloody Pit of Horror isn't at the high end of the spectrum for those wondering.For the purposes of our ventures into “B” grade goodness I invested in “Night Screams”, a box set of cinematic goodness from the folks at Mill Creek. Hey I'm a Reviewer on the edge, I have a 50 movie pack and I'm not afraid to use it! For the jet setting trivia buffs amongst us Mickey Hargitay wasn't so famous for being a body builder, hey he preceded Arnie, but had being married at one time to the ill fated Jayne Mansfield on his resume. Clearly the credentials necessary to play an obsessed narcissistic sadist with a few rood loose in the top paddock. If you like a little bit of “B” movie gravy with that meat and three veg then pour on some Bloody Pit of Horror folks, it's for sure one of the weirder movies you are ever likely to run across. May the schlock be with you!
ScaryMinds Rates this movie as ... Awe insprising schlock outing of cinematic wonder.
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