Synopsis
The Whip and the Body (La frusta e il corpo, 1963) is a gothic horror film by Mario Bava you can watch online on iFILM. Kurt Menliff, a cruel nobleman once cursed and cast out by his own father, rides back to the family's seaside castle to claim what he believes is his.
Kurt is played by Christopher Lee, and his return shatters the household's fragile calm. Years ago he tormented Nevenka (Daliah Lavi), and a sick attraction to his cruelty still lives inside her. Soon Kurt is found murdered. Yet night after night Nevenka hears footsteps in the corridors and the crack of a whip, and she can no longer tell whether it is a ghost, her own breaking mind, or one of the living playing a game.
Bava shot the film on almost no budget, building dread out of shadow, color and fog and turning cheap sets into one of the most sensual, unsettling works of Italian gothic. Its frank link between pain and desire was so bold for 1963 that censors cut it across the globe. Slow and hypnotic, not for fans of cheap jump scares. Stream The Whip and the Body (1963) online on iFILM.
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