Synopsis
Hercules in the Haunted World (Ercole al centro della terra, 1961) — watch online on iFILM. Mario Bava took the Italian sword-and-sandal formula and steered it somewhere darker: Hercules must descend into the realm of Hades to retrieve the Stone of Forgetfulness, the only way to cure his beloved Dianara, while King Lico — played by Christopher Lee — schemes to claim her for himself.
Reg Park, a South African bodybuilder who was one of the young Arnold Schwarzenegger's earliest idols, plays Hercules as a force of nature. Lee, just past the height of his Hammer Horror run, brings a chill that the role requires. Bava lights the underworld in deep blues and crimsons — visual choices that had no precedent in the peplum genre.
Not camp nostalgia: a low-budget Italian genre film made by a director who actually knew what he was doing. Stream Hercules in the Haunted World (1961) on iFILM.
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