I can only recommend this gladiator horror film as a chance to visit Hades for the massively muscular Kirk Morris who hides little to the imagination after strolling in after the burning of a witch at the stake, then his heading into hell to prevent an ancestor of hers from being burnt thanks to a curse she put. It's obvious from the moment that Morris goes to the underground world here that he's entered Dante's Inferno, a superb rendering of what hell would look like, and it's up to the imagination to guess what's going on as he looks in on the tortured withering around in the rocky abyss. After aiding Greek king Sisyphus from the falling rock he has been condemned to eternity to push up the hill, Morris locates the location of the damned witch and heads through several dangers to get to her. Along the way, he has flashbacks of previous adventures and helps a bound man escape from a deadly vulture. Another demon tries to prevent him from crossing a canyon on a tree bridge, and other dangers including a fiery gate keep him from reaching his goal as well. But where there's a muscular hero, there's always a victory, and frankly, it isn't too interesting as to how he achieves his goal of reversing the curse. Without the hellish setting, this would have just been another dull and pointless sword and sandals movie. With it, though, it becomes almost artistic, even if made cheaply and featuring a print that is creaky and badly dubbed.

Maciste in Hell (1962) ** (out of 4)As our movie begins, a witch is being burned to death but before she croaks she puts a curse on the town. A hundred years later a tree grows from that very spot and Maciste (Kirk Morris) must travel to Hell to find the witch and make her break the curse.If you're expecting anything like the 1925 silent film then you're going to be disappointed as this Italian production is pretty much in the same vein as their Hercules pictures. In fact, you've basically got that same type of character doing the same type of things but the only difference here is that they throw in the Hell setting for some entertainment value.Is this a good film? Well, I guess that'll depend on your feelings towards the genre. I'm not the biggest fan of the genre but I must admit that I found there to be some slightly entertaining things here including that Hell setting. There are some good scenes where the hero must battle a variety of things including a large snake and some bulls.Performances are pretty much what you'd expect out of a film like this but I honestly didn't care too much for Kirk Morris in the lead. The film at least looks very good with some nice set design and director Riccardo Freda at least manages to keep the film moving at a nice pace.

I've not seen a lot of peplum, but this has surely got to be one of the weirdest. The film starts in Scotland in the year 1550 where witch Martha Gaunt is sentenced to be burned at the stake by Justice Edgar Parrish (Andrea Bosic), who was spurned by the woman when she was young and beautiful. Before she dies, Martha places a curse on the land.100 years later and the curse is in full effect, local women succumbing to madness and suicide, a gnarled tree sprouting a flower with each death. After newlyweds Martha (Vira Silenti ) and Charley (Angelo Zanolli) move into the local castle, the village folk get wind of the fact that Martha's maiden name was Gaunt, and decide that she is the reincarnation of the witch and must also be burnt at the stake.So far, so fairly normal, but then things get totally bonkers…Out of nowhere, Maciste (Kirk Morris)—a muscleman wearing nothing but a loincloth—rides his horse into town to try and prevent the execution. Pushing the tree over, he leaps into the hole underneath and enters Hell, where he faces many challenges before confronting the witch, the only one who can break the curse.First Maciste wrestles a lion (a drugged-up real lion for long shots and a really manky stuffed lion head for close ups); then he wanders past the tortured and the damned where he helps Sisyphus to push his giant boulder. A massive flaming door is opened using a pair of rocks, although Maciste burns his hands in the process. Next, he narrowly escapes a booby trapped tunnel with a spiked roof that slowly lowers. A beautiful woman, Fania, heals his hands. Maciste is attacked by snakes, and a troglodyte, Goliath, who wrestles with our hero when he rushes to Fania's rescue. Having defeated Goliath, Maciste uses a boulder to shield himself from hot sparks, and has a chat with Prometheus, who is condemned to have eagles peck at his innards for all eternity, learning that he has been put under a spell by Fania, who is really Martha the witch.After clearing his mind by watching some clips from his other movies in a pool of water (the one with the cyclops looks like good schlocky fun), and steering a herd of stampeding cattle off the edge of a cliff, Maciste finally breaks Martha's curse by kissing her. On the surface, a rainstorm puts out the fire about to burn Martha and Charley, the locals seeing this as a sign of their prisoners' innocence. Meanwhile, Maciste ascends from hell, mounts his steed, and rides off to help some other poor people in need.Even with its constant barrage of bizarreness, I found Maciste in Hell a bit of a bore, the action consisting of Morris unconvincingly straining as he lifts supposedly heavy prop boulders or wrestles with stuffed or doped-up animals. Stunning location work (the scenes of hell were shot in the picturesque caves of Castellana) and great lighting ensures that the film is aesthetically pleasing, but director Riccardo Freda fails to bring much life to proceedings, making the film strictly for the most avid of sword and sandal fans, or those just wanting to see something completely random.

Engaging cross between witch-burning horror and heroic peplum sees Maciste, the film's muscle-bound, loincloth-clad hero, uprooting a tree and travelling into the depths of hell to lift a witch's curse and save an innocent woman's life. Along the way he has to battle various foes such as lions, eagles, giants, snakes, you name it. This is a thoroughly entertaining slice of escapism packed with action and cool special effects.This unique film kicks off in a typical way: a witch, burned at the stake, calls on the power of the devil to curse those who have captured her. You might be forgiven for thinking this is CITY OF THE DEAD, or Italy's own BLACK Sunday. Immediately we're in the spooky Gothic territory of cobwebby castles and torch-wielding villagers, which comes as no surprise to the horror connoisseur when we find out that the director of this feature is Riccardo Freda, who also gave us the top-notch TERROR OF DR. HICHCOCK, as well as plenty of other Gothic chillers of the period.An innocent woman is dragged to the stake… the villagers are ready to light the fire… at this point, it might be a good idea to stop the film and ask the question "what happens next?" to somebody who has no idea what this is about. For, unexpectedly enough, a man rides into the village on a horse, CLAD ONLY IN A LOINCLOTH! Okay, this is 17th century Scotland, and there's a naked man riding about on a horse. Never fear, for this man is Maciste, better known as Kirk Morris, who appeared in a fair few peplum back in these days. Morris is as wooden as they come, seemingly having never bothered to learn the art of acting and retaining a single blank expression on his face throughout. Either he's been in a terrible accident which destroyed the nerves in his face, like Boris Karloff in THE RAVEN, or he's just a REALLY bad actor. But this matters not, as Morris is a man of steel, whose body has been sculpted in iron, whose strength can defeat an empire, whose loins…well, you get the picture. The thing is that Morris looks good in his loincloth, and has the physique to make you believe he can do all manner of powerful things like lifting boulders on his back and bending iron bars with only his hands (and knee, at one point!).Realising that he has just days to save the girl from being executed (due to some black-magic trickery, a bible she touches in court bursts into flame), Maciste discovers that the only way to save her is to destroy the witch's curse on the village, which somehow stems from a dead tree which grows new buds every time someone is killed. Heroically, he pushes the tree to one side and jumps into a burning pit (!), which just happens to be the entrance to Hell, to find the witch and revoke the curse. And then the fun really begins.From then on, Maciste has to take on all manner of foes and all manner of dangerous, nigh on impossible stunts that would make Hercules gasp. The first thing he finds in the Stygian depths is a lion, which he immediately grapples with (getting a few of those designer Bruce Lee-style scratches over his torso in the process). This is actually a well choreographed fight, with the fake lion head edited in nicely with Maciste fighting a real lion. Amusement comes after he has killed the beast and we see it still blinking as it lays on the floor (you can just imagine some trainer shouting "play dead!" prior to filming that moment). After this, Maciste goes for a little walk and sees a few poor souls getting tortured by some demons or imps or something. Ignoring these, he makes his way to a burning door, which he must open using only a couple of rocks and his bare hands, getting them severely burnt in the process.His journey underground is forever becoming more fiery and dangerous, and there's even one of those spiky lowering-ceiling traps lying in wait for our plucky hero. His hands may have been destroyed, but what is most painful for the viewer is watching Morris try to convey the agony he is supposedly in! Luckily for us a beautiful love interest is then introduced who heals Maciste's hands to let him carry on with the job in progress. After this it's typical adventure territory: Maciste battles snakes, makes giant leaps, carries out amazing feats of strength, kills a giant named Goliath, and uses a rock as a shield to get through a rain of fire. All in a day's work for our intrepid hero.Basically, the film at this point is just one obstacle after another for Maciste, and is VERY entertaining. It's rare that I have so much fun watching films but this is definitely one of the best times I've ever had. Some Greek mythology is also thrown into the brew when Maciste discovers a man named Prometheus, doomed forever to have an eagle devour his entrails (a superb horrific image), and single-handedly stops a stampede of raging cattle (nicked from HERCULES, I think). MACISTE IN HELL is solid escapism all the way, filled with action, excitement, and all manner of varied special effects. The scenery is dramatic and a classic image of Hell is portrayed with burning pools, rocky caverns, and a thick, almost sulphurous atmosphere of doom and evil. The music is stirring, and Freda brings his horror elements into the fun which are added bonuses for me. A truly excellent film.