Hercules In The Haunted World (1961) – Review

What, you didn’t think hiring an auteur to leap aboard a franchise movie and craft a new, distinctive adventure for a recognizable character was a new thing, did you? Mario Bava is known for weaving and creating some of the visually stunning and stylish movies of his era with such movies as Black Sunday and Black Sabbath (notice a pattern?) rewriting the book on how gothic horror was presented on a way that was genuinely revolutionary – but there’s something amusingly satisfying about him banging out musclebound Hercules movies a year after he made his directing stamp Black Sunday.
Bava had made Hercules movies before, even if he wasn’t credited, but Hercules In The Haunted World was the first one the director’s name was actually accredited to and while the plot was the usual type of sword and sandal chicanery, you can bet your bottom drachma that the filmmaker deployed all of his sizable stylish skills into making the fantasy film as vibrant as he possibly could.

Swole demigod Hercules has arrived back in Greece after a string of adventures in Italy, but while he’s eagerly looking forward to being reunited with his love, Princess Deianira, he finds that she has pretty much lost her mind. As this is the age of Greek Gods and high adventure, there’s no medication or therapy that can pull her from her mental malady, but it turns out there is a chance of a quick fix if Herc goes on a quest to the underworld realm of Hades to grab the Stone Of Forgetfulness. However, to do that, he first has to bop over to the Land of the Hesperides and nab a golden apple in order to gain access to the land of the dead in the first place.
Bringing along the worryingly horny Theseus – who considers himself such the lothario, he’d probably nail a monkey if it’s makeup was done well enough – and the distressingly pointless Telemachus who may be the most downtrodden sidekick in all of cinema history, Hercules forges ahead to first score the apple after climbing unclimbable trees and fighting a giant, stone monster for his troubles. But even with the rocky world of Hades ahead of him, Hercules has no idea that the true villain has been standing beside Deianira the entire time. That’s right, as tough as it is to believe that a character played by Christopher Lee could ever do anything shady, Deianira’s guardian, King Lico was the one responsible for casting the spell to cloud her sanity in the first place. Why would Loco do such a thing? Well thanks to some complicated plan that he’s cooked up with the forces of darkness, he’s planning to sacrifice his charge in order to make himself immortal.
Can Hercules get in and out of Hades with what he needs without falling prey to the tricks the realm can pull – but worse yet, will Theseus’ frenzied romancing cause disaster after he pisses of Pluto after successfully seducing Persephone? I guess Hercules is going to have to do all the heavy work on this one, both figuratively and literally.

While watching Hercules In The Haunted World (aka. Hercules In The Centre Of The Earth), I couldn’t help but be reminded of Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness – think about it; both Mario Bava and Sam Raimi both are primarily known for their visual flare and their work in the horror genre, both saw them smuggle their talents into the fantasy/superhero genre to add a massive helping of the macabre into a series chiefly known for its daring do. It’s absolutely fascinating to me that the sort of tricks big franchises pat themselves back on the back now for utilising were being utilised as far back as the early 60s and beyond. A healthy dose of vitamin Bava takes what is a fairly standard fantasy film with all the melodramatic dubbing and styrofoam boulders and gives it a lush, gothic once over that elevates the material immensely. The sets (or should that be “set” singular, that was constantly redressed and re-lit thanks to Bava’s genuis with photography) are all awash with bold lighting and suggestive shadows. The horror aspect of the story is given an almighty boost by Bava’s kooky aesthetics that go above and beyond the call of duty and are instantly memorable such as Herc almost being fatally stabbed by a knife made out of three skeletal fingers and a truly nightmarish moment when a character seemingly drowns in slushy, yellowish lava which blatently must have traumatised a few kids back in the day.

Speaking of KinderTrauma, the movie climaxes with our ripped hero squaring off with actual zombies in a nightmarish landscape and the sequence, which also features crushing walls and Herc smiting his foes with yet some more boulder throwing (there truly isn’t a problem that Hercules can’t solve by hefting a boulder above his head and hurling it at someone) is genuinely stirring stuff as Bava uses every trick in the book to keep the moment looking hokey or silly and even stages some of the fight in silhouette.
However, as breathtaking as a lot of what plays across the screen is, the plot still manage to stumble into every pitfall that fantasy movies of the time often did. Logic and common sense are cast into the underworld to rot as our heroes literally blunder from one situation to the next, waiting for Hercules to dead lift them out of it. In fact, at one moment Hercules begs Zeus to aid him and actually pledges his much publicised, godly strength in payment – but even though the request is accepted, Herc manages to not only keep his strength (he doesn’t even bend with his knees when he lifts), but the matter isn’t even brought up again leaving us a little confused. It also doesn’t help that our protagonist is saddled who are not only dangerous thick as pig shit, but who are complete assholes into the bargin. Franco Giacobini’s Telemachus is so cuckolded by life, his final parting joke as the film’s comic relief is to attempt to commit suicide by drowning in the ocean because his life has gotten so shitty; but even he’s preferable to George Ardisson’s Theseus, a truly odious wingman who literally has no compunction about pulling every woman he sees with some of the most repellent gaslighting I’ve ever seen in a “good” guy. When he isn’t securing his man whore credentials by using problematic chat up lines like: “Does it matter who you are as long as you’re with me?”, he’s putting everyone in danger by putting the moves on Persephone and then threatening to kill his best friends should he have the audacity to ask them to separate for the good of the world. Still, Reg Park’s head-sized pecs are legitimate impressive and at least we get Christopher Lee dealing out some classy villainy from beneath a Romulan bowl cut.

Glorious to look at and easy on the brain, Hercules In The Haunted World nevertheless is let down by careless plotting and some stunningly unlikeable side characters who prove to be more dangerous to our titular adventurer than the threat of a bevvy of cobwebby zombies and a rubber stone monster to boot. In a film about an incredibly strong demigod, it’s remarkable ironic that it’s Bava’s  directorial eye that does the real heavy lifting…
🌟🌟🌟