‘Hercules in the Haunted world’ or — The Astonishing Beauty of Bava?

‘Hercules in the Haunted World’ (1961) follows the famous muscleman as he enters Hades to find the magic stone of Pluto, a stone that’ll help bring his girlfriend out of the trance Christopher Lee has put her into but, quite frankly, none of the matters in the slightest. What does matter, and it matters a lot, is that it was directed by Mario Bava and the result is one of the most insanely beautiful movies ever made.

This merging of the sword-and-sandal epic with the horror genre allows Bava to absolutely go to town visually and hit us with every trick in his extraordinary book. So we’re treated to foreground miniatures, matte paintings, model work, forced perspectives, hallucinogenic lighting and, as always with Bava, a shit-tonne of mist.

Possibly the most striking example of Bava’s brilliance are the scenes where Hercules (Reg Park) visits the oracle Medea (Gaia Germani), a masked sibyl seated before a reflecting pool with flames on either side. It’s a remarkably fantastical image made even more unreal by the fact it’s achieved using nothing more elaborate than evocative lighting, some water and a few metallic party streamers, yet it’s more deeply other-worldly than anything Hollywood produces today.

Then there’s Bava’s cloud formations, a phantasmagorical churning of ominous reds and blacks that convince you you’re really about to enter the underworld. It’s all clearly done using coloured dyes in water so if you’re a fan of those similarly ethereal skyscapes in Mike Hodges ‘Flash Gordon’ (1980) these’ll leave you drooling.

Another highlight are the costumes, especially those worn by the women of Hesperides, all of whom are decked out in a riot of lavenders, mauves, lilacs and violets, and all complimented perfectly by gorgeous turquoise eyeshadow and a sinister palace that’s more art deco than ancient Greece.

Not that the film doesn’t possess other, non-visual pleasures. The plot is daft but straightforward and fun (it was co-written by the versatile Duccio Tessari) and despite obviously lacking in the acting department Reg Park’s Hercules was always an extremely likeable hero.

There’s also a highly melodramatic third-act conflict between Hercules and his best friend, Theseus (George Addison), which not only provides some necessary tension but also acts as a distraction for Christopher Lee to get up to no good (without giving too much away the film climaxes with Hercules battling an army of zombies and it’s as fun as it sounds).

This is easily one of Bava’s most visually striking movies, and when you consider what that actually means that’s really saying something. Hell has never looked so alluring.