A group of people are looking for a castle for a calendar girl photo shoot. They find a castle occupied my a modern Marquis de Sade who must torture and kill sinners in unique ways."Bloody Pit of Horror" is the US cut version, 9 minutes shorter than the original, released under the title "A Tale of Torture." The cut scenes had to do with film quality ad not content. Body Builder Mickey Hargitay is in this film for the ladies and there are a lot of scantily clad women for the guys. Max, an older guy, walks in on the ladies while they are changing and doesn't brag about it to Howard Stern.Guide: No swearing, sex, or nudity.

A bunch of Italian actors head off to a creepy looking castle and are picked off one by one by a masked killer. This is no giallo, however! Everyone knows who doing the killing - he's that big muscly bastard in the red cap and mask screaming about how he's the Crimson Executioner and he's going to kill everyone! It ups the camp factor greatly that the victims are made up off supermodel looking for a castle like location to take horror themed pictures, which leads to much groovy sixties montages. It also ups the camp factor that the guy in charge of the castle is a nutcase who thinks that he's returned from the grave to torture people to death in his dungeon. His ex-girlfriend is amongst the visiting models - that's what drives him insane. Either that or someone breaking the seal on the original Crimson killer guy's Iron Maiden...it's a bit confusing. And yes, someone gets stuffed into that Iron Maiden.I suppose it shouldn't be much of a surprise how violent this film is considering that Massimo Puppillo also made Terror Creatures From the Grave, but what threw me here was how violent this film actually was! People are graphically tortured SAW style, by having molten lead poured on them, frozen water dripped onto their backs, burned alive, and one is almost rescued by one of our heroes before receiving a metal hook under her jawline! Another guy has an arrow shot through his neck, two girls are strapped to a machine where a blade cuts them across the chest...all this set to a groovy sixties bongo/ride cymbal soundtrack and the campest killer ever.Also of note is that set design kind of only allows the colour red to stand out amongst the scenery. This is worth noting so you can bring this up when you have your 'Italian sixties movies' coffee mornings in order to raise funds to send little Jimmy to the Profondo Rosso shop in Rome before the Crimson Executioner comes to get him! I almost forgot to mention the ultra-elaborate 'Spider Web/Crossbow' torture device that appears early in the film. Surely that would have taken more effort than it's worth to set up?

After this pile of dreck, I took a shower. I guess an orgy of sadism like this has its fans. Not me. I do like a good horror movie, but this has none of those artful qualities. Instead it's an endless round of pain, screams, blood, fights and torture, mainly torture. Oh sure, there's the expected skin show, but given the context, it's about as sexy as a kick in the groin. I guess by filming in Italy, the producers could get more bang for their ten bucks, while the castle and surrounding landscape do produce scenic grabbers. But the glowing Technicolor is better suited to cartoons, while the expressionless dubbing is about as good as mine. Meanwhile, muscleman Hargitay does little more than take off his shirt and roll in a vat of glistening oil. All in all, I guess you could say I didn't like the movie, and would only recommend it to folks who like politicians' speeches. Meanwhile, I think I'll catch another round of the great I Walked With A Zombie.

Italiuan schlokfest about a group of people who set up a photography shoot in an old castle inhabited by a retired actor who (we shall soon discover) believes himself to be the reincarnation of a 17th century killer known as the Crimson Executioner. Mickey Hargitay, Mariska's dad, plays the killer in extremely campy style, dressed only in red tights, a Zorro mask and a red hood. The photography models are all gorgeous and very scantily clad. The death scenes are nothing to write home about, although the old castle itself is a hoot. And yes, it really is an old castle. Supposedlky based on the writings of de Sade. Decent photography and music make up for the horrible acting and hokey deaths. I don't know how I missed this low-budget beauty back in 1965.