Of the several dozen of the 60's Italian made cheap historical epics I've seen, this is the closest they get to the Bard, as if all the curses from those dead kings were calling out to improve a genre that was often pretty much the same. As if calling on the ghost of his father, the great profile, John Drew Barrymore portrays a Roman hero dealing with evil usurbers, a hideous witch and a deadly seductresses, utilizing the ghosts of dead soldiers to continue to conquer the rest of the planet. The ghostly soldiers can be destroyed or put on pause at will, and the evil Ida Galli has a voodoo doll that can strike Barrymore down anytime she wants.
Of course there's the beautiful, sweet lady in distress, Susy Anderson, and I suppose she's a prize worth fighting over, on occasion tortured and made to suffer for her goodness. This film just gets better and better as it goes along, starting off a bit slowly but building up to some very intense scenes with elements of horror mixed in with the sword and sandal genre. The photography becomes very effective when certain filters are used to focus on certain colors for mood experiences. Usually, these cheap Italian epics are a one-time viewing for me, but after seeing how this builds and picking up certain elements from Shakespeare plays like "Macbeth" and "Richard III", it's one I would consider watching over and over.
Of course there's the beautiful, sweet lady in distress, Susy Anderson, and I suppose she's a prize worth fighting over, on occasion tortured and made to suffer for her goodness. This film just gets better and better as it goes along, starting off a bit slowly but building up to some very intense scenes with elements of horror mixed in with the sword and sandal genre. The photography becomes very effective when certain filters are used to focus on certain colors for mood experiences. Usually, these cheap Italian epics are a one-time viewing for me, but after seeing how this builds and picking up certain elements from Shakespeare plays like "Macbeth" and "Richard III", it's one I would consider watching over and over.