SunnyHello Nice effects though.

Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

christopher-underwood Very disappointing and surely one of Antonio Margheriti's less effective films. The beginning is great and the ending even more so, while Barbara Steele looks fantastic throughout. Its what happens between the start and finish that is of concern. This is a revenge movie where the main protagonist appears not to realise there is a task in hand. Lots of walking along corridors and up and down stairs and stone steps - some admittedly stylishly Gothic with flowing robes and dark shadows. But we seem to be treading water all the time, silently urging Babs to get her act together. Watching Steele go about the castle it is once again so evident that that face can literally convey fear, excitement and terror all at the same time. It is quite uncanny, but sadly not made enough of here.

Red-Barracuda The Long Hair of Death was one of the cycle of Gothic horror films released by Italian studios in the 1960's. Like the majority of them, it was filmed in black and white for budget reasons although from today's perspective this does give the film a certain atmosphere and classy look. Set in the 15th century, a young woman is accused of being a witch and is burned to death. She casts a curse on the house of the men responsible and returns from the grave many years later to enact deadly revenge.The director here was Antonio Margheriti working under his anglicised moniker Anthony Dawson. Margheriti was a director who made films in most of the Italian genres, from peplums and spaghetti westerns to gialli and poliziotteschi amongst others. He displays some care with the Gothic horror genre taking care to build a moody atmosphere and slowly constructing the story. But the main draw here is probably Barbara Steele. This British actress was the queen of the 60's Gothic horror film, appearing in movies from both sides of the Atlantic although she is primarily associated with the Italian strain of the sub-genre. Her strong, seductive features were perfectly suited to these films and, once again, she is more aggressor than victim here.This is a fairly typical entry in the Italian Gothic sub-set. It's a solid entry, if not in the upper bracket. It does have some well-staged scenes and nice location photography though and it ends on a satisfyingly macabre note. While it obviously benefits considerably by the presence of Steele. The title doesn't really mean an awful lot but it sounds good.

Joseph Brando There were many excellent Italian Gothic horror films in the 1960's. The Long Hair Of Death is a perfect exemplification of what made them so. The always creepy black and white photography shines through the beat-up copies of this 60+ year old film, which sadly are the only kind available. Every scene is literally a work of art. Psychologically terrifying art. Barbara Steele, with those creepily beautiful eyes (those eyes!!!) leads an equally excellent cast of medieval meanies who do some genuinely pretty nasty stuff. Of special note is Laura Nucci, playing the icy black-haired sinister housemaid of this nightmare castle. Watch this one to reaffirm your love of Italian Gothic horror.

Coventry Admirers of moody European-made Gothic horror movies from the 60's rejoice! "The Long Hair of Death" has it all: sinister castles with numerous secret passageways and hidden vaults, malignant landlords and obedient servants, poor villages cursed with the black plague, the heavenly beautiful Barbara Steele, witches burning at the stake (whether innocent or not is irrelevant) and vowing revenge from beyond the tomb, uncanny thunderstorms and much more. And yet, it feels like a very atypical Gothic effort in comparison with the greatest contemporary classics of the genre like "Black Sunday", "The Red Masque of Death" or "The Virgin of Nuremberg" to just randomly name a couple. The setting and atmospheric are exactly right, but even though all the essential aforementioned ingredients are present, the rudimentary plot is unusual. In between all the witch's curses and acts of vengeance, "The Long Hair of Death" basically revolves on the bizarre triangular relationship between an obnoxious lord, his reluctant wife and her beautiful risen-from-the-grave sister. Of course, he – Kurt Humboldt - doesn't know his two muses are related, nor that one of them is actually a ghost and he definitely isn't aware of the fact they both despise and intend to kill him because Kurt (and his father) mercilessly burned their innocent mother like a filthy witch. Now it sounds as if I'm just carelessly revealing all plot twists for you here, and that's actually correct, but director Antonio Margheriti and veteran writer Ernesto Gastaldi don't even try to keep the denouement a mystery. We literally witness Helen Karnstein resurrect from the dead (in a gloriously macabre scene where flesh grows back onto the skull) and Elizabeth Karnestein openly declares her hatred against her husband, so it's only Kurt who doesn't know the outcome of the film. Oh well, the story usually isn't the main trump of this type of movies anyway. "The Long Hair of Death" is all about morbid atmosphere, nightmarish imagery and uncanny decors, stylish black and white cinematography and - of course – showcasing Barbara Steele's wondrous and penetrating dark eyes as much as humanly possible. Multiple sequences are downright astounding to watch, for example the witch burning near the beginning and the previously mentioned resurrection scene a bit later, and the suspense is even more emphasized through composer Rustichelli's creepy score and Riccardo Pallottini's tight cinematography. Antonio Margheriti's direction is magnificent. He never made any bad films and in my humble opinion he was Italy's most undeservedly underrated director. I could fill up another couple of pages talking about how mesmerizing Barbara Steele's looks are and how easily she owns every female Gothic character, but I'm guessing that part is already made clear. I have to congratulate the person who invented the title, as it was a brilliant idea naming film after the leading lady's beautiful long hair. I'll just add that, if you watch very carefully and don't blink your eyes, you'll catch a glimpse – like less than 1/3 of a second - of one of Steele's exposed breasts. Interesting, huh?