Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Motompa Go in cold, and you're likely to emerge with your blood boiling. This has to be seen to be believed.

Myron Clemons A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

bkoganbing I swear I had to look twice to see if I was watching the wrong film. As The Witch's Brew aka Maciste alli'Inferno opened and I saw the cast members dressed like 17th century Puritans. The film continues for about 15 minutes and I'm wondering did Amazon get its signals crossed?Just as some woman is about to be burned at the stake for being a witch in rides Kirk Morris on a horse and shirtless and buff. Certainly in a startling contrast to the solemnly dressed Scots. Maciste is told about a cursed tree and he lifts it and discovers it's a gateway to the underworld. His mission was to find a woman burned at the stake and somehow persuade her to lift the curse she put on the place a hundred years earlier. Maciste does the usual feats of strength that are expected in a peplum picture.The dubbing was bad in fact there are sections where there is no dubbing at all and we hear the original Italian this film was done in. As a bad film this was one for the books. I mean Ed Wood and Arch Hall kind of bad.

ma-cortes Riccardo Freda's Mucleman great success is compellingly directed with startling visual content . Martha Gunt (Vira Silenti) is accused of witchery by a nasty judge (Andrea Bosic) and Maciste (Kirk Morris) attempts to free her and demonstrate her innocence . As Maciste travels to Hell to find a witch and make her undo a curse she put on the surface world . After the fires of Hades and frenzied attacks by ferocious beasts , there remained only the venom of 'The Witch's Curse' .This classic Sword and Sandals movie gets an atmospheric and stunning direction from genre master Riccardo Freda . This is one of the many muscle men of Peplum who dominated Italian sword-and-sandal epics in the early 60s, it results to be a crossover of Greek Mythology , Peplum , witchery and necromancy , ordinary bare-chested bondage scenes , epic with adventures , struggles , bizarre scenarios and being quite entertaining . Here appears several mythological characters such as Prometheus , Cyclope , Sysifo , a demoniac serpent and several others . ¨Maciste all'inferno¨(1962) resulted in this film being one of the few in which the hero's name, Maciste, was used in the English dubbed version . for other films involving Maciste, when the English language track was recorded in the US, his name would usually be changed to a more familiar name such as "Goliath" or "Samson" . This movie , also known as "Maciste all'Inferno" or "The Witch's Curse" inspired a wave of Italian Peplum films blending mythological/fantastic/horror elements . The film belongs to sub-genre blending fantastic , horror and Peplum , like are : ¨Hercules in the core of earth¨ (Mario Bava) , ¨The conquest of Atlántida¨ (Vittorio Cottafavi , 1961) and ¨Maciste against the vampire¨ (Giacomo Gentilomo,1961) . Once the genre had lost its audience in the mid-60s, producers and filmmakers maintained for a few more years in war stories and westerns . The picture was well starred by Kirk Morris , he often dyed his pompadour-styled hair blond and he had a slight, sulky resemblance to Elvis Presley. Italian Kirk Morris -born Adriano Bellini- was born in the late 1930s and plucked from the canals of Venice for his go at moviedom . A gondolier when discovered by an Italian movie producer, he was deemed a perfect speciman to showcase their spectacles and a fitting hero to help offset the silly special effects and ridiculously dubbed dialogue and he was one of the very few Italian bodybuilders to achieve stardom in the sword and sandal/mythological . This also made him one of the few leading performers who was able to speak the Italian dialog from the script. Morris eventually migrated to the United States where he went into the advertising field . Years later he returned to Italy and the movies , this time as a producer . If one must try to distinguish Kirk from the rest of the mythical bodybuilders such as Steve Reeves, Gordon Scott , Alan Steel or Sergio Ciani , Richard Harrison , Dan Vadis, Reg Park , Rock Stevens , Brad Harris , among others . Other than that his stoic posing of Hercules, Samson, Maciste and the others were no better or worse . Besides , appearing famous Eurotrash babes such as Helene Chanel and Vira Silenti and notorious Italian secondary as Andrea Bosic . Colorful cinematography in Mario Bava-Style by cameraman Ricardo Pallottini in gaudy colours and groundbreaking atmospheres . Being shot in the marvelous caves of Castellana Grotte, Bari, Apulia . Appropriate and eerie music score by Carlo Franci , including creepy chores . The motion picture was well directed by Riccardo Freda who used a number of aliases during his career, including Robert Hampton or George Lincoln and as screenwriter Riccardo Fedra . Riccardo Freda (¨Secret of Dr. Hitchcock¨ , ¨The ghost¨) along with Mario Bava (¨Planet of vampires¨, ¨House of exorcism¨) are the fundamental creators of Giallio genre . Freda worked in many popular genres, including viking films, Peplum, spaghetti westerns, action, and even Softcore, but it is his horror films and Giallo mystery films which stand out and for which he is best remembered . His artistic spirit led him to a strong belief in the importance of visual composition in filmmaking . Freda along with Vittorio Cottafavi continued to realize films in the historical-spectacular style , at which he developed a considerable skill and mastery . From the mid-50s Freda's liking make for atmospheric and colorful scenes of shock began to itself apparent , especially in such Musclemen epics as ¨Teodora¨ , ¨Spartacus¨ , ¨Giants of Thessaly¨ , ¨The seventh sword¨ , ¨Maciste all's inferno ¨, the latter a gripping/horror Peplum and of course ¨Maciste in the court of the Great Khan¨, one of his best films . In the early 60s , he was a pioneer in Italy of horror-fantasy films frightening audiences the world over , especially with ¨I Vampiri¨ and ¨L'Orrible Segreto del Doctor Hitchcock¨ as he combined with that wide-staring of actress , the British-born Barbara Steele . He also made adventures as ¨Black Eagle¨ , ¨The son of Black Eagle¨ , ¨White devil¨ , ¨Son of D'Artagnan¨ , and uncredited ¨Daughter of D'Artagnan¨ ¨. From there he went to melodrama and spy films as ¨¨Mexican Slayride¨and ¨Coplan FX18¨ and even made some western as ¨No killing without dollars¨ with Mark Damon and signed under pseudonym as George Lincoln . Freda's movies had popular appeal , and were usually commercial hits . Several were French/Spanish/Italian or other European co-productions . He has been called a filmmaker "who brings some style to exploitation pictures", and has something of a cult following . Rating : 6.5/10 , better than average Muscleman movie .

Skragg There's no way I could NOT like a combination Italian horror film (of the traditional kind) AND Italian "spear and sandal" film, including this one, which I never saw till two years ago. The "hell" scenes were worthy of "Hercules in the Haunted World," which I also never saw till recently. It seems to be a direct sequel to another "peplum" film (I don't know which), because of flashbacks and little references. As much as I like these movies AS movies, instead of as "camp," even I found it funny when the "Maciste" character arrived in this 17th (?) century Scottish town (and yes, in his loincloth), without anyone wondering anything about him.

Leofwine_draca Engaging cross between witch-burning horror and heroic peplum sees Maciste, the film's muscle-bound, loincloth-clad hero, uprooting a tree and travelling into the depths of hell to lift a witch's curse and save an innocent woman's life. Along the way he has to battle various foes such as lions, eagles, giants, snakes, you name it. This is a thoroughly entertaining slice of escapism packed with action and cool special effects.This unique film kicks off in a typical way: a witch, burned at the stake, calls on the power of the devil to curse those who have captured her. You might be forgiven for thinking this is CITY OF THE DEAD, or Italy's own BLACK Sunday. Immediately we're in the spooky Gothic territory of cobwebby castles and torch-wielding villagers, which comes as no surprise to the horror connoisseur when we find out that the director of this feature is Riccardo Freda, who also gave us the top-notch TERROR OF DR. HICHCOCK, as well as plenty of other Gothic chillers of the period.An innocent woman is dragged to the stake… the villagers are ready to light the fire… at this point, it might be a good idea to stop the film and ask the question "what happens next?" to somebody who has no idea what this is about. For, unexpectedly enough, a man rides into the village on a horse, CLAD ONLY IN A LOINCLOTH! Okay, this is 17th century Scotland, and there's a naked man riding about on a horse. Never fear, for this man is Maciste, better known as Kirk Morris, who appeared in a fair few peplum back in these days. Morris is as wooden as they come, seemingly having never bothered to learn the art of acting and retaining a single blank expression on his face throughout. Either he's been in a terrible accident which destroyed the nerves in his face, like Boris Karloff in THE RAVEN, or he's just a REALLY bad actor. But this matters not, as Morris is a man of steel, whose body has been sculpted in iron, whose strength can defeat an empire, whose loins…well, you get the picture. The thing is that Morris looks good in his loincloth, and has the physique to make you believe he can do all manner of powerful things like lifting boulders on his back and bending iron bars with only his hands (and knee, at one point!).Realising that he has just days to save the girl from being executed (due to some black-magic trickery, a bible she touches in court bursts into flame), Maciste discovers that the only way to save her is to destroy the witch's curse on the village, which somehow stems from a dead tree which grows new buds every time someone is killed. Heroically, he pushes the tree to one side and jumps into a burning pit (!), which just happens to be the entrance to Hell, to find the witch and revoke the curse. And then the fun really begins.From then on, Maciste has to take on all manner of foes and all manner of dangerous, nigh on impossible stunts that would make Hercules gasp. The first thing he finds in the Stygian depths is a lion, which he immediately grapples with (getting a few of those designer Bruce Lee-style scratches over his torso in the process). This is actually a well choreographed fight, with the fake lion head edited in nicely with Maciste fighting a real lion. Amusement comes after he has killed the beast and we see it still blinking as it lays on the floor (you can just imagine some trainer shouting "play dead!" prior to filming that moment). After this, Maciste goes for a little walk and sees a few poor souls getting tortured by some demons or imps or something. Ignoring these, he makes his way to a burning door, which he must open using only a couple of rocks and his bare hands, getting them severely burnt in the process.His journey underground is forever becoming more fiery and dangerous, and there's even one of those spiky lowering-ceiling traps lying in wait for our plucky hero. His hands may have been destroyed, but what is most painful for the viewer is watching Morris try to convey the agony he is supposedly in! Luckily for us a beautiful love interest is then introduced who heals Maciste's hands to let him carry on with the job in progress. After this it's typical adventure territory: Maciste battles snakes, makes giant leaps, carries out amazing feats of strength, kills a giant named Goliath, and uses a rock as a shield to get through a rain of fire. All in a day's work for our intrepid hero.Basically, the film at this point is just one obstacle after another for Maciste, and is VERY entertaining. It's rare that I have so much fun watching films but this is definitely one of the best times I've ever had. Some Greek mythology is also thrown into the brew when Maciste discovers a man named Prometheus, doomed forever to have an eagle devour his entrails (a superb horrific image), and single-handedly stops a stampede of raging cattle (nicked from HERCULES, I think). MACISTE IN HELL is solid escapism all the way, filled with action, excitement, and all manner of varied special effects. The scenery is dramatic and a classic image of Hell is portrayed with burning pools, rocky caverns, and a thick, almost sulphurous atmosphere of doom and evil. The music is stirring, and Freda brings his horror elements into the fun which are added bonuses for me. A truly excellent film.