After having a blast with Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules, I decided to give another Maciste adventure a try. This one isn’t quite as “good” as that one, but I’ll be damned if there wasn’t some jaw-dropping, head-scratching, WTF shit going on here. It ain’t any great shakes, but it’ll do in a pinch.
Directed by Riccardo (The Horrible Dr. Hitchcock) Freda, the atmospheric opening owes a big debt to Black Sunday. A witch is burned at the stake in 16th century Scotland, and with her dying breath, she places a curse on the town. A hundred years goes by, and an ominous tree has now grown in the very spot where she was burned alive. A descendent of the witch comes to town to spend her honeymoon, and when the locals learn of her heritage, they grab their pitchforks and set out to burn her at the stake too.
Just when things seem at their bleakest, and there’s no hope in sight for the poor, innocent woman, out of nowhere comes… THE ITALIAN MUSCLEMAN MACISTE? Yes! He comes riding into the town square on horseback, leaps from his saddle, tosses guards around like ragdolls, bends her prison bars, and tries to rescue her.
This sequence is fucking nuts. You’ll swear you accidentally changed the channel about twenty minutes into the movie. It goes from Witchfinder General to Hercules Unchained in 0 to 60 flat. It’s fucking ridiculous. I loved it.
Anyway, she’s put on trial for witchcraft, and the only way for Maciste to save her is to go to Hell… LITERALLY! In the underworld, he fights lions, witnesses giant orgies, lifts heavy boulders, and brings down a burning gate. Like most Hercules movies, there’s a hot babe who loves him and makes him have amnesia, so he’ll love her too. Eventually, he looks into a pool and watches a clip show package from a bunch of other Hercules/Maciste movies, remembers who he is, and gets back down to business.
The first half-hour or so had me thinking this was going to be a classic. However, once Maciste goes to Hell, it becomes rather straightforward. It checks all the usual peplum boxes, to be sure, and yet, it severely lacks the manic WTF energy of the early going. Still, there’s enough cheesy moments here (like when Maciste singlehandedly fends off a cattle stampede using a log) to make it mostly worthwhile.
AKA: Maciste in Hell. AKA: Maciste Fights for Survival.
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