Mario Bava directs Daliah Lavi, Christopher Lee and Jacques Herlin in this gothic chiller from Italy.

A sadistic nobleman’s ghost goes on an BDSM rampage, and possibly kills a few others too, in a big stone castle. Didn’t follow the whodunnit story but it looks lovely. I like the sickly, garish kaleidoscope of primary colours Bava bathes his chesty beauties in. Is that enough for me to fall head first for this auteur? It hasn’t happened yet. Hints of Edgar Allen Poe and too much wandering down the same staircase.

5

Perfect Double Bill: Black Sabbath (1963)