The Long Hair of Death is a movie title that sparks the imagination.
How will it fulfill the glorious promise of its title? Perhaps as a variation of Medusa with exceedingly long snakes for hair? Or a darker version of Rapunzel where lethal tresses wrap so tightly around a person, they squeeze them to death? Think of those visuals!
No, nothing like that. While the 1964 Italian horror film has an abundance of long hair, it isn’t used in the way my overactive imagination envisioned it. Instead, it speaks to the women of the Karnstein family – mother Adele and her daughters Helen and Lisabeth – whose beauty is magnified by their gorgeous long, black hair.
That’s not to say there isn’t any “hair horror,” however. A particularly effective scene finds a character who is confused over what’s real or a dream, is jolted – along with the viewer – to see he is clutching a fistful of hair. It is a chilling moment of the highest level.
Much of the terror comes is found in its barbaric 15th century setting and the assortment of horror elements that come with it: witchcraft, curses, murder, a giant castle with scary hidden passageways, and wicked men who forcibly take whatever – or whomever – they desire.
The best reason to watch is Barbara Steele who plays two roles, doubling the reasons to watch: Helen and a visitor named Mary. (Her hair is magnificent, BTW.) Also performing double duty is Polish actress Halina Zalewska as Adele and later the adult version of her daughter Lisabeth. Their performances are necessary in making the film ultimately work especially because it doesn’t always.
It’s an uneven movie that is too long at times, then frazzled at others. The version I watched is dubbed, which makes it look cheaper than its low budget. The fast-paced opening throws the viewer right into the action, which is good, but then it languishes after making its point about the evilness of certain characters when it should move on and, dare I say, get to the good stuff.
The Long Hair of Death (I Lunghi Capelli Della Morte) opens with Helen frantically searching for Count Humboldt to save her mother, Adele, who is accused of being a witch. Helen doesn’t know he ordered her mother’s death for refusing his advances. He has no intention of saving Adele, only of forcing himself on Helen. Outside the castle, little Lisabeth watches her mother being burned alive much to the sick pleasure of the count’s son Kurt (played by Italian actor George Ardisson).
As she is dying, Adele vows to haunt the elder count and his family and promises a plague across the land. It’s a wonderful set up for the rest of the film, isn’t it? As a plague ravishes the area, the count unravels and murders again to hide his sins.
Years pass and Lisabeth grows up in the castle mourning the deaths of her mother and sister. She has allies in the maid Grimaldi and a priest who have been by her side for years. She needs their help as creepy Kurt lusts for her. It’s unsettling to watch this guy, whose angelic beauty is belied by his evil soul, threaten Lisabeth. He not only craves her, but also his father’s power, wealth and kingdom. He’ll do anything to have it all.
And like his father, Kurt will never be satisfied. He spent years waiting for Lisabeth to become a woman but falls in lust at first sight when a mysterious dark-haired beauty arrives (also played by Steele). He is deaf and blind to the warning bells that this woman looks eerily like someone he used to know. But we see the resemblance.
Her name is Mary and though she initially fights off Kurt’s advances – “adultery is punishable by death,” she reminds him – the two quickly “rendezvous” on a regular basis with Lisabeth all but forgotten.
Thus, the film springs to life with the possibility of where the story is going. The tension increases to the point where I was sitting on the edge of my couch. (That’s my measurement of a good horror film.) Kurt is consumed by his lust for Mary and his need to get Lisabeth out of the way while also descending into the same type of paranoid madness that destroyed his father. Underscoring the intensity is the ominous music of composer Carlo Rustichelli. As the film progresses, the already eerie score often scales down to an unnerving, two-note motif.
At first, Mary’s familiar face makes it feel obvious where the story will go. But her actions sow doubt since she’s all-in with hunky Kurt no matter what he does. So, what’s really going on here? Who is an innocent? And who deserves punishment? Will the Karnstein women have their revenge? This uncertainty and the mounting dread kept me engrossed until the satisfying finale.
This may not be one of Barbara Steele’s best-known films, but she is luminescent in it. It was the second of two movies she made for director Antonio Margheriti (Castle of Blood was the first), who suffered unfair comparisons to Mario Bava. Taken on its own, The Long Hair of Death is a moody and satisfying Italian Gothic horror film.
– Toni Ruberto for Classic Movie Hub
You can read all of Toni’s Monsters and Matinees articles here.
Toni Ruberto, born and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., is an editor and writer at The Buffalo News. She shares her love for classic movies in her blog, Watching Forever and is a member and board chair of the Classic Movie Blog Association. Toni was the president of the former Buffalo chapter of TCM Backlot and led the offshoot group, Buffalo Classic Movie Buffs. She is proud to have put Buffalo and its glorious old movie palaces in the spotlight as the inaugural winner of the TCM in Your Hometown contest. You can find Toni on Twitter at @toniruberto or on Bluesky at @watchingforever.bsky.social
