Italian Gothic Movies Not to be Missed

The first prototype of Italian gothic movies was Frankenstein’s Monster (1920) by Eugenio Testa. Long considered lost, it is commonly regarded as the first Italian horror film and the last until Riccardo Freda’s Vampires (1956) 3 1/2 decades later.

Throughout the Fascist period, middle-class “telefono bianco” comedies were all the rage in Italy, while strict censorship kept horror movies in check. In the years that followed, Italy made up for lost time; and the 1960s saw a wave of dark and violent Italian gothic movies.

Italian gothic independent movies were born almost as a game: Riccardo Freda bet with producers Ermanno Donati and Luigi Carpentieri that a film supernatural horror could also be shot in Italy. The two, not entirely persuaded, accept and give a small budget to Freda, known for his ability to shoot movies in a short time.

The production is problematic and Freda leaves the set in the middle of filming asking Mario Bava, director of photography, to finish the job. It’s about Vampires, the first horror movies of the then fertile Italian film market.

In ‘57 the film lays the foundations of the category and integrates components of traditional horror such as the disturbing castle with components of pure modernity: the abominable murders are not in fact an ancient curse however the Duchess Du Grand is consumed by the fountain of youth and he injects the girls’ blood into his body. The film’s receipts are modest, 124 million lire, but the Italian gothic film genre is inaugurated.

Freda’s film was the first but it took the worldwide success of Mario Bava’s Black Sunday to start this new era of Italian gothic movies. Adapted from Nikolai Gogol’s The Viy, Bava’s film follows the resurrection of a witch 17th-centuryA master of light, setting, and significant camera movement, from the outset Bava displayed a visual style that set him apart from American and British gothic filmmakers. The film’s monochrome photography has a dark, celestial allure, underlined by minutes of haunting surrealism.

🕯️ New Evil: Contemporary Italian Gothic

Despite the dominance of international blockbusters, Italian cinema has returned to digging into its own dark roots. In the last two years, we have witnessed a return to “rural Gothic” and ancestral horror. Directors like Pupi Avati, the undisputed master of the genre, and new voices like Federico Zampaglione or Paolo Strippoli, are proving that Italy’s desolate countrysides and decaying palazzi still hide secrets capable of terrifying modern audiences.

L’Orto Americano (2025)

In Bologna, just after the Liberation, a young man with psychological issues falls in love with a beautiful American nurse. When she disappears, his search leads him to a desolate property with a mysterious garden, where the line between the world of the living and the dead begins to vanish. Pupi Avati, the father of “Padano Gothic,” returns to his roots with a film that feels like a ghost from the past. Shot in a melancholic black and white, it is a slow-burn mystery that prioritizes atmosphere over jump scares. It is a deeply poetic and macabre tale that proves Avati still holds the key to Italy’s most unsettling folk-tales.

The Well (2024)

A young American art restorer travels to a remote Italian village to bring a damaged medieval painting back to its former glory. She soon discovers that the villa hides a sinister curse and a bloodthirsty creature living in a well, tied to the dark secrets of a local noble family. Directed by Federico Zampaglione, The Well is a brutal bridge between classic Italian Gothic aesthetics and modern “extreme” horror. It evokes the spirit of Mario Bava but injects a dose of visceral gore. It is a claustrophobic film that plays with the idea of art as a gateway to ancient, unspeakable evils.

La Valle dei Sorrisi (2025)

In a secluded mountain village called Remis, everyone is strangely happy. When a young man returns to the village for his father’s funeral, he realizes that this unnatural joy is the result of a dark, centuries-old pact that requires a terrifying sacrifice. Paolo Strippoli (after the success of A Classic Horror Story) explores the “solar Gothic” subgenre. Unlike the dark castles of old, the horror here is hidden in broad daylight and behind forced smiles. It is a sharp social critique wrapped in a folk-horror shroud, focusing on the weight of tradition and the shadows lurking in small, isolated communities.

Mimì – Il principe delle tenebre (2023)

Mimì is an orphan born with deformed feet who works in a pizza shop in Naples. His life changes when he meets Carmilla, a young girl who believes she is a descendant of Count Dracula. Together, they escape into a world of darkness, trying to survive a local camorra boss while embracing their own monstrous nature. Brando De Sica’s debut is a visionary “urban Gothic” that transposes the vampire myth to the visceral streets of Naples. It’s a dark fairy tale that mixes the aesthetics of Tim Burton with the grit of Italian realism. A unique, stylish experiment that breathes new life into the romantic-macabre genre.

🧛 Beyond the Mist: Explore the Darkness

The allure of the Gothic is just the beginning of a journey into the territories of the uncanny. If decaying atmospheres and haunted castles have captivated you, delve deeper into the genre with these thematic selections from our archive.

Italian Horror Movies

The Italian school of terror has set a standard worldwide. From masters of thrill like Dario Argento and Lucio Fulci to the new generation, discover the history and essential titles of horror produced in Italy.

👉 GO TO THE LIST: Italian Horror Movies

Vampire Movies

Creatures of the night, fallen nobles, and eternal bloodlust. The vampire myth is a pillar of the Gothic: from black-and-white classics to modern auteur reinterpretations.

👉 GO TO THE LIST: Vampire Movies

Witch Movies

Spells, curses, and pacts with the devil. A collection dedicated to the most enigmatic and terrifying female figures in cinema, blending folk-horror and esoteric suggestions.

👉 GO TO THE LIST: Witch Movies

Psychological Horror Movies

When fear isn’t born from an external monster but from the labyrinths of the mind. If you love the Gothic for its ability to dig into the unconscious, this selection of psychological thrillers is what you’re looking for.

👉 GO TO THE LIST: Psychological Horror Movies

Indie and Experimental Cinema

Many of the most unsettling visions of the Gothic genre are born far from the major studios. Explore our catalog of independent and auteur films that challenge the conventions of the genre.

👉 BROWSE THE CATALOG: Stream Indie Horror Films

🏛️ Crypts and Castles: The Golden Age of Italian Gothic

Before gore took center stage, Italian cinema ruled the global imagination with an unprecedented macabre elegance. Between 1960 and 1970, masters like Mario Bava and Antonio Margheriti crafted a universe of ghostly manors, candles flickering in the void, and secrets buried for centuries under the weight of ancestral curses. It wasn’t just horror: it was a visual dance between eroticism and death, where cinematography — at times in expressionist black and white, at others in thick, surreal colors — turned every frame into an auteur’s nightmare. These are the masterpieces that invented Italian-style fear, influencing giants like Tim Burton and Guillermo del Toro.

I Vampiri (1957)

Set in a ghostly Paris, the film follows journalist Pierre Valentin’s investigation into a series of brutal murders of young women, all found completely drained of blood. The mystery revolves around the castle of the Duchess du Grand and her beautiful niece Giselle, who hides a terrifying secret linked to the quest for eternal youth and scientific experiments bordering on the supernatural.

Directed by Riccardo Freda and completed by Mario Bava (who also served as cinematographer), I Vampiri is officially the first Italian horror film of the sound era. Despite the title, it does not deal with traditional vampirism but masterfully blends noir and gothic sci-fi. Famous for its on-set practical special effects achieved without editing cuts—such as Gianna Maria Canale’s real-time aging—the film laid the aesthetic foundations for all future genre cinema.

Black Sunday (1960)

In 17th-century Moldavia, the witch Asa Vajda is brutally executed, vowing revenge on her descendants. Two centuries later, a doctor accidentally breaks the seal on her tomb, awakening her along with her demonic lover. Asa begins to haunt the young Katia, her descendant and perfect look-alike, in an attempt to steal her life and complete her bloody rebirth.

Mario Bava’s directorial debut, loosely inspired by Nikolai Gogol’s short story “Viy,” is considered the ultimate masterpiece of Italian Gothic. The high-contrast black-and-white cinematography is of sublime plastic beauty, capable of creating a funereal and dreamlike atmosphere. Barbara Steele, in the dual role of Asa and Katia, instantly became a global icon of the genre, embodying a beauty that indissolubly fuses eroticism and death.

Mill of the Stone Women (1960)

Young Hans von Arnam arrives in a Flemish village to study an ancient windmill owned by Professor Wahl, which houses a macabre museum of wax statues. Hans becomes fascinated by the professor’s daughter, Elfi, but soon discovers the horror hidden within the mill’s walls: the professor uses the blood of young women to keep Elfi alive, subsequently turning the corpses into the “statues” of his collection.

Directed by Giorgio Ferroni, this film stands out for its masterful use of color (the Technicolor process), reminiscent of Flemish painting. It is a perfect example of “medical Gothic,” where the madness of the mad scientist blends with romantic and decadent atmospheres. The tension builds steadily toward a revealing and visually powerful finale, making it one of the most refined titles of the era.

The Horrible Dr. Hichcock (1962)

Dr. Bernard Hichcock, a surgeon with necrophilic tendencies, accidentally kills his wife Margaretha during an erotic game gone wrong. Years later, he returns to his villa with a new bride, Cynthia, but the house seems haunted by the ghost of his first wife. In reality, Margaretha is still alive but disfigured, hidden in the basement and ready to claim her rival’s blood to regain her beauty.

Riccardo Freda delivers one of the most daring and morbid works of the period, tackling taboo subjects with extraordinary formal elegance. Barbara Steele returns to dominate the screen in an atmosphere saturated with vivid colors and baroque set designs. The film is a pinnacle of psychological tension and fetishism, where terror arises from deviant impulses and the dark corridors of a timeless Victorian mansion.

Black Sabbath (1963)

This horror anthology features three stories introduced by Boris Karloff. In The Telephone, a woman is stalked by threatening calls from a former lover returned from the grave; in The Wurdalak, a Russian nobleman faces a family of vampires who feed only on their own loved ones; finally, in The Drop of Water, a nurse steals a ring from a deceased medium, only to be tormented by her vengeful specter.

Mario Bava explores three shades of terror: the urban thriller, vampire folklore, and pure supernatural. The use of expressionist colors (green, purple, and red) is revolutionary, creating an almost psychedelic visual impact. The Drop of Water episode is still cited today as one of the scariest moments in cinema history, thanks to the unsettling use of sound and a terrifying mannequin.

The Ghost (1963)

In a gloomy late 19th-century Scottish villa, Margaret Hichcock plots with her lover, Dr. Livingstone, to kill her paralyzed husband and claim his inheritance. After the murder, the two begin to be tormented by inexplicable events and apparitions suggesting that the deceased has returned for revenge, dragging them into a spiral of paranoia and madness.

Although the title recalls The Horrible Dr. Hichcock, Riccardo Freda’s film is an independent work that focuses entirely on psychological suspense and plot twists. Shot in color with great skill, it utilizes Barbara Steele’s intense acting to build a claustrophobic drama of betrayal and terror, influenced by French noir classics like Diabolique.

The Whip and the Body (1963)

Nobleman Kurt Menliff returns to his family castle, where his past of violence and sadism has made him hated by all. After being found dead, his specter seems to continue haunting his former lover Nevenka, drawing her into an otherworldly relationship of pleasure and pain amidst the wind-swept, icy corridors of the manor.

Mario Bava (signing as John M. Old) directs an atypical ghost story steeped in masochistic eroticism and decadence. Contrary to frequent reports, the film is celebrated for its vivid and contrasted color cinematography, which transforms the castle into a mental landscape. Christopher Lee and Daliah Lavi offer magnetic performances in what is perhaps Bava’s most lyrical and daring film.

Castle of Blood (1964)

Journalist Alan Foster accepts a bet with Edgar Allan Poe: to spend an entire night in an abandoned castle on All Hallows’ Eve. During the night, the castle becomes populated by the ghosts of its past inhabitants, who eternally relive their tragic deaths and attempt to lure the stranger into their infinite cycle of blood and damnation.

Antonio Margheriti crafts a classic of pure Gothic, shot in atmospheric black and white that enhances the shadows of Bracciano Castle. The film is a romantic and funereal reflection on time and death, with Barbara Steele once again embodying spectral beauty. Its circular structure and rarefied atmosphere make it one of the most beloved titles among fans worldwide.

The Long Hair of Death (1964)

In the 15th century, a woman is unjustly burned at the stake for witchcraft. Her curse strikes the noble Karnstein family, leading to the violent deaths of those responsible. Years later, a mysterious woman appears at the castle, bringing turmoil and seduction, while the specter of the executed woman seems to return from the grave to claim her ultimate revenge.

Also directed by Antonio Margheriti and shot in black and white, the film is a dark tale of vengeance and superstition. It is distinguished by a particularly cruel tone and the ability to use set design to create a sense of constant oppression. Barbara Steele, in the role of the vengeful daughter, delivers one of her most glacial and fascinating performances.

An Angel for Satan (1966)

Aristocrat Harriet returns to her family village after years of absence. Coinciding with the discovery of an ancient evil statue in a nearby lake, the girl begins to manifest a perverse and wicked personality, driving the locals to commit crimes and violence. It is suspected that Harriet is possessed by the cursed spirit depicted in the sculpture.

Camillo Mastrocinque directs Barbara Steele (in her final appearance in classic Italian Gothic) in a drama with supernatural overtones. The film plays on the ambiguity between clinical madness and demonic possession, utilizing the contrast of black and white to emphasize the protagonist’s duality. It is a work that worthily closes the golden era, focusing on a more suggested and atmospheric horror.

Kill, Baby… Kill! (1966)

A coroner arrives in a remote Central European village for an autopsy, discovering a population terrified by the ghost of a young girl, Melissa Graps. Anyone who sees little Melissa or hears the sound of her white ball is destined for a violent death, the victim of a curse linked to a tragic event in the local villa’s past.

Considered one of Mario Bava’s creative peaks, Kill, Baby… Kill! is a triumph of visual invention despite a limited budget. The image of the pale girl is now a genre archetype (homaged by Fellini and J-Horror). The film is a waking nightmare where the laws of physics and time collapse, earning praise at its Rome premiere even from master Luchino Visconti.

The Witch in Love (1966)

Sergio, a young unemployed librarian, accepts a job organizing the erotic archives of the late husband of the mysterious Consuelo, who lives in an ancient Roman palace. There, he becomes enchanted by Consuelo’s beautiful niece, Aura, but soon finds himself trapped in a game of mirrors and transformations: Aura’s youth seems to be fueled by Consuelo’s black magic in an eternal cycle of seduction and death.

Directed by Damiano Damiani and based on the novel Aura by Carlos Fuentes, the film is a refined example of urban Gothic shot in high-contrast black and white. Rather than visual terror, the work focuses on a morbid and psychological atmosphere, exploring the theme of witchcraft as a metaphor for romantic obsession and decadence. It is an atypical film that blends auteur cinema with the darker suggestions of the genre.

A Quiet Place in the Country (1968)

Leonardo Ferri, a successful painter on the verge of a nervous breakdown, seeks refuge in an abandoned Venetian villa to find inspiration. However, the house is haunted by the memory of Wanda, a young nymphomaniac countess killed during the war. Leonardo slides into a spiral of madness, obsessed by the woman’s specter, as the boundary between reality, erotic desire, and his artistic visions tragically dissolves.

Elio Petri delivers a pop-Gothic masterpiece that breaks genre conventions, using frantic editing and Ennio Morricone’s experimental score. Starring Franco Nero and Vanessa Redgrave, the film is an acidic reflection on the artist’s role and fetishism. Despite the sunny setting, horror emerges from the protagonist’s diseased psyche, making it one of the most modern and unsettling titles of the late 1960s.

Spirits of the Dead (1968)

This anthology film adapts three famous tales by Edgar Allan Poe. In Roger Vadim’s Metzengerstein, a cruel noblewoman is haunted by a demonic horse; in Louis Malle’s William Wilson, an Austrian officer is tormented by his double; finally, in Federico Fellini’s Toby Dammit, an alcoholic actor is lured toward death by a spectral girl playing with a white ball.

The work represents the meeting of literary Gothic and the sensibilities of great European cinema masters. While the first two episodes remain closer to traditional aesthetics, Fellini’s segment is considered an absolute masterpiece of modern fantasy, creating a hellish and dreamlike Rome. Fellini’s image of the devil-girl left such an imprint on the collective imagination that it directly influenced Mario Bava’s later horror films.

The Doll of Satan (1969)

Elisabeth returns to her family castle after her uncle’s death to take possession, ignoring local legends that claim the manor is haunted. Soon, a series of murder attempts and unsettling apparitions linked to a mysterious doll push her toward madness. Amidst secret passages and medieval tortures, the girl must discover whether a demonic entity or a more earthly conspiracy lies behind the horror.

The debut and only directorial effort of Ferruccio Casapinta, the film is a “giallo-Gothic” that echoes 1960s classics at a time when the genre was already shifting. Despite a limited budget, the work succeeds in building a gloomily threatening atmosphere thanks to the suggestive sets of Balsorano Castle. It is a title beloved by cultists for its naive but genuinely macabre charm.

A Hatchet for the Honeymoon (1970)

John Harrington is the young owner of a bridal fashion house, haunted by a childhood trauma that drives him to kill young women on their wedding night. Convinced that each murder reveals a piece of his suppressed past, John continues his bloodbath even after killing his wife Mildred, whose ghost ironically continues to haunt him, preventing him from enjoying his freedom.

Mario Bava delivers one of his most cynical and visually daring films, anticipating the modern slasher. The film blends the giallo structure with supernatural Gothic elements, creating a mad but almost sympathetic protagonist in his delusion. The saturated color cinematography and macabre irony make this film a fundamental bridge between classic Gothic and 1970s psychological thrillers.

They Have Changed Faces (1971)

Alberto Valle, an employee of a large automobile company, is invited to the isolated villa of his president, the enigmatic Giovanni Nosferatu. There he discovers that the man is not just a successful industrialist, but a kind of modern vampire who doesn’t drink blood, but controls the masses through consumerism and technology, offering Alberto a promotion that requires the total loss of his dignity.

Corrado Farina directs a biting social satire disguised as Gothic horror, winning the Golden Leopard at Locarno. The film reinterprets the Dracula myth in a capitalistic key, turning the castle into a high-tech villa shrouded in mist. Despite budget constraints and some didactic passages, it remains a highly intelligent work that uses horror aesthetics to criticize consumer society.

The Red Queen Kills Seven Times (1972)

A curse strikes the Wildenbrück family: every hundred years, the “Red Queen” returns to kill seven people. When a series of murders begins to strike the friends and relatives of sisters Kitty and Franziska, terror spreads through their castle. The legend seems to come to life as a figure dressed in red appears in the shadows to claim her victims before the bloody cycle closes.

Emilio Miraglia perfectly fuses the Italian giallo with classic Gothic atmospheres. Starring the stunning Barbara Bouchet, the film masterfully plays with mystery and ancestral legend. The figure of the Red Queen, with her eerie laugh, has become a genre icon, making the film a cult favorite for those seeking a mix of formal elegance, mystery, and thrills.

The Night of the Devils (1972)

A young man becomes a victim of a car accident near an isolated villa inhabited by a strange family. The patriarch lives in fear of having been infected by a “Wurdalak,” a vampire that feeds only on the blood of its own loved ones. The guest finds himself prisoner of an archaic nightmare, where blood ties become a death sentence in a night that seems never-ending.

Giorgio Ferroni returns to the horror genre with this remake of The Wurdalak (previously filmed by Bava in Black Sabbath), moving the action to the present day. Despite some production limits, the film shines with a sickly atmosphere and some strong visual impact scenes. It is a dark and hopeless work that transports rural vampire folklore into a claustrophobic and violent dimension.

Lisa and the Devil (1974)

Lisa, a tourist on holiday in Toledo, gets lost in the city’s alleys and finds refuge in a decaying aristocratic villa. There she meets a butler, played by Telly Savalas, who bears an unsettling resemblance to a depiction of the devil. The girl becomes trapped in a time loop where life and death, past and present merge in a macabre theater of human puppets.

Considered Mario Bava’s spiritual testament, the film is a lyrical, dreamlike, and deeply melancholic work. Initially rejected by distributors and later re-edited as House of Exorcism, in its original version, it is a visual poem on death and destiny. The beauty of the cinematography and the surreal narrative make it one of the absolute peaks of world Gothic.

Footprints (1975)

Alice, a translator, suffers from amnesia and nightmares linked to a science fiction film she saw in childhood. Following faint clues, she arrives at Garma, a Turkish island where everyone seems to know her as another person. Her search for the truth leads her to confront a buried trauma and the mysterious figure of an astronaut, in a crescendo of paranoia where her identity finally shatters.

Luigi Bazzoni directs a psychological thriller with very strong Gothic and science fiction overtones. The film is dominated by Florinda Bolkan’s extraordinary performance and Vittorio Storaro’s cinematography, which transforms desert landscapes into places of the soul. It is a sophisticated and unsettling work that explores the territories of dreams and madness with a visual elegance rarely achieved in genre cinema.

The House with Laughing Windows (1976)

Stefano, a young restorer, is called to a village in the Comacchio valleys to recover a mural depicting the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, the work of a mad painter who committed suicide years earlier. As the work progresses, Stefano discovers that the village hides a horrific secret linked to the painter and his sisters, while an invisible presence begins to eliminate anyone who tries to help him.

Pupi Avati invents “Po Valley Gothic,” shifting the horror from classic castles to the bright and sickly light of the Emilian countryside. The film is a masterpiece of building tension, where fear arises from the unspoken and distorted peasant traditions. The shocking and grotesque ending has remained etched in the history of Italian cinema, establishing Avati as a master of the genre.

Lost Soul (1977)

Young Tino arrives in Venice to study painting and is hosted by his aunt and uncle in a decaying noble palace. Uncle Fabio, an authoritarian and austere man, hides a terrible secret: a constant noise coming from the attic suggests the presence of a mad brother locked away for years. Tino begins to investigate, discovering a reality made of sexual obsessions and unresolved traumas.

Dino Risi moves away from comedy to direct a Gothic drama set in a funereal, wintery Venice. Starring Vittorio Gassman and Catherine Deneuve, the film plays with the theme of the double and the decomposition of the nobility. It is a subtle and unsettling work that uses the city’s labyrinthine architecture to tell the story of its protagonists’ psychological prison.

The Psychic (1977)

Virginia, a woman gifted with extrasensory powers, has a vision of a murder that took place years earlier: a woman walled up alive in a villa owned by her husband. When she decides to tear down the wall and finds the skeleton, a race against time begins to find the culprit. However, her visions are fragmentary, and Virginia realizes too late that the future she saw hasn’t happened yet.

Lucio Fulci creates one of his most balanced and brilliant films, a parapsychological thriller that perfectly utilizes suspense mechanisms. The plot is a perfect puzzle where every visual detail of the premonitions finds its place in the breathtaking finale. Far from his later gore excesses, Fulci demonstrates absolute directorial mastery here, creating a classic of the genre admired even by Quentin Tarantino.

Shock (1977)

Daria returns to live in the house where her first husband committed suicide, bringing with her her son Marco and new partner Bruno. Soon the child begins to show disturbing behaviors, as if possessed by the spirit of his dead father, while the house seems to come alive to haunt the woman and make her confess a terrible truth linked to her ex-husband’s death.

The last film directed by Mario Bava (with the collaboration of his son Lamberto), Shock is a claustrophobic psychological horror that relies more on visual ingenuity than special effects. Daria Nicolodi gives an intense performance in a crescendo of domestic madness. Despite a simple plot, the film shines with spectacular directorial inventions that demonstrate Bava’s creative vitality until the end of his career.

Suspiria (1977)

Suzy Benner, an American dance student, arrives in Freiburg to attend a prestigious academy. After a series of brutal murders strike the students, Suzy discovers that the school is actually the seat of a coven of witches led by the powerful Mater Suspiriorum. To survive, she must delve into the school’s labyrinthine corridors and face an ancient and relentless evil.

Dario Argento signs his absolute masterpiece, turning Gothic into a psychedelic sensory experience. Luciano Tovoli’s use of primary colors and the deafening soundtrack by Goblin create an unprecedented dark fairy tale. Suspiria is not just a horror film, but a triumph of baroque aesthetics and choreographic violence that redefined the genre internationally.

Hotel Fear (1978)

During the last years of World War II, in an isolated hotel on a lake, young Rosa finds herself managing the facility after her mother’s death. The hotel guests are ambiguous and violent characters who abuse the girl, while a mysterious figure begins to kill them one by one. Rosa slides into an infantile regression to escape the horror of a brutal reality with no way out.

Francesco Barilli directs a murky work that blends historical drama and claustrophobic Gothic horror. The film focuses on human degradation and the loss of innocence, creating an oppressive and sickly atmosphere. It is a difficult and disturbing title that uses the decaying setting to tell the story of the psychological wounds inflicted by war and perversion.

Beyond the Darkness (1979)

Francesco, a young taxidermist shattered by grief over his girlfriend’s death, decides to exhume her body to embalm her and keep her in his bed. Assisted by a jealous and complicit housekeeper, the man begins a descent into murderous madness to hide his secret and procure new “parts” for his macabre obsession, turning his villa into a slaughterhouse.

Joe D’Amato signs one of the most extreme and controversial films of the genre, merging necrophilia, gore, and Gothic atmospheres. Despite its provocative nature and low budget, the film possesses solid direction and a melancholic atmosphere that elevates it above simple trash cinema. The soundtrack by Goblin contributes to making the film an absolute cult for lovers of radical horror.

The Stars in the Ditch (1979)

In an isolated villa in the 18th-century Po Valley, a beautiful woman suddenly appears to a group of peasants and artisans. Her presence triggers stories, legends, and reflections on life, death, and love. The woman seems to be a fairy-like entity or a ghost embodying the desires and fears of the men, vanishing just as she had appeared in the silence of the countryside.

Pupi Avati returns to the atmosphere of the fantastic with a rarefied and poetic work, almost theatrical in nature. Rather than a horror film, it is a rural fairy tale celebrating oral tradition and country folklore. Although less tense than his previous works, the film fascinates with its refined aesthetics and its ability to evoke a magical world lost among the mists of the Padan ditches.