 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. This is for the 1963 Italian horror film The Whip and the Body. It's a Mario Baba film, and if you are into Mario Baba or want to know more about Mario Baba, I actually created an entire playlist on my channel for Mario Baba film reviews. So I'm getting deep in Baba, and that's because Shudder dumped a bunch of Mario Baba films on their streaming service. And when I'm doing this review, that's where I watch the film, and it's still there, at least as far as I know. Directed by Mario Baba, like I said, who's done other films such as Black Sunday, Black Sabbath, A Bay of Blood, Blood and Black Lace, Planet of the Vampires, Kill Baby Kill, Five Dolls for an August Moon, Hatchet for the Honeymoon, and The Girl Who Knew Too Much, Oh, and Shock, which I have reviews at the moment for Blood and Black Lace, Shock, and the... what's the other one? Oh, A Bay of Blood, sorry. This one's written by a few people. Ernesto Gestaldi being one who also wrote scripts for The Vampire and the Ballerina, Werewolf and a Girl's Dormitory. That sounds interesting. The Strange Vice of Mrs. Ward, which is a great giola film, and I have a review for it on my channel. The Case of the Scorpions Tale, All the Colors of the Dark, which I also have a review for. The Case of the Bloody Iris, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key. Torso, which I've heard a lot of people say is one of the best giola films. The Suspicious Death of a Minor and the Scorpion with Two Tales, so obviously that guy was involved in doing a lot of giola writing later on in life. Also, Ugo Guerra, who did scripts for The Rage Within and a bunch of, you know, war and pirate films, which was a whole phase within Italian filmmaking. And Luciano Martino, who did scripts for Two Hell and Back, So Sweet, So Perverse, Your Vice is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key, Screamers and Delirium. Gestaldi was shown the film The Pit in the Pendulum by Roger Corman and was told to kind of write something similar to that. Now, this kind of highlights how influential Roger Corman is. We've all known this for quite some time that Corman has influenced so many filmmakers, so many film writers. But once I read this in my research, I was like, oh my gosh, I didn't know that his influence went all the way to Italy. I mean, I knew it was steeped very much in American filmmaking and probably English filmmaking as well. But Italian, that was news to me. This film was released in the United Kingdom as Night is the Phantom and in the United States as what? Literally, it was W-H-A-T with an exclamation point. So what? Not a good title, but you know, the Night is the Phantom is much better. But The Whip in the Body, also not that great. I think Night is the Phantom was probably the best title it went by. The cast and crew were made to use English names for this as a way to kind of try and fool audiences to get a better chance of distribution for the film in the U.K. and the U.S. So, okay. I think honestly, just the fact that they had Christopher Lee in the film should have probably been enough to get that distribution. Although honestly, I would have liked to have seen Christopher Lee be in a more substantial role in the film. I mean, his role is important to the film and is focused upon, but I want to see him in it more because his acting is so great, obviously, especially in this film. When he's on screen, his just his gesturing, the way he moves, it's like he glides into a scene and his delivery, like the look on his face, his physical acting is wonderful. And physical acting is pretty much all you can focus on in this because one of the other tidbits to know is they dubbed over everyone's voices, including Christopher Lee's, and didn't get Christopher Lee to dub over his own voice. So that's not Christopher Lee's voice in the film. They missed an opportunity there, they should have stuck with that. But regardless, he did a great job. Like the film, A Bay of Blood, also done by Baba, it starts with a body of water as the sun is going down and then there's a castle. That is exactly what happens in the beginning of Bay of Blood. It's weird. And like I said in my review for the film Shock, it seems that Baba really likes to have bodies of water in his films. This is no exception at all. And then with this one, he also has a castle. So I wrote, and also like in the beginning of A Bay of Blood, the carefully placed lightning and use of cool looking shadows is outstanding. So after showing the outside of the castle, obviously they go to the inside of the castle and there's lightning that's used, much like in A Bay of Blood. And just the aesthetic of the way light and shadows are used, especially in this film, but in A Bay of Blood it's done as well. So cool. Looks so good. And it's not just regular light and shadows in this particular film, it's also colored lights and how those get used, which I'll talk about a little bit more later with specific scenes I want to call out as being particularly good looking. But overall, I love the visuals that Baba gets in this film and a lot of his other films. And like I said, that play of like a light versus shadow and how it falls on characters, faces and how they move through it is so mesmerizing to watch in my opinion. Overall, I don't think this is like a great film, but from a visual standpoint, I love watching it. It's just so interesting because of that. There's never a question that the character of Kurt, who's the one played by Christopher Lee, is a bad guy in this film because as soon as he basically shows up, everyone voices his displeasure for him as a person. Then you get the moment of him going and committing violence against Nevenka, the main character. And you're just like, okay, I already thought he was a bad guy because everyone hates him and says he's a bad guy. Now we know even further. And you know, crossing into this kind of almost rape type area where he just started whipping her, which for back then was probably pretty shocking. You know, nowadays it's a little bit different because we've seen so much worse, but back then it was probably a pretty shocking moment, honestly. Like I wrote down, but Bear's repeating, Christopher Lee's acting pulls you into the movie. That's another thing about it. It really pulls you into the movie whenever he's on screen. And I wrote he has a way of slickly gliding through his scenes. And that is why I wanted more of him in the film. He should have had way more screen time also because of he was a big name. So I don't know. The moment Kurt starts whipping Nevenka and says she always liked violence. It seems to be their phrase shockingly alluring moment. And like I was saying, it kind of is, but watching it nowadays, it's not as much of an impact. Now it's interesting because later on they kind of bring it into, well, there are a few moments where they show these little glimpses of Nevenka actually kind of liking the violence after it's happened. But while it's going, you know, leading up to it and while it's happening, she's very much resisting it. So that's why I say there's kind of like this rape subtext going, well, maybe not even subtext, but it's almost like rape. Even though that there's no sex involved, there's like a sexual aspect to it because it's a fetish, obviously for Kurt and indicates that it's kind of a fetish for Nevenka. But there's this weird gray area where like she's refusing it and she doesn't want it. So that's kind of rape. And then she likes it. So I don't really like the character. The character is very messy, especially for nowadays. Back then I understand it was very different. The castle setting for this is excellent. The way it's done up for the scenes, the way they did the set design, really, really good. It really adds a lot to the atmosphere and just the overall feel of the film. So I really like the setting of it. Looks great. The part where Kurt gets stabbed, it really legitimately looked like the curtains stabbed him. I think in the end it was supposed to have been Nevenka hiding in the curtains and she stabbed him and then got away. But it really seemed like the curtains stabbed him. It looked weird. It looked weird and I laughed because it was pretty funny. And it was unexpected. That's another thing about it. I like the sound of the whip when they were using it, when it initially comes up and you kind of think, oh, he's in, you know, his ghost is haunting, he's in the castle. And then initially she's, you know, Nevenka's looking for the source of it and she finds that it's, you know, some windows that it opened and a tree limb is kind of like whipping into the castle and making that whipping noise. I think that was cool. Not just the reveal, but the way that shot looked because the whipping was coming at the camera and it worked really well for that reason. The sound was a little weird, but it worked, the actual visuals of it. Because only Nevenka is experiencing the ghost of Kurt. You do kind of start to wonder if it's actually happening or if this is another one of those films, which, you know, this was done a lot in film, especially older times, because now it's more cliche. There's the question of, is this just in her head? Is she a reliable narrator for this film or not, or for the story or not? And you, I did, as an audience member, question it a few times. I was like, we're seeing it from her perspective. And when she says things to other people, no one else has experienced it. But then eventually at the end, the, I forget the character's name, that guy, the main guy who I think was her husband, he ends up experiencing it. And we find out that it wasn't all BS. But for a lot of the film, you kind of question, is this real or is it in her head? The shot of Kurt's hand coming at the camera through the dark is amazing. That's when Nevenka was in her bedroom and he shows up in her bedroom. Yeah, his hand coming through the dark and you don't see any more of him. And it's coming right at the camera. So cool. And Bob has done that before. In my review for the film Shock, I was talking about how there were a bunch of shots where things are coming at the camera and it just looks good. And also like I just referenced about, you know, the tree limb whipping at the camera, those things look cool because I think it immerses you more in the story. And it makes you kind of feel more like you're there. Like those things are interacting with you specifically as a viewer pulling you into the actual story. So I like that. The music in this film looms very heavily throughout it, which I really don't enjoy, but I understand it because of the time period. You know, it was common then and sometimes it's still kind of common, but you know, music heavy in the film. I like more restrained music, but you know, it is what it is. You know, you can't change that. That's the way it was. I accept that. So it bothers me, but I'm really hold it against the film. The lighting color changes on Kurt's face as he moved towards Nevenka in the dark were extremely well done. It was awesome. That one scene where like he's stationary and his face is kind of has like a blueish hue to it. And then he starts, I think it's blue. Yeah, he starts off with it with like a blueish hue on his face. And then he starts moving and then one side of his face is green. And then it's dark and then it's red on the other side. I think those types of shots are really cool. And I love that Baba does those types of visuals. A lot of his directorial stuff, I really like his kind of flair, his panache for things. And it actually makes me wonder if, you know, his kind of uses of color like that in that film, did that go on to influence anyone like Dario Argento? I don't know. It's a question. I do like how Nevenka thinks she's going to kill Kurt again, but ends up stabbing herself instead in the end. Because in her mind, or actually to her, because the other people didn't see it, you know, she's hugging Kurt at that point. And then I just thought, you know, she's fully embracing him. She's going to be with him, all that stuff. And then she pulls out the knife from out of nowhere. And I was like, oh, she's going to try and kill him. But then you see from the standpoint of the other characters that there's nobody there, like she's hugging nothing, but she has the knife. And that's when it dawned on me. I was like, oh, she's going to end up stabbing herself because she's going to try and kill him. And that's exactly what happened. I like that twist to it. It's kind of cool. And in the end, she basically did end up becoming, you know, being with him because she kills herself, she becomes spirit. They can be together again. And I guess she kind of, she had said at one point that like he, she did like him, like that was her true love kind of, I guess, something like that. Maybe it wasn't all just like this fetish thing. I don't know. The shot construction, camera movements and lighting are the real reasons to watch this film. Like I said, the story is not that great. It's kind of the, but the looks, you know, like I said, the set design is so great. The camera movements are great. The, just the construction of each of the scenes is great. Chris release is great. You know, there are a lot of great things to the film, but the stories just is lacking. It's lacking for sure. All the characters are underdeveloped or I'm sorry, undeveloped. There really is no development with any of the characters really, except for the Venka kind of, and they're all one-dimensional, which makes it really kind of hard to feel invested in the film in general. I mean, I know that Nevenka is the main character. And so she's supposed to be the focal point, but you don't really have much of any backstory on her. You don't have backstory on like anyone for the most part. And it's like, how are you supposed to really care about things? You know, they just jump into things and just be like, Oh, just experience this stuff going on. It just doesn't work that well. This film, I don't think intentionally, but now it ends up kind of speaking to who are people who are victimized by someone who often feel that that person is still coming to get them, even though they're not actually around. Now, obviously that scene in that Kurt is dead, but Nevenka keeps thinking that he's coming for her. And he is like his ghost is in this, but I think it kind of highlights that people who have been victimized still carry that mentality. Like they can't get away from it, the feeling that that person's still coming for them. And this has actually been documented with people who have been in traumatic situations of, you know, rapists or people trying to kill them, stuff like that is that they just can't shake this feeling like that that person's going to come back or they're still coming for them. So this film kind of, you know, plays that quite well because there is the setup of, you know, Kurt coming after her in the beginning of the film and whipping her. So that's the traumatic experience. The specter of Kurt Haunst and Nevenka, because he needs to victimize her again, that's the other thing to note about this, is that Kurt feels this, that he must have control of Nevenka, must have control of her. And so he's even in the afterlife coming after her, trying to control her, trying to have her. And he does in the end, obviously, because he gets her to kill herself. I think that was kind of premeditated by him as a ghost. He gets her to kill herself so that they can spiritually be together and he will have her again and control her. But then there is that little bit of question as to does she want that or not? Because they do this thing where they're going between she doesn't want it, she does want it. So if there was more to the story, maybe you would find that out. But no, but yeah. So anyway, not my favorite of Baba's films. It was okay. Like I said, the visuals are great. So it was good to watch once. I don't think this is one I would revisit really. But so that makes it hard to rate it a little bit. So out of five stars with half stars in play, I got to go two and a half on the film because I was between kind of two and two and a half, but the visuals are so good and I like Christopher Lee in it. And some of those shot constructions are really awesome in the castle setting. So I'm going to give it two and a half. So I'm pretty in the middle on the film. But let me know your thoughts. Let's put some comments down here. How do you feel about the whip and the body? Do you like me wish there was more Christopher Lee in this? That's really what this film needed in addition to more story and backstory. But yeah, let me know your opinions and we'll talk about it. But do me a quick favor, hit that subscribe button. If you like this video or any video I've ever done, that is your best way to repay me. 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