From the 1960s to the 70s, Italy was quite notorious for its horror cinema, serving as a haven of excessive gore, Gothic aesthetics, and every shade of macabre. Particularly popular was the giallo genre and its unholy trinity—Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, and Dario Argento of Suspiria fame—but it was also the heyday of exploitation, B-movies, cheap slashers, and erotic mysteries. Many of such Italian horror movies were set in a bleak old castle on the hilltop, where a mad scientist or a mysterious vampire lives away from the town below, served by…
