The five people who betrayed an occultist dominating those around him, Dr Hauff aregradually killed in turn for revenge as he seems to have returned from the grave. His spirit directs the killing in a castle connected with the plague deaths, where the cut off hands of the plague victims are displayed in a cabinet. A solicitor is bought in seemingly by the dead man to do his will, the instigation to the carnival of death. Barbara Steele stars as his treacherous wife and while she provides sultry, moody presence in this film she is given little to do and the film suffers for it. The direction is slow, the deaths taking place mainly off screen leaving the film without incident. For much of the film it plays like a gothic giallo before the build up towards the end.
With a storm, the plague dead returning from the grave and the disembodied hands moving their fingers the tension does start to mount. A scene showing the basis of the betrayal is fairly effective and there are many useful stock items such as cracking mirrors and ticking clocks that help provide some atmosphere. However in the end it really doesn't amount to much and you can't help feel the film should have had more work before filming. It really isn't scary enough although the basic ingredients are there. The setting is excellent and in the hands of someone like Mario Bava this could have been a minor classic. However it feels merely functional and in a year that saw surreal ghost classics like KILL BABY KILL, the definitive zombie film PLAGUE OF THE ZOMBIES and an effective gothic slasher in MURDER CLINIC, this feels like a routine fifties film rather than of its time. The ending of purifying rain destroying evil is strong but done in a fairly average way. Any power established in the film is through the deployment of horror symbols and sweeping camera work. However in direction the film is dragged into cliché with little flair for the genre. Worth a watch but not in comparison to the Fred, Bava or Margherreti films of the time. 7/10.
Special Thanks to Mark Coyle for this Movie Review.