'THE WHIP AND THE BODY'.......50 SHADES OF CHRISTOPHER LEE........

The Whip And The Body (1963)   The master cinematographer-director Mario Bava understood the essence of horror movies like few other filmmakers.......

              He envisioned them as waking nightmares........extended bad dreams.........and just like real dreams, horror on film could be senseless, disjointed, defying all rationality and reason.....

              ........and with the untethering of reality, Bava freed his horror films to accomplish their primary goad.....

  

                  ........to scare the living crap out of you....with the kind of stuff that wakes you up in the middle of the night.

                 Thinly constructed as an imitation of an Edgar Allen Poe gothic tale, "The Whip And The Body" provides Bava, a supreme visualist. with everything he needs.........a windswept seaside castle and a malevolent, black-clad noble (Sir Christopher Lee)......who harbors a sadistic obsession with his brother's stunning finance.....(Daliah Lavi, out-Steele-ing Barbara Steele in terrified hysteria.....)

                  You should make no attempt to grasp the plot, what there is of it.........this movie functions only as an eye popping  dreamy bad  dream.......Bava's restless camera prowls the garishly lit rooms and corridors of his haunted castle, while composer Carlo Rustichelli's lush romantic theme plays almost non-stop through the entire film........

                    Lee's no vampire in this, but he's still outfitted like one.........and he's  every bit a sexual predator,regularly taking a whip to Lavi's exposed back. With Lee decked out like 'Wuthering Heights' Heathcliff and Lavi in perpetual sexual torment, these two become the very definition of a love-hate relationship.....on steroids.

                    Before long, murder, mystery, insanity and vengeful hauntings grip the castle household.....all of it rendered with lush,colorful elegance by Mario Bava.,........when a clutching hand comes out of the dark, filling the screen as it comes towards you, you know you're in the hands of a true cinematic artist........and he knows what scares you.

                    As you might have already guessed, Lee and Lavi's kinky you-only-hurt-the-one-you-love antics were way out of hand for 1963, outraging the censors in every country where the film showed its face........as a screwed up romantic fiend, Christopher Lee makes Jamie Dornan's "50 Shades Of Grey" character look like an Elf On The Shelf.......

                    Every one of you classic horror aficionados should seek this one out........cause BQ's shouting out 'Whip, Whip, Hooray!' with 3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2).....and watch out for that clutching hand......