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The Whip and the Body

1963

La frusta e il corpo

Directed by Mario Bava

Evil horror!!!

Disowned in the past by his father, Kurt Menliff, a cruel and sadistic nobleman, returns to the family castle to reclaim his inheritance.

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Daliah Lavi Christopher Lee Tony Kendall Ida Galli Harriet Medin Gustavo De Nardo Jacques Herlin Luciano Pigozzi

Alternative Titles

Night Is the Phantom, What?, Der Mörder von Schloß Menliff, The Whip and the Flesh, Het gegeseld lichaam, Rêves macabres, Pisken og kroppen, A hús és a test, What†, Der Dämon und die Jungfrau, Le Corps et le Fouet, Drácula, o Vampiro do Sexo, El cuerpo y el látigo, 鞭子与肉体, O Chicote e o Corpo, Плеть и тело, 채찍과 시체, Bicz i ciało, 白い肌に狂う鞭

Genres

Drama Horror

Themes

Intense violence and sexual transgression Horror, the undead and monster classics Terrifying, haunted, and supernatural horror Creepy, chilling, and terrifying horror Gothic and eerie haunting horror Erotic relationships and desire Gory, gruesome, and slasher horror Show All…

Theatrical

29 Aug 1963

Italy

14 Jun 1964

Japan

10 Dec 1965

26 Jan 1966

France

01 Jan 1967

Austria12

09 Jun 1967

Germany12

Austria

01 Jan 1967

Theatrical12

France

26 Jan 1966

Theatrical

Germany

09 Jun 1967

Theatrical12

Italy

29 Aug 1963

Theatrical

Japan

14 Jun 1964

Theatrical

USA

10 Dec 1965

Theatrical 77 min.

87 mins More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by Filipe Furtado ★★★★★

Desire and physical damnation. Mario Bava starts with Fisher's Horror of Dracula, shifts the perspective from the avengers to the victim and twists the puritan hysteria towards a form of catholic torture every bit as perverse and masochistic. To give away to desire is to seek a form of self-anihilation. No one has ever painted in variations of black with such vivid detail.
Review by Ian West ★★★★ 3

There's more knife than whip but that's fine because Bava does his usual creating a stylish, deliberately paced, gothic feast for the eyes via wonderful set design, stellar cinematography, and an an almost monochromatic color scheme mixed with his ever present manipulations of shadow. A deviant ghost lover, a castle complete with crypt and secret passageways, ghostly muddy footprints, an ominous beach, The Whip and the Body is quite the captivating story of love, denial, and S&M with Christopher Lee ramping up levels of sadistic scumbaggery in ways we may never seen from him prior.
Dubbing never really bothers me since I’ve become so used to it, but the continuous use of the score and a leetle sluggish pacing here and there…
Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★ 2

Spooktober IV: Morte all'italiana
From one staple name in the giallo world to the one that some say got the ball rolling, Mario Bava’s first entry in this marathon sees him diving into the gothic horror genre under a silly pseudonym (John M. Old) and the icon of the genre himself, Christopher Lee, doing what he knew what to do best back in the day: torture beautiful woman and wanting to take their souls.
Visually speaking, the film is stunning to look at with some of the best cinematography and production design on a Bava’s movie. He also does a great job capturing much of the tone of these films, the blend between lushy romance, melodrama, and horror. Lee is…
Review by matt lynch ★★★★

Sexual liberation through pain and death, somehow only Bava's second most erotic film.
Review by clare ★★★★ 4

So many of Bava's films take place in remote or near abandoned places -- Kill, Baby, Kill!'s remote village, the isolated farm house in Black Sabbath's wurdulak sequence, deserted planets in Planet of the Vampires, or even, for a more modern example, the nearly uninhabited island of 5 Dolls for an August Moon. But none of them felt quite as remote as The Whip and the Body.
Bava punctuates the film over and over with long shots of a lonely sea shore, the dark silhouette of a castle brooding above it. The sun, at times, a dim pinprick of light in the deep distance. This, to me, is the film's dominant, central image. The dimming light of a (dying?) world.…
Review by Diogo Serafim ★★★½ 2

love as an act of masochism, the only conceivable way of reconciling yourself with the other under this obsessive passion is by annihilating oneself. tonally, this is one of the bleakest films ever made, among rays of blue and purple, an aristocratic nucleus being torn apart by suppressed desire. the off-beat redundancy of some sequences and the punctually rigid dramaturgy constitute a mesmerizing flow of monumental images addressing fear, desire, property and our conception of ethics.
Review by sakana1 ★★★★½ 19

Spoilers ahead.
“There’s always suspicion about a woman’s truth.”
— Kathleen Hanna
Until its awkward last 10 minutes, Mario Bava's The Whip and the Body is a fascinating examination of the role of women in their own lives, and the ways they find to exert power in a patriarchal system.
In many ways, Nevenka (Daliah Lavi, whose tiny mouth and huge eyes call to mind the work of painter Margaret Keane, and only serve to enhance the film's sumptuous air of unreality) is a stereotypically horror heroine. Tortured by forces beyond her control and unseen by others, she initially appears to be framed simply as 'victim,' and as someone in need of salvation by men — from herself most of…
Review by Tony the Terror ★★★ 8

Horror x52 (2018) Weekly Challenge
Week 3: Dead Director
I know what I’m about to say is complete heresy, but here we go: this is my least favorite Bava film. You can @ me all you want but I just can’t get into it. I’ve tried several times and each time my mind refuses to stay focused. I know this makes me a terrible person and I’m sorry.
Even though I find most of this far too slow and the plot developments pretty underwhelming, I will say that this film looks just beautiful. It’s stylish, monochromatic color palette is very easy on the eyes. The gothic sets are beautiful. Honestly, I feel bad for merely liking this and not loving it, but after the 3rd or 4th try...a spade’s a spade, right?
Christopher Lee is always fun to watch tho and the whole S&M thing was pretty bold for 1963. Only in Europe...
Review by Slig001 ★★★★½ 1

Just watched the new 88 Films restoration of this classic. Mario Bava's technicolor Gothic nightmare really has never looked better. Those colours really pop. Bava employs the full palette to showcase his artistry - so many scenes bathed in deep hues. The scene composition here can be appreciated like never before What a genius the man was! The beautiful composition is offset by the ugly narrative - a tale of sadomasochism from beyond the grave. Love and death with the former explored by way of twisted desire and obsession. The atmosphere is one of oppressive melancholy - the two central characters existing between the realms of love and hate, while that sorrowful soundtrack imbues the dour mood still further. The…
Review by sydney ★★★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

tfw the memory of your abusive ex controls you until it ruins the life you're trying to build with someone else and you accidentally-on-purpose kill yourself just to quiet his terrifying memory and your own inescapable traitorous temptation!! lol! am i right ladies!

~ triple feature with wuthering heights & neither the sea nor the sand <3 ~
Review by SilentDawn ★★★★

76/100
Crashing waves and muddy, lingering footsteps become motifs in a simply staggering ghost story; a relationship piece which dissolves into flame and orgasmic torture. Performances take on the nature of an impression rather than a typical human presence, and it supports the ethereal Gothic trappings, all rolling storms and reverberating pasts.
Review by Slig001 ★★★★

Mario Bava's ethereal Gothic fantasy is expertly crafted; the sets and lighting set the atmosphere while the melancholy music sets the mood. The Whip and the Body in some ways feels like it could be part of Roger Corman's Poe cycle, except Bava really pushes the envelope with the brutal masochistic whipping scenes. The story revolves around love and obsession as a sadistic nobleman tries to rekindle his relationship with his former lover, both in life and in death. The castle in which everything takes place is beautifully realised - complete with secret passages and a family crypt. The atmosphere is exquisite and is augmented by the howling wind, spider webs, muddy footprints and more. The central relationship is brilliantly…