If you’re anything like me -and for your sake, I hope you’re not- then you’re a fan of Italian gothic horror, a devotee of the candelabra, a Babs Steele stan, a see-through gown in a moonlit graveyard enthusiast, etc. The Italian gothics can be enjoyed on a dark and stormy night or a lazy Sunday afternoon when you’d rather not expose your delicate alabaster flesh to the sun’s piercing murder rays. If that all sounds good to you, then wrap yourself in your comforting blanket of cobwebs and sepulchral dirt and dig into the Danza Macabra boxset from Severin Films.

First up is The Monster of the Opera (1960), where an unlucky dance troupe picks an old theatre to rehearse in that is the home of a wacky vampire and his morose manservant. I naively thought that Renato Polselli wasn’t always a lunatic, but here he is with a story involving grown women in leotards behaving like schoolgirls, invisible walls, and a vampire using a pitchfork to poke his victims just like in ye vampire lore of olde (maybe). The inventive camerawork, amazing sets and locations, and beautiful actresses made up for when this film loses its way.

The finale of this film is one of the most baffling pieces of madness I’ve ever seen. There’s so much horny weirdness including (but not limited to) a very long sequence where everyone goes into a hyper manic state because if they stop dancing, the vampire will get them. I’ve always known deep down that the power of dance can defeat evil, but now I have proof. It’s not too surprising -especially if you’ve seen any of Polselli’s other films- that he is more concerned with being weird than being spooky.

The Seventh Grave (1965) is about some very distant relatives showing up to an old castle for the reading of a will, only to find themselves getting murdered one by one. Sadly, The Seventh Grave really didn’t do it for me. The spooky imagery and the inventive shots are cool, but the thin and predictable giallo plot just made this one drag. I am a sucker for a good séance sequence and this film certainly has a good one! The Seventh Grave is probably more for Italian horror and giallo completists. I’m glad it’s on Blu-ray finally since the downloads out there looks like total garbage, but the sets are more interesting than the story and the characters.

Scream of the Demon Lover (1970) is a Spanish/Italian coproduction from director José Luis Merino about a young biochemist (Erna Schurer) who heads out to a small village to work for a mad scientist and ends up running afoul of a horribly disfigured and sadistic madman. It is so nice to finally see Scream of the Demon Lover get a release here in the States. I’ve long championed this freaky and morbid little movie. The superbly staged shots of the colorful set designs and locations are truly eye catching, and the story that is equal parts naughty and tense is quite engaging. I’m looking forward to revisiting this film for years to come.

The last film in the boxset is the one and the only, Lady Frankenstein (1971), which stars Joseph Cotten as Baron Frankenstein passing his love of reanimating dead flesh down to his daughter, played by the extremely talented and EXTREMELY lovely Rosalba Neri. Of all the films in the set, Lady Frankenstein is the most death-obsessed, though it and Scream of the Demon Lover can fight over who is the most overtly sexual of the two. This film proves that anything a madman can do, a womadman can do better. Womadman. Is that like a common phrase or did I just make that up?

Anyway, Lady Frankenstein gets better with every viewing and is a must see for anyone looking to get into Italian horror although it was directed and written by Americans (with an Italian crew, natch)! Plus, this features one of the strangest Frankenstein’s monster designs ever committed to film. He looks like what would happen if a lightbulb, Paul Lynde, and a hippie fashion designer had a hideous baby together. The music by Alessandro Alessandroni is one of my favorite horror movie scores. It blends string arrangements, fuzz guitar, and minimal synthesizer noises perfectly, and has all kinds of memorable little hooks that get stuck in your head. You need to see this film now! Overall, I really hope that Severin has volumes two and three of the Italian gothic horror ready to go soon, because this is an awesome start.

There are some scratches on this print of The Monster of the Opera, but you won’t care. This restoration looks excellent. As far as extras go, there is an excellent commentary track by Kat Ellinger and an interview with Ernesto Gastaldi. Gastaldi seems like such a sweet dude. There’s an interview with actor and writer Mark Thompson-Ashworth about Italian gothic horror. There’s also an old audio interview with director Polselli himself.

The Seventh Grave is a bit more beat up during the credit sequence than the other films in the set but looks much better once the film gets going. The extras are way more exciting than the film. Film critic and podcaster Rachael Nisbet does an audio commentary track for the film and there’s an interview with film historian Fabio Melelli. There’s also a video essay by author and gothic scholar Rachel Knightley.

Scream of the Demon Lover is a vast improvement over the bootleg I have though the print it was sourced from is a little worse for wear. There are some big scratches and print damage off and on, but the colors are vibrant and over, it’s a very watchable copy. The English dubbing is a little muffled compared to the Italian track. There’s an audio commentary with film historian and podcaster Rod Barnett and writer Robert Monell. There’s an interview with Erna Schurer that is really fun, and the always awesome Stephen Thrower has a video essay about the film that is a must see.

The colors of Lady Frankenstein are vibrant, and the print looks immaculate. Maybe too immaculate for my tastes. I thought this presentation was a little too heavy handed with the noise reduction, but nobody else seems to be complaining about it, so what do I know? Some of the extras for Lady Frankenstein were brought over from another Blu-ray release, so it will probably take you days to go through it all. Highlights include two audio commentary tracks, one from Kat Ellinger and film scholar and podcaster Annie Rose Malamet and another from the dynamic duo of authors, Alan Jones and Kim Newman. There’s also an interview with Rosalba Neri and Fabio Melelli. There’s an excellent documentary about director Mel Welles and his weird career. There’s also lots of photo galleries, radio spots, TV spots, and trailers. Phew!