As every reviewer has already detailed the plot, I will concentrate on an aspect of this film, and indeed, all of the early '60s Italian gothics, that is essential but often overlooked.
I first saw this film via the hideous Alpha DVD and found it impossible to sit through. Then I discovered it on YouTube in its most original edit and in Italian:'Films and Clips'. Note that one version is in the wrong aspect ratio--squeezed, but some programs can adjust that. It's the version with burned-in subtitles. The other, in the correct AR, has no subtitles but they can be found on-line; at YT, this bears a translation of the Italian title: 'Cemetery of the Living Dead'--though the film is entitled '5 Tombe per un Medium' on screen). Every member of the cast speaks Italian on set, and except for Barbara Steele, are Italian actors. Judging by her mouth movements, Steele--who had lived in Italy for five years by that point--was also speaking Italian. This is not a great film by any standard, but in its Italian version, it is at least coherent, adult, decently acted, and intelligible. The English dub is among the worst I have ever heard, with non-actors and horrible dialects ruining otherwise respectable performances. Most of the English dialog is actually changed to accommodate attempts to make the dub more believable when looking at the actors' mouth movements. It turns a modest period horror film into junk. Sadly, a relativelt recent BluRay transfer is also in English--with awful US scene choices. Everything about the English edit is atrocious, from music cues to editorial choices. Find the Italian version.
I first saw this film via the hideous Alpha DVD and found it impossible to sit through. Then I discovered it on YouTube in its most original edit and in Italian:'Films and Clips'. Note that one version is in the wrong aspect ratio--squeezed, but some programs can adjust that. It's the version with burned-in subtitles. The other, in the correct AR, has no subtitles but they can be found on-line; at YT, this bears a translation of the Italian title: 'Cemetery of the Living Dead'--though the film is entitled '5 Tombe per un Medium' on screen). Every member of the cast speaks Italian on set, and except for Barbara Steele, are Italian actors. Judging by her mouth movements, Steele--who had lived in Italy for five years by that point--was also speaking Italian. This is not a great film by any standard, but in its Italian version, it is at least coherent, adult, decently acted, and intelligible. The English dub is among the worst I have ever heard, with non-actors and horrible dialects ruining otherwise respectable performances. Most of the English dialog is actually changed to accommodate attempts to make the dub more believable when looking at the actors' mouth movements. It turns a modest period horror film into junk. Sadly, a relativelt recent BluRay transfer is also in English--with awful US scene choices. Everything about the English edit is atrocious, from music cues to editorial choices. Find the Italian version.