Centuries ago, a gorgeous witch named Isabella (Rita Calderoni) was staked and burned alive; her lover vowed revenge. In modern times, a man named Jack Nelson (Mickey Hargitay) buys a mountaintop castle and moves there with his niece Laureen (also played by Calderoni) to celebrate her engagement. However, there are occultists on the premises who regularly sacrifice the hearts and eyes of comely female virgins to their exalted "great mistress", Isabella; they hope to restore her to life.
Writer & director Renato Polselli doesn't ever concern himself too much with telling a particularly coherent story, stuffing a lot of exposition into the final few minutes. Rather, he stresses other aspects of the presentation, to the delight of any Eurotrash-horror fan watching. It's very sexy (there's abundant nudity), very gory, and has a nonstop general feeling of weirdness and gloom. Polselli *does* have a way with atmosphere, aided in no small part by his cinematographer Ugo Brunelli. Brunellis' lighting schemes are wonderfully colourful, and are worthy of Mario Bava and Dario Argento at their most stylish. This *is* a gorgeous picture to look at, in more ways than one, with fine use of locations, and a psychedelic touch. There's even some actual intentional comedy, accompanied by a decidedly goofy variation in the otherwise subtle music.
The acting is basically tolerable, although Hargitay (former bodybuilder and husband of starlet Jayne Mansfield) is rather stiff. Also, Stefania Fassio is fatally annoying as motor mouthed airhead Steffy. This character wears out her welcome fairly quickly. William Darni is requisite hero Richard Brenton, and Italian Donald Pleasence lookalike Marcello Bonini Olas is amusing as a scar faced occultist named "Gerg".
Any viewer who adores the sleazier side of world cinema from this era is sure to take a liking to "Black Magic Rites", no matter how muddled the story is.
Six out of 10.