Diagonaldi Very well executed

Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

rodrig58 "Winnetou" (actor Pierre Brice) is a loser here, Hans von Arnim, which comes in a mill-house where lives a woman, Elfie Wahl, who is not normal(she is a little bit crazy and she suffers from leukemia) and who is suddenly in love with him. He does not love her but instead spending time with the one he loves, Liselotte Kornheim (actress Dany Carrel), he loses his time with the crazy one. Wolfgang Preiss(the famous Dr. Mabuse in those other German films from the 60's), he is a little crazy himself, also a doctor here, Dr. Loren Bohl. He appears together with the craziest of them all, the father of Elfie, Prof. Gregorius Wahl(the actor Herbert A.E. Böhme). Otherwise, paint instead of blood, creaking doors that open all alone, in one word, a huge bullshit. You'll eagerly be waiting for The End.

Leofwine_draca Another classic Italian Gothic which has an unusual and effective setting (an old windmill) to distinguish it from all the others of the period. MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN is a slow-burning but often effective creep-fest which makes fine use of the almost expressionistic sets of the interior of the windmill, filled with odd angles and bits of female dummies and skulls littered all over, making for a highly distinctive visual look. Filmed in Holland, the brief shots of the flat countryside which surrounds the windmill help to give it an authentic look and a chilly atmosphere, and Ferroni makes excellent use of colour to create a morbidly-beautiful looking movie. On top of this, a fine and creepy score just adds to the tension.The plot itself, when it comes down to it, is nothing particularly new. The idea of a doctor forced to kill young women to sustain the life of his ill daughter was very popular in the period this was made, and variations on the theme can be seen in many other horror films like Freda's THE VAMPIRES, ATOM AGE VAMPIRE, THE AWFUL DR. ORLOFF, and even the French classic EYES WITHOUT A FACE. Mixed in with this plot (which incidentally only comes to the fore in the final third of the movie, the beginning is just atmosphere-building and mysteries with no real answers) are some genuinely macabre HOUSE OF WAX-style shenanigans, involving the bodies of the dead being turned to stone and displayed on the carousel, the creaky contraption which is the film's focus point and a highly effective image of horror.Cast-wise, the film benefits from the presence of the creepy actor Robert Boehme as the professor. Boehme puts in a restrained and ultimately sympathetic performance here but he's still pretty chilling. Also effective is the German Wolfgang Priess (he of the '60s Mabuse films) as a sinister doctor living in the windmill; he doesn't have much to do until the end, in which his part in the horror and his explanations for his actions finally come out, but his role helps bolster the movie and he has some interesting exchanges with Boehme (usually the roles of the two men are combined into one in these sort of films). The actresses don't really have much to work with, especially Dany Carrel whose sole presence is to provide a female victim for the finale, and Scilla Gabel's role as the diseased daughter is seriously underdeveloped. Ultimately the film's biggest failing in the cast is Pierre Brice's turn as the hero, Hans von Arnam; Brice is wooden and uninteresting and seemingly unable to carry a lead by himself.MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN really does pick up for the predictably fiery conclusion, which has some great action, but director Giorgio Ferroni really needs to learn a thing or two about pacing as the first hour of this film is a long haul and lacking in incident. Compare this to a similarly-themed film like Freda's THE TERRIBLE SECRET OF DR. HICHCOCK, which expertly racks up the tension and suspense for the first hour, and its clear that MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN needs more of that suspense and build-up. The atmosphere is perfect, yes, but something is missing. Don't get me wrong, however; this is still a perfectly watchable (if only a little flawed) Gothic horror film with spot-on visuals and sets, and worth tracking down for fans of horror from the period.

Rainey Dawn This is a film that was recommended to me - after the first few minutes I realized I have seen this movie before and said to myself "oh yes I recall seeing this years ago and this is a pretty good film...". After re-watching the film again in it's entirety, I must say it is as good as I recalled it to be. Good to see this classic again.This movie is more of a mystery than horror - but believe me there is enough horror in the film to enjoy. The movie has enough suspenseful twists and turns to keep it very interesting.Just like other reviewers have mentioned, it is a pseudo-Gothic movie. If you like Gothic films, wax museum horror and mystery classics then you just might like Mill of the Stone Women (1960).8/10

The_Void Based on a Flemish short story by Pieter Van Weigen, Mill of the Stone Women is an excellent slice of Eurocult Gothic horror. The film is along the same lines as films by Mario Bava; most notably Black Sunday and Kill Baby Kill, and just like the aforementioned masterpieces; bathes in its own atmosphere and most of the horror is drawn from that. Horror is a genre that people often mistake for not having many ideas, but films like this prove otherwise. Here, we have a story that couldn't be further away from the 'norm' in horror, and on a technical level, Mill of the Stone Women is both inventive and influential. The macabre plot follows a young journalist named Hans who travels to Holland to write an article on the mysterious sculptor, who lives in a mill, that the locals have nicknamed "The Mill of the Stone Women". While there, he meets the Professor's beautiful daughter; but she's damaged goods, as she suffers from a sinister malady that means she has to remain within the mill. Is there something yet more morbid to this intriguing set up...?The mill at the centre of the piece makes for an excellent location for this story to take place in. Old castles are a more common location for Gothic horror, so the fact that this one takes place in a mill again differentiates it from the norm, and is yet another example of the imagination behind the story. The colour scheme is largely quite drab, and to be honest, I'd have preferred either more striking colours or a black and white picture...as the in-between doesn't look good in my opinion. That's pretty much the only thing I don't like about this film in regards to the style, however. The plot moves slowly, but this means that the film has time to both build up it's plot and wallow in the atmosphere. One of the trademarks of Italian horror is a muddled plot and things that don't completely make sense; and this film adheres to that. There are several threads within the plot, and a number of them are left unexplained by the conclusion...which is a shame. Still, the final conclusion is fitting and at least it doesn't suffer from bad dubbing! Recommended.