Original title: Ercole al centro della Terra
Upon his return to Italy from his many adventures, the great warrior Hercules learns that his lover, Princess Deianira, has lost her senses. According to the oracle Medea (Gaia Germani), Daianara's only hope is the Stone of Forgetfulness which lies deep in the realm of Hades. Hercules, with two companions, Theseus and Telemachus, embarks on a dangerous quest for the stone, while he is unaware that Deianira's guardian, King Lico, is the one responsible for her condition and plots to murder the girl to make himself immortal. Although promising to be her guardian, Lico is in fact in league with the dark forces of the Greek underworld, and it is up to Hercules to stop him. The climax has Hercules smashing Lico with a giant boulder and throwing similarly large rocks at an army of zombies.
In a contemporary review, The Globe and Mail referred to the film as a "particularly awful Italian movie", specifying Reg Parks' acting and the film plays "havoc with the mythology". The review also noted the English dub which was described as "corny almost beyond belief". From retrospective reviews, the Monthly Film Bulletin stated, "Bava's film today contrives not to look too much like a cheap imitation of itself.
The film started a short-living subgenre of films trying to combine the peplum genre with horror elements. Films considered belonging to this subgenre include Riccardo Freda's The Witch's Curse and Sergio Corbucci's and Giacomo Gentilomo's Maciste contro il vampiro. The Opera Theater Oregon commissioned composer Patrick Morganelli to write a companion piece to the film, Hercules vs. Vampires, which premiered in Portland in 2010. In April 2015 the work was staged by the Los Angeles Opera.
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