Nightmare Castle
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Movie Reviews of Nightmare Castle
Movie Review: BARBARA STEELE CLASSIC!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a review for the St-Clair Vision version. Several other versions are available, many with more attractive packaging. However, this version is very watchable, some jump-cuts and splices, a little hard to hear now and then, but for your money this is a pretty good buy for what you get. The visual image is mostly decent and does not hinder the film's impact. I enjoyed watching it and would recommend viewing this film as a double bill with Steele's CASTLE OF BLOOD (1964), or better yet with THE BLANCHVILLE MONSTER (1963) in which co-star Helga Line plays literally the same character.Movie Review: Spooky Movie!
Summary: 5 Stars
I have seen this film several times, and it is a very creepy film, especially for an old black and white film. Get it, you can't go wrong for the price. It's a classic.Movie Review: Great gothic horror with some tricky editing (details)
Summary: 4 Stars
This is the USA version of the black-and-white 1965 release of the Italian film that originally ran (in Italy) for 104 minutes. Unfortunately some imprudent editing has clearly diminished several of the finer points of the film, shaving off a star for me.
It's essentialy a terrific classic horror film, very gothic, and a bit of a psycho-thriller to boot. One big plus is the superb filmscore by none other than Ennio Morricone, (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.)
The story: An evil and depraved Count with a large estate, (who also happens to practice a sort of Frankenstein-ish medicine), catches his cheating wife [Barbara Steele] with her lover. He tortures and kills them, draining his wife's blood (more on this later) but he's nettled to discover that his wife has written him out of her will (she was very rich), having awarded all her riches to her step-sister who is locked away in a mental asylum.
The hag of an aged housekeeper had been helping the Count to do his wife in because he had promised her a cut of the inheritance when his wife met her demise. *But* he also had a means, by using his wife's blood, of making this decrepit witch young and beautiful and he does so [This point is not all that well-made in this version of the film].
Then the Count elects to bring the step-sister [also Barbara Steele but now with a blonde wig] home, as she has somewhat recovered her sanity, and he plans to gain control of the estate through her. Much to the displeasure of the housekeeper (now young and beautiful) the Count unexpectedly marries the attractive step-sister during the carriage trip home. [For reasons unexplained, the step-sister looks exactly like the first wife, blonde hair aside, which should not be since they were not blood relatives... oh well -- it was probably "half-sister" before the translation went awry.] The Count pacifies the housekeeper as the plan is cemented between the two of them to drive the new wife crazy again, making it easy for him to access her inheritance.
The final Macguffin occurs when the Count invites his new wife's asylum doctor to his estate to care for his unstable wife. That drives up the suspense a notch or two since this unwitting physician is now in jeopardy too.
I like this film a lot but there certainly are some abrupt transitions. I've also seen some very marginal copies on multi-film DVD collections so beware of those. You get what you pay for, at least when you're lucky you do.
In summary, I can definitely recommend this creepy drive-in film for fans of the genre. The setting is first-class and the terrific filmscore is just icing on the cake.
Movie Review: Surely A Horror Classic
Summary: 4 Stars
Aside from the dubbing being off, Nightmare Castle is one of the best horror films from the 'Love Generation'(besides Rosemary's Baby or Night of the Living Dead, The Innocents), yet. It sticks right to the plot, where some horror movies of that genre definetly do not.
Scream queen Barbara Steele plays a double role in this one; as (raven haired) Muriel who gets murdered along with her lover by her jealous husband Steven (Paul Muller). Her (blonde haired) troubled sister, Jenny is constantly plagued with visitations by her ghost. Jenny is also slowly being driven mad by Steven and the maid (Helga Line) and when given the chance, they slip a few mickeys in her drinks. Muriel and her lover eventualy re materializes and seeks revenge by killing Steve and the maid, while Jenny and her doctor (Lawrence Clift) flee the castle for good. This double role richly showcases her etraordinary and in some cases brilliant talent.
This film definetly has all the makes of a classic victorian horror story, with a touch of sexuality of course.
Since this is the shorter version, I definetly recomend 'The Faceless Monster'. This full length version also can be found on this site. It is featured in the film compilation 'Euro Fiends From Beyond The Grave.' Enjoy!
Movie Review: One of the lesser films in the Barbara Steele ouvere
Summary: 3 Stars
"Nightmare Castle" (Originally "Amanti D'oltretomba," but a.k.a. "Night of the Doomed," "The Faceless Monsters," and "Lovers From Beyond the Tomb") begins with Dr. Arrowsmith (Paul Müller), discovering his wife, Muriel (Barbara Steele), in the arms of her lover, David (Rik Battaglia). There is a lesson to be learned here regarding trying to make out in secret in a greenhouse, but it is too late for thse two because the doctor decides to torture and then electrocute them to death as part of his scientific experiments. Then he drains their blood from their corpses, throws their hearts into an urn, and injects the blood into Solange (Helga Line), his loyal but ancient servant. She was Arrowsmith's lover in the good old days and the blood transforms her back into a beautiful woman.
Then Arrowsmith finds out he has made one little mistake. It seems that according to her will his wife's fortune goes not to him but to Jenny (Barbara Steele in a blonde wig this time). Fortunately, Jenny is a bit off of her rocker, so Arrowsmith decides to marry her so that he can then drive her mad by giving her hallucinogenic drugs so he can finally get his hands on that inheritance. However, Derek Joyce (Lawrence Clift), Jenny's doctor, stands in the way of the plan working. Then Jenny starts having strange dreams about murders in the greenhouse, Joyce discovers the two hearts in the urn, and Solange needs another blood transfusion. How ever will it all end?
If this is your first Barbara Steele film it may well end up being your last. The story is a hodge-podge of more familiar and better told tales from that period. Steele already played both the good and the evil girl in her best known film, "Black Sunday," you can name your haunted house movie where past crimes are remembered, and if you want to try and take the high road you can see some parallels with "Rebecca." Besides, the film is not only in unglorious black & white, it looks like it was shot on videotape and I kept thinking this is what "Dark Shadows" would have looked like if it had been on television in the 1950s. Director Mario Caiano does nothing here to impress you and once you get past the initial sadistic torturing of the lovers if you were expecting the film to take advantage of Steele's looks you would be sadly mistaken.
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