Castle of Blood Movie Review
Journalist Alan Foster (Georges Rivière) challenges the authenticity of a story by Edgar Allan Poe (Silvano Tranquilli), accepting a bet with Lord Blackwood (Umberto Raho) to stay in a haunted castle overnight. What Alan doesn't know is the story is indeed true, and ghosts in the house relive the final moments of their lives, right before his eyes! This 1964 Italian film is actually quite like many others from that era in that we get a slow build to the action-packed finale, but let's not get ahead of ourselves quite yet. Once Alan makes it into the castle, he meets, and immediately falls for, Elisabeth Blackwood (Barbara Steele, Black Sunday). The problem with this whole love connection is Elisabeth is a one of the aforementioned ghosts.
I'm not going to blame the guy
The back and forth between Elisabeth and Alan takes up much of the film after their initial encounter, and I am very okay with this. Rivière is surprisingly likable, and Steele is one of my all-time favorite horror actresses, so I'll only complain about her screen time if it's too minimal. Joining the fun is Margrete Robsahm as Julia Alert, another apparition, and one who enjoys tormenting Elisabeth. For as much as I am a fan of Steele, Robsahm really stole the show with her performance. Her wickedness toward Elisabeth is certainly memorable, even with the questionable dubbing. We eventually find that Elisabeth was rather popular with the guys during her alive days, as both her husband and secret lover are also here for the party. If you have the patience to make it there, you will be rewarded, as the third act in the film is really well done--from the scenes showing how our ghosts died, to the twists and turns, to the fate of all the characters, the closing fifteen minutes or so of this movie will have you glued. I know these Italian gothic horror films are not everybody's cup of tea, but Castle of Blood is enjoyable enough to check out.
On A Scale Of One To Ten: 6
Castle of Blood Movie Trailer
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