Danza macabra

Here's a favorite example of Italian horror cinema, filled with the trademark qualities that have impressed genre-film afficionados for the last half century. It compares favorably with the highly-regarded, Mario Bava classic, BLACK SUNDAY, and features another major appearance by the mysterious beauty, Barbara Steele. The black-and-white cinematography and production design are nicely realized, and an appropriate atmosphere of menace and sexuality is skillfully delivered. All in all, this is a prime example of why Italian horror cinema deserves some appreciation. The music is by Riz Ortolani (of MONDO CANE fame). A very nice DVD from Synapse.

It's hard to explain the appeal of this movie. It's not a gem as some have said. But I wouldn't characterize it as Euro-trash either. The plot is not very original, and relies on standard haunted house conventions, perhaps pirating some from Robert Wise's THE HAUNTING (1963). It may also have a literary source in Bulwer-Lytton's story "The Haunters and the Haunted," which also tells the story of a disbelieving rationalist who wagers he can spend a night in a mysterious house where spirits relive incidents from past lives. The film is full of continuity holes (or should I say "challenges"), because many may be explained away. But the execution is flawed. Feral cats, sudden scenes of carnage, and other fright effects do not deliver the shudders.

I must say, however, that the film held my interest, primarily because of the creepy, fog-shrouded sets that look better than they ought to on such a small budget, and because the performances are above average for this type of fare. And although the plot is full of old dark house clichés—slamming doors, billowing curtains, and mysterious portraits—some nice dialog makes it all seem less contrived somehow. There is no doubt that the director and writers were absolutely sincere.

There is also some provocative sexual content and nudity following a tradition of salaciousness that seems to have been a necessary ingredient of horror films as far back as Hollywood's pre-code days. So if I were forced to assess whether this glass is half empty or full I would say it is slightly more than half full. This one might appeal to all those baby boomers who watched the soap opera DARK SHADOWS when they were teenagers in the '60's. It has that feel to it, only with better acting and writing.

Of the many black and white Gothic horror-thrillers to come out of Italy in the '60's, this is undoubtedly one of the best. However, it is, of course, second to Mario Bava's masterpiece "Black Sunday". Both films star the mysterious and very beautiful British actress Barbara Steele who would become a leading figure in these creepy sixties shockers. Plot of this film deals with a cocky reporter(George Riviere) who is offered a wager to spend the night in a supposedly haunted castle. Predictably, he accepts the wager. The million-dollar question is, will he live through the night to collect his prize? Barbara Steele is a captivating "ghost" who roams the halls of the dark, sinister place and makes the man's stay there a little more pleasant. But as the evening passes on, other specters appear, and with less than godly intentions. Beautifully atmospheric chiller with Steele in fine form. A lesbian scene with Barbara and co-star Margaret Robsahm was cut from the film before it was released to the US. The movie was remade six years later and by the same director(Anthony Dawson) as WEB OF THE SPIDER.

For years now I was aware that this was regarded as one of the best Italian horror films of the 60's. Having finally seen it, I understand the praise but would go further and say that it is one of the definitive examples of gothic horror period. Like the vast majority of films in this category, its story is not the point and is purely a means to an end. A journalist accepts a bet to spend the night in a haunted mansion; when there, this stereotypical sceptic encounters a series of ghostly goings on which grow increasingly disturbing as the night progresses.

Like I say, story isn't what makes a gothic horror tick - its atmosphere. And this film sure has lashings of that, including an arrival scene where the protagonist explores the environs of the mansion and its grounds - this scene is so very bold because it is not afraid to spend a dozen minutes looking around, with no dialogue and no 'action' so to speak. It's all about gothic imagery, with elegant black and white cinematography which captures the cobwebby décor and architecture in its full shadowy splendour. This is a good indicator of the film as a whole, as this is a beautiful looking movie, which is accentuated significantly further with the presence of its two stellar leading ladies - Barbara Steele and Margrete Robsahm. The former is quite rightly regarded as the greatest icon of Italian gothic and here she is utilised splendidly, while the latter is much less known but is stunning here as an icy seductress. Her character Julia has lesbian designs on Steele's Elisabeth, which was a pretty bold angle for an early 60's film to run with and there is an overall strong sense of eroticism embedded in this one generally. The ghostly entities encountered in the house were previously doomed by a love triangle which resulted in multiple murder; these events are re-enacted once a year on All Souls Night, with the unwitting help of the poor sap who enters the house that evening.

The director of this one was Antonio Margheriti, who was something of a jack-of-all-trades who made films in most of the genres of Italian popular cinema. I think this may very well be his masterwork though. Interestingly enough, the director originally allocated this one was Sergio Corbucci who is now famous for classic spaghetti westerns like Django and The Great Silence; in this one, he is drafted in to direct one solitary scene, where Elisabeth's muscle-bound lover Herbert bursts into her bedroom and stabs her to death. Overall, this is upper-level stuff as far as gothic horror goes and indicates once again, that these types of films work so much better in black and white.

I have never seen a Barbara Steele movie that I haven't liked, and have always been a sucker for a good haunted-house story (especially for such wonderful pictures as "The Legend of Hell House" and the original versions of "The Haunting" and "House on Haunted Hill"), so I had a feeling that "Castle of Blood" would be right up my alley. And boy, was it ever! This French-Italian coproduction, while perhaps not the classic that Steele's first horror film, "Black Sunday," remains to this day, is nevertheless an extremely atmospheric, chilling entry in the spook genre. Filmed in black and white, it manages to convey a genuinely creepy miasma. The film concerns a journalist who bets one Lord Blackwood and an author named Edgar Allen Poe that he can spend the night in Blackwood's castle on the night of All Saints Day, when the spirits of those killed in the castle reenact their fate. The viewer gets to see these deaths, and they ARE pretty horrible, for the most part. The film does indeed send shivers up the viewer's spine, and in the uncut DVD that I just watched--thanks to the fine folks at Synapse--even features a surprising topless scene and some mild lesbianism! And Barbara is wonderful in this movie; her otherworldly beauty is put to good advantage playing a sympathetic spectre. Her mere presence turns a creepy ghost story into something truly memorable. Not for nothing has she been called "The Queen of Horror."