O Castelo das Portas de Fogo

'Scream of the Demon Lover' stradles the time period when sex and gore were slowly becoming more explicit and extreme in European genre movies. Made in 1970, the cast is a hodgepodge of nationalities and names, leading one to wonder if anyone could understand each other during shooting...the dialog ie obviously dubbed, so it's possible that the wooden acting is really the result of too many languages being spoken at once. Similar in some ways to Bava's far superior "Whip and Body", this film presents the story of a young female chemist who comes to live in a town's gothic castle helping the young baron find a way to bring his dead brother back to life. Most of the plot twists come from Italian gothic horror films of the 60's , and there is really very little original or striking about the locations or performances. In short, 'Scream of the Demon Lover' is a well-paced but cliche-laden movie that probably will entertain completists only.

This is the second José Luis Merino film I've seen this week and comparing the two, SCREAM OF THE DEMON LOVER is much more sexual in nature than TERROR OF THE LIVING DEAD due, no doubt, to the Italians being involved. DEMON LOVER is also set in the nineteenth century and stars Erna Schürer as a kittenish chemist who's come to Baron Dalmar's medieval estate to assist him in trying to bring his dead brother back to life. The villagers warn her that the Baron is killing women and ripping them to shreds after consensual sex but she stays on anyway, even after being drugged nightly and put on a rack in the dungeon (?!).

Although it's nowhere near as atmospheric or entertaining, the movie owes something of a debt to Mario Bava's THE WHIP AND THE BODY and it's fascination with sadomasochistic mise-en-scène. The Baron and his hounds cut a dashing figure atop the grand staircase and sexy Schürer shows her globes a lot but she's outshone by the exquisite Agostina Belli, who also bares her boobs in the secondary role of a castle servant.

Erna Schürer was born Emma Costantino in Naples, Italy and modeled for "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar"before appearing in the popular "fumetti" foto-comic "Satanik" in the mid-60s. Placed under contract by movie producer Alberto Grimaldi, Erna spent most of the '70s cranking out "classics" like EROTIC CONFESSIONS FROM A WOMEN'S PRISON, YOUR HANDS ON MY BODY, STRIP NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER, MY PLEASURE IS YOUR PLEASURE, and DEPORTED WOMEN OF THE SS SPECIAL SECTION before more-or-less disappearing from the cinema scene. There's no birth or death dates given for Erna on IMDb and there's precious little about her on the worldwide web, either, for that matter. Today, Schürer's sure as sh!t a GILF somewhere (unless she's split the scene, if you know what I mean).

A scary and creepy coproduction concerning a young woman , Ivanna : Erna Schurer , a scientist who has a busy day at a remote real state . As she comes to an eerie mansion located at an isolated place, there she works for a reclusive Baron : Charles Quiney as a mad doctor . She fantasizes about him, and both of whom fall in love, later on , to be aware the aristocrat is not what he seems . Along the way a rash of rather cruel killings happens in the area . Meanwhile , a police inspector: Mariano Vidal Molina attempts to track down a killer who is committing the grisly murders . And eventually Ivanna discovers a strange individual roaming in the cellar , corridor and rooms .

A horrifying Spanish Gothic with suspense, thrillls , tense , ghastly scenes and brief nudism in charge of two beauty Euro-starlettes : ans Agostina Belli and Erna Schurer . It was a limited success at the boxoffice , and being nowadays better considered than in the past . Stars Erna Schurer under pseudonym Jennifer Halley and Charles Quiney as Jeffrey Chase . Charles Quiney , was a mediocre Spanish actor , who played a few films , as he took a chance and jumped from warfare films : When heroes die , Hell Commandos to play adventure movies as Tiger of Kyber , Robin Hood and three Zorros : Zorro's Last adventure , Zorro rider of vengeance and Zorro of Monterrey . As he showed up almost exclusively in pictures directed by Jose Luis Merino , in fact Quiney was his fetish actor , and he was even known as the Spanish Errol Flynn. His career failed and eventually became a beggar and busker in the Madrid streets . In the film there various familiar faces of the Eurotrash of the 60s and 70s as Spanish people : Charles Quiney , Mariano Vidal Molina , Antonio Giménez Escribano and Italian actresses as Erna Schurer , Cristiano Galloni and Agustín Belli , the latter to be continued a successful career playing even with Kirk Douglas in Holocaust 2000.

It contains a granulated and washed-out cinematography by Emanuele Di Cola , being really necessary a perfect remastering . Shot on location in Spain and Italy : Grazzano Visconti , Emilia Romagna , Castello Di Montechiarugolo .This horrific motion picture was middlingly directed by Jose Luis Merino who recently passed away . This was a nice Spanish artisan who had a long career , shooting and writing all kind of genres , such as : Spaghetti Western : More Dollars for the MacGregor , Requiem for a Gringo , Gatlin Gun , Seven ride to Death , Frontier South . Thrillers : Colpo Sensazionale Al Servicio Del Sifar , USA violation or revenge, Superagents in Majorca , Shouts of Anxiety . Musical : Europa Sings , Aquellos Tiempos Cuple . Adventures : Robin Hood , three Zorros , Tiger of Kyber , Rebellion of the Bucaneers , Tarzan and King Salomon's mines . And horror : The Hanging woman and this Scream of the demon lover.

Of course I was not familiar with the 1970 Italian horror movie titled "Il Castello Dalle Porte Di Fuoco" (aka "Scream of the Demon Lover") prior to stumbling upon it here in 2025 by random chance. And given my love of all things horror, of course I had to check out what director José Luis Merino had to offer. The English title of the movie was a bit odd, as the Italian title translates into "The Castle With the Door of Fire".

Was I harboring any grand expectations? No, not at all, as the movie was made five years before I was born, and the movie's synopsis wasn't exactly promising something extraordinary.

Writers Enrico Colombo, José Luis Merino and María del Carmen Martínez Román put together a fair enough script and storyline. It made for a watchable movie, for sure, but hardly a gem in the horror cinema.

Given my limited exposure to Italian cinema, much more so Italian cinema from before I was born, then I wasn't familiar with a single actress or actor on the cast list. The acting performances in the movie were definitely fair.

The version I had the chance to watch was dubbed in English, and yeah, I am not fond of movies dubbed in general, as I prefer to watch a movie in its original language. But at least the dubbing work in this 1970 movie wasn't as dubious as in many other dubbed movies, so that counted for something at least.

The movie doesn't really utilize special effects much, so there wasn't much to write home about there.

Watchable a single time, but the movie doesn't have the contents for more than that single viewing.

My rating of director José Luis Merino's 1970 movie "Il Castello Dalle Porte Di Fuoco" lands on a four out of ten stars.

Blood Castle (aka Scream of the Demon Lover, Altar of Blood, Ivanna--the best, but least exploitation cinema-sounding title, and so on) is a very traditional Gothic Romance film. That means that it has big, creepy castles, a headstrong young woman, a mysterious older man, hints of horror and the supernatural, and romance elements in the contemporary sense of that genre term. It also means that it is very deliberately paced, and that the film will work best for horror mavens who are big fans of understatement. If you love films like Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963), but you also have a taste for late 1960s/early 1970s Spanish and Italian horror, you may love Blood Castle, as well.

Baron Janos Dalmar (Carlos Quiney) lives in a large castle on the outskirts of a traditional, unspecified European village. The locals fear him because legend has it that whenever he beds a woman, she soon after ends up dead--the consensus is that he sets his ferocious dogs on them. This is quite a problem because the Baron has a very healthy appetite for women. At the beginning of the film, yet another woman has turned up dead and mutilated.

Meanwhile, Dr. Ivanna Rakowsky (Erna Schürer) has appeared in the center of the village, asking to be taken to Baron Dalmar's castle. She's an out-of-towner who has been hired by the Baron for her expertise in chemistry. Of course, no one wants to go near the castle. Finally, Ivanna finds a shady individual (who becomes even shadier) to take her. Once there, an odd woman who lives in the castle, Olga (Cristiana Galloni), rejects Ivanna and says that she shouldn't be there since she's a woman. Baron Dalmar vacillates over whether she should stay. She ends up staying, but somewhat reluctantly. The Baron has hired her to try to reverse the effects of severe burns, which the Baron's brother, Igor, is suffering from.

Unfortunately, the Baron's brother appears to be just a lump of decomposing flesh in a vat of bizarre, blackish liquid. And furthermore, Ivanna is having bizarre, hallucinatory dreams. Just what is going on at the castle? Is the Baron responsible for the crimes? Is he insane?

I wanted to like Blood Castle more than I did. As I mentioned, the film is very deliberate in its pacing, and most of it is very understated. I can go either way on material like that. I don't care for The Haunting (yes, I'm in a very small minority there), but I'm a big fan of 1960s and 1970s European horror. One of my favorite directors is Mario Bava. I also love Dario Argento's work from that period. But occasionally, Blood Castle moved a bit too slow for me at times. There are large chunks that amount to scenes of not very exciting talking alternated with scenes of Ivanna slowly walking the corridors of the castle.

But the atmosphere of the film is decent. Director José Luis Merino managed more than passable sets and locations, and they're shot fairly well by Emanuele Di Cola. However, Blood Castle feels relatively low budget, and this is a Roger Corman-produced film, after all (which usually means a low-budget, though often surprisingly high quality "quickie"). So while there is a hint of the lushness of Bava's colors and complex set decoration, everything is much more minimalist. Of course, it doesn't help that the Retromedia print I watched looks like a 30-year old photograph that's been left out in the sun too long. It appears "washed out", with compromised contrast.

Still, Merino and Di Cola occasionally set up fantastic visuals. For example, a scene of Ivanna walking in a darkened hallway that's shot from an exaggerated angle, and where an important plot element is revealed through shadows on a wall only. There are also a couple Ingmar Bergmanesque shots, where actors are exquisitely blocked to imply complex relationships, besides just being visually attractive and pulling your eye deep into the frame.

The performances are fairly good, and the women--especially Schürer--are very attractive. Merino exploits this fact by incorporating a decent amount of nudity. Schürer went on to do a number of films that were as much soft corn porn as they were other genres, with English titles such as Sex Life in a Woman's Prison (1974), Naked and Lustful (1974), Strip Nude for Your Killer (1975) and Erotic Exploits of a Sexy Seducer (1977). Blood Castle is much tamer, but in addition to the nudity, there are still mild scenes suggesting rape and bondage, and of course the scenes mixing sex and death.

The primary attraction here, though, is probably the story, which is much a slow-burning romance as anything else. The horror elements, the mystery elements, and a somewhat unexpected twist near the end are bonuses, but in the end, Blood Castle is a love story, about a couple overcoming various difficulties and antagonisms (often with physical threats or harms) to be together.