Amor de Vampiros

Most commonly known in the US as "Nightmare Castle", this 1965 shocker starts off with cinematic guns ablazin!! Barbara Steele plays a wicked woman married to a lunatic doctor. He discovers her in a heated trist with their gardener. Both Steele and her lover are chained to a lab wall, and given a slow, grimy, painful death via horrible surgical instruments. These scenes, disturbing as hell, remind one of crime scene photos of Lizzie Borden or Jack The Ripper. But then, the film becomes a talky soap opera, centering around the bad woman's mousy twin sister (played by a blonde Steele) Somebody should have told the director audiences don't want to see their character a colorless, cheerless, unemotional, unimaginative nothing. The first reel rates an A+, the rest a C-.

All right, the writing is something to be desired, but this movie is so richly photographed and the great '60's Scream Queen Barbara Steele is so alluring that it hardly matters. This movie uses Steele to full advantage, and even casts the sultry, sinister star in a dual role, much like Mario Bava's classic BLACK SUNDAY. Babs stars as a faithless wife who, along with her lover, is tortured to death by her vengeful-husband. However, her hubby finds that this may not have been the great revenge he thought it would be because his wife left her inheritance to her mentally unbalanced sister(Steele again, this time in a blonde wig). Of course, being the sadistic, money-hungry, conniving little swine that he is, he decides to marry his sister-in-law, and drive her to complete hysteria so he can commit her to the local loony bin and claim the family fortune for himself. Naturally, things don't go exactly as planned, but I won't give the rest of this weird little gem away. Shown in the US in a severely cut version that is so butchered, it's hardly worth watching. The original full-length European version is rare, but definitely worth seeking out.

NIGHTMARE CASTLE (Mario Caiano - Italy 1965).

Barbara Steele is the wife of a brutal count. Brutal counts don't take half measures and when he finds out that his wife has been unfaithful, he tortures her and her lover and puts them to death, removing their hearts from their bodies in retribution. Time passes and he remarries a beautiful and unsuspecting young woman. Soon she is experiencing horrendous dreams and apparitions. It appears the spirits of his former wife and her lover have returned to exact their revenge. Then various forms of torture, electrocution(!) and distorted dream images follow.

This film is 80 percent atmosphere and some scraps for story and acting. The first twenty minutes will get your attention, but the middle part is slow and talky with some "plot elements" being played out. But still worth seeking out for lovers of early Gothic horror with quite a haunting Gothic atmosphere and an unusual strong cast for this kind of film. The fine score by Ennio Morricone is a major bonus in this interesting little mystery.

Camera Obscura --- 6/10

Of course Nightmare Castle used to scare the hell out of me as a kid when I saw it on late-night TV, it's not exactly scary anymore but it's still a lot of fun to watch as I discovered buying it on DVD. Brings back a lot of memories of staying up late in a dark room watching old horror movies on the late late show, TV certainly has lost a lot of charm since the late 70's as you rarely find gems like this on anymore. Heck you'd be lucky to even find a late late show anymore, let alone old horror movies. But anyhow, good to see this one again.

My main reason for seeing this film was the fact that it's on the Redemption label. Redemption films are often not all that good, but they have great cult value and are usually worth seeking out. Of course, Barbara Steele offered up another reason for watching - but still, my expectations for this film weren't very high. After the first twenty minutes, however, my low expectations turned into hopefulness; as I prayed that the remaining eighty minutes would be as great as the first twenty! The film grabs you instantly with it's combination of crisp black and white photography, morbid subject material, Gothic locations and a score courtesy of the great Ennio Morricone. The film is pure cult class, which really doesn't let up until the final credits role. The plot follows a man who, after finding his wife with another man, proceeds to torture them both. However, she takes the upper hand when she lets him know that all of her wealth has been left not to him - but to her imbecile sister! Our protagonist isn't taking this lying down, however, and it isn't long before he's returning to the castle with a new bride…

Just like she did in Mario Bava's masterpiece "Black Sunday", Barbara Steele takes on a dual role. Despite being obviously the same actress, it's easy to buy into the fact that she's playing too different characters. Her roles are suitably different, and she plays them both to perfection. Steele is often passed off as merely a horror film actress; but she really does have talent. The rest of the cast's performance is marred somewhat by some really awful dubbing and a script that isn't much better, but it doesn't matter too much because the focus of the film is never on the acting - it's clearly on the atmosphere. The plot gives way to a beautiful set of locations; the lushly Gothic castle photographed in the same cinematic style as the best black and white films that Italian cinema has to offer. At times, the film is incoherent and the plot doesn't always flow well; but it doesn't matter much, because there is always enough of the style element to ensure that the film remains interesting. The fact that the plotting isn't soaked with silly jump moments and out of place imagery makes me love the film even more; as it's clear that the director cares more about delivering story and atmosphere rather than simply trying to scare the audience. On the whole; the film has flown under more than a few radars, but that's unfair as it's damn good! Take that as a recommendation.