Im Schloß der blutigen Begierde

The sleaze-loving Austrian director Adrian Hoven is probably best remembered for writing, producing and co-directing the notorious Exploitation gem "Hexen Bis Aufs Blut Gequält" aka. "Mark of the Devil" (1970) and its vastly inferior sequel "Hexen Geschändet Und Zu Tode Gequält" ("Mark of the Devil 2", 1973). This earlier Gothic Horror/Exploitation effort, "Im Schloss Der Blutigen Begierde" (aka. "Castle of Bloody Lust"/"Castle of the Creeping Flesh") does not share the notoriety of Hoven's Hexploitation films, but is enjoyable in a very different way. "Im Schloss Der Blutigen Begierde" must be one of the cheesiest, inept and unintentionally funny Trash-Horror films I have ever seen, and I am a very regular consumer of low-budget cult flicks.

This very bizarre little flick starts at an orgiastic party hosted by the arrogant and malicious Baron Brack (Michel Lemoine). After taking a ride, fate then leads the Baron, as well as five of his guests including the sexy sisters Vera (Janine Reynaud) and Elena Lagarange (Elvira Berndorff) to the castle of the very sinister Count Saxon (cult-star Howard Vernon)...

The film, which has an utterly confused and incomplete storyline, features some of the most inept and hilarious lines of dialogue. Howard Vernon's character, for example, shows guests around his castle and tells stories about his ancestry, only to proclaim thereafter that his beloved daughter "died half an hour ago". Other than Howard Vernon all acting performances are hilariously inept. Howard Vernon was a great cult-actor, who blessed many of the films (great and awful alike) of Spanish Exploitation deity Jess Franco; he had a great, incredibly sinister screen-presence. However, in this film he is hardly given anything to do but grimace and talk nonsense. Michel Lemoine has very weird eyes, but his performance is abysmal, as are all the others. Janine Reynaud (known for Jess Franco's earlier works) and Elvira Berndorff are very nice to look at, however, and they regularly have their breasts exposed. The cast also includes Vladimir Medar, who is best known in German-speaking countries for participating in many of the cheesy Karl May-adaptations.

The film has somewhat of a pioneer-quality, as it is very sleazy and very gory for a pre-1970 film. We see breasts in every other scene, there are orgies and rapes, and some very graphic gore during surgery. On the side, the film features one of the most popular 60s Eurohorror themes, the 'mad scientist kills women in order to restore the life of one woman' story, which had formerly been the topic of such masterpieces as Georges Franju's "Les Yeux Sans Visage" ("Eyes Without a Face", 1960), Giorgio Ferroni's "Il Mulino Dalle Donne Di Pietro" ("Mill of the Stone Women", 1960) or Jess Franco's "Gritos En La Noche" ("The Awful Dr. Orloff", 1962). Vernon's role here has some similarities to that of the eponymous Dr. Orloff in Franco's film, only that Franco's film was great, and this one is a hilariously inept mess. The setting and photography are actually quite nice, but the inept dialogue and ridiculous story destroy any chance of a creepy atmosphere or genuine scares. It gets somewhat eerie towards the end, but by then the foregoing ridiculousness is dominating the film's mood. The only comparable film I can think of is Massimo Pupillo's "Il Boia Scarlatto" ("The Crimson Executioner", 1965), which offered an equal amount of unintentional hilarity.

Overall, "Im Schloss Der Blutigen Begierde" may be the most inept European Gothic Horror film I have ever seen, but it also is highly entertaining. Along with the Italian Giallo, European Gothic Horror films are probably the most stylish, elegant and fascinating sub-genre Horror has ever brought forth, and there are plenty of masterpieces to see in the field, especially films from Italy (e. g. everything by Mario Bava, Antonio Margheriti, Riccardo Freda, etc.). If you want to see a good (but disturbing) film by Adrian Hoven, check out "Mark of the Devil". "Im Schloss Der Blutigen Begierde" is undeniably total crap. However, it's inept charm is irresistible for Cult-Horror fans with a sense of humor. This film is unintentionally hilarious from start to finish; it may be an awful excuse for a film, but I cannot remember when I was more entertained.

There's SO much wrong with this movie, I barely know where to start first. Oh no wait, I do know! With the ending, seeing there isn't really one! The plot introduces many characters that each have their own odd personalities, there's loads of sexual tension & intrigue between them all, a mad scientist with blood vengeance on his mind and everything taking place in a castle with a sinister history. All these great ideas and Gothic-trademarks and then, suddenly, it goes terribly wrong and the film ends in a minor key. It feels like whatever tight budget Adrian Hoven was working with all of sudden ran out completely and, as a result of this, they just quit in the middle of shooting. Howard Vernon – a Jess Franco regular – plays yet another mentally messed up Baron slash doctor slash castle owner. Some centuries ago, one of his ancestors lost his beautiful daughter because she was raped and abused by savage men in the woods. History seems to repeat itself, as Graf Saxon's own daughter also falls victim to an assault. He and his loyal servants want to resurrect the dead daughter but they'll need essential body parts from living beings. Lucky for them, a drunken bunch of flamboyant party animals stumbles into the castle and onto the operation table. "Castle of the Creeping Flesh" is a very bizarre film for more than just one reason. I've been using the term "gothic" already, but I'm not entirely sure if it fully counts as goth-horror! During with era are the events even supposed to take place? The characters attend fancy high society parties, yet they ride horses instead of cars. And Howard Vernon lives isolated in a creepy castle, yet he's perfectly able to perform a complex open-heart surgery? And yet, underneath all the confusion, implausible story lines and downright horrible dubbing jobs, there is an interesting and obscure exploitation effort to discover. We have gorgeous euro-babes stripping their clothes off, an occasionally macabre ambiance and some really graphic gore moments. Howard Vernon is terrible but fun to observe as always and Michel Lemoine is genuinely scary with his horrifying eyes. It's really too bad about that crap ending, otherwise I could recommend it even more.

At one of those annoying beatnik parties that probably never happened in real life, a lecherous man called Baron Brack invites a lady and her friends back to his place in the country via a vigorous horse ride. This is just a ruse however to separate this lady from her mates and rape her, which of course the Baron blames on her. "You shouldn't have tempted me!" I hear Harvey Weinstein is going to use that one at his upcoming court case.

The ladies friends all arrive but shortly afterwards she does a runner towards an old castle where the gothic action starts off right away. Here lives Graf Saxon, an old scientist whose daughter has just been found raped and murdered, and now he's got a bunch of beatniks stinking up the place. These beatniks are all into dressing up in period costumes and carrying on their annoying ways during a dinner party, but when another one of their friends shows up, things are thrown into turmoil. Let's start a new paragraph so we can analyse this Gothic horror 'trope'.

It seems this new girl is the spitting image of Katerina, Graf's daughter. That's just standard practise in Gothic horror. People don't even grieve that much in these films as they know it's only a matter of time before someone is reincarnated as their departed or some doppelganger walks through the door complaining that their car broke down. Graf gets all excited and starts his evil plan right away to replace his daughter's heart with this dead ringer.

While that's happening there's also some sort of time slip/flashback/dream involving a previous rape committed thirty years previous which somehow this Graf fellow feels the need to reproduce using dummies in a room (why?). We then get to see our beatniks as previous versions of themselves, some as rapists, some as victims, some as butt-ugly witnesses. It's all a bit disjointed.

There is a random bear attack that was pretty good in its crapness. The whole thing I guess revolves around old rapey McGhee and the reincarnation of Katerina, but even then the strange meandering plot, high nudity levels (no thanks Janine Reynaurd!) and terrible acting make it watchable for all the wrong reasons.

A movie with fair acting abilities and yet keeps your attention. This film was labeled 'Castle of the Creeping Flesh' in some countries. While watching the film, one can expect to see things such as zombies but instead this has a new twist on horror. It contains mystery as well as a vengeful statement. With a taste of Frankenstein, this film also shows characters who show little or no change of attitudes at all. Considering this film was made in the mid to late 1960's, the special effects is weak. The storyline has an excellent twist. Things that can keep you interested is the rape scenes and the characters that have been hurt in the movie. When you think you see a flaw in the movie, be careful, it could have been intentional. For example, a young and beautiful lady gets a cut across the forehead from hitting a tree branch while riding a horse. Hours later, the cut is completely gone and the lady is back to being full of life and still beautiful as ever. Paying attention to details like this will help understand the movie as this was intentional and if you want to know how it happened, all I can say is watch the movie.

The "cuts" of footage of actual surgery were excessive and unnecessary. The soundtrack was also puzzling, with some of the music giving a comic effect. Whoever dubbed Howard Vernon was two octaves too low and the actress who kept showing her boobs was underdeveloped. The Baron with his popeyed look was ridiculous and why was there a wrestling scene with a guy in a bear suit? I'm a fan of Franco but this was below par, possibly because there were three writers. I did enjoy the castle, though, and the medieval statuary that was inexplicably in Ms Smallbosoms' bedroom. The wax museum tableau showing the legend of the violated babe was also creepy.