Castle of Blood (1964)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Castle of Blood (1964) – A. Margheriti

As Mondo Digital suggests, this film may only be 10% plot as compared to 90% atmosphere – but the gothic atmosphere is well worth the price of admission. Alan Foster (Georges Riviere) accepts a wager to spend a night in a haunted castle on All Souls Eve, when the spirits of the dead are due to return and none who accepted the wager in the past escaped the castle’s evil spell.  I was genuinely creeped out when he got dropped off in front of the dark decrepit place, entered the gate, found an old torch, and opened the old wooden door. I wouldn’t want to be him!  Inside, things were just as spooky – shadows reflected in old mirrors, cobwebs on everything, paintings that seem ready to come alive. And then suddenly, Barbara Steele shows up, claiming to have been living in the castle all these years and putting the moves on Foster in a way he can’t (or doesn’t want to) resist.  Of course, it comes as no surprise that she’s no longer living – and we meet a number of other similarly dead residents of the castle who show Foster glimpses of how they met their fate.  Obviously, we know it will soon be his turn…  Beautifully shot in B&W and on par with the Hammer or Bava entries in the horror canon of this period. Check it out if this is your genre.