Bezenby This Gothic Horror contains a few firsts, for me at least. It has the earliest example I know of boobs in an Italian horror film (not Barbara Steele's I'm afraid), it also has the earliest example of erotic undead lesbianism, and sadly it has the earliest example of the Italians killing an animal on screen. That bit wasn't so good.A journalist enters a pub to interview Edgar Allan Poe and ends up being involved in a wager by Umberto Raho to spend the night at a haunted castle that no one has returned alive from. The journalist is all like 'sure buddy, don't see anything wrong with that' and I was all set up to see doors moving on their own and all that jazz.That happens for a little while, but then Barbara Steele turns and starts putting the moves on the guy! Naturally, the guy's willing to disregard the metaphysical psychobabble coming out of her mouth in order to get her into bed, but imagine his surprise when another chick turns up and shows an interest too! At first the guy is pinching himself but then of course there's two women in a room together so they start arguing with each other. Things get even stranger when more people turn up and our journalist starts wondering if it was a good idea to take that wager, as these folks are dead and reliving their last moments over and over again. Can he escape perhaps maybe? This film didn't grab me right away but it does pick up as it goes along so you can forgive the dull spots. It reminded me a lot of Umberto Lenzi's House of Lost Souls (1988) only nowhere near as funny. You also get Barbara Steele with her heaving cleavage and six inch long eyelashes. Could have done without the snake being killed though - not sure why they had to include that.It now makes more sense to me that Margheriti's Giallo Seven Deaths In The Cats Eye has a Gothic setting (that's a good one - an ape is one of the suspects!).

Mikel3 I've been on a Barbara Steele kick lately. I love the Gothic atmosphere created in some of the older Italian and Mexican horror films. Barbara Steele was in some of my favorite Italian ones. Yesterday I re-watched 'Castle of Blood'. I'd forgotten just how good it is, it was even better than I had remembered. It was also appropriate viewing since we are going into the Halloween season as I write this. The story takes place on All Soul's Eve'. A writer accepts a wager to spend the night in a deserted mansion. We all know that is NEVER a good idea. It seems each year someone accepts this wager and never returns. During the course of the film we find out why they are sent there. The story behind some of the past murders is revealed for the writer during that night.In the past I must have only seen edited versions of the film. I was surprised to see the copy I had on this DVD showed a total nude scene when a couple spends their honeymoon night in the mansion. The bride is shown undressing and totally naked by a fireplace. I didn't expect that it, caught me off guard, a nude women in an older B/W horror film. I guess even in 1964 the Italians weren't as prudish about nudity as we Americans were in films of the same period. They also weren't afraid to present a straight out lesbian character. There's a woman in the film whose attraction to Barbara Steele's character goes beyond even their deaths. It's obvious she wants her badly.The film was over all a load of fun and full of spooky atmosphere, perfect for Halloween viewing.

Robert J. Maxwell A reporter, Georges Riviere, accepts a bet that he can not spend the night alone in a broken-down castle. He loses.The story opens in a shabby London ale house with a chubby Edgar Allan Poe telling a horrifying tale. You can tell that it's horrifying because his eyes are practically popping from their sockets. Of his two listeners, the reporter, Riviere, scoffs. The other man owns a mansion two hours from the city. The place is supposed to be uninhabited but those who visit it -- which happens once a year -- are never seen again.Riviere is dropped off at the castle's gate by the owner and Poe, whose carriage then trundles off into the night in the film's most unsettling scene. Riviere enters the grounds and stumbles through a nightmare of thickets and bare hanging branches. Inside, the castle is filled with shadows and cobwebs. It's all reminiscent of Renfield's being dropped off at the Borga Pass and being taken by carriage to Dracula's castle.Well -- "Dracula" was itself a bit confusing. You will remember that Dracula shooed his female consorts away from the unconscious victim and sucked the blood himself. So what did the females eat or drink? How long could they exist without drinking blood? Why was Dracula such a hog? If Renfield was turned into a vampire, how come he could subsist on flies? "Castle of Blood" is even less logical. The castle turns out to be filled with spirits. Most of them walk around like zombies but at least one of them, Barbara Steele, of the enormous eyes and magnificent mammaries, is pretty lively. She no sooner meets Riviere than she throws herself at him, has the reporter declaring his love for her, and they spend some time in the sack together. (The camera pans to the fireplace, where the logs send up brighter flames.) I don't know what the attraction is. Okay, Barbara Steele isn't bad looking, but Georges Riviere seems kind of plain to me and gives a particularly ligneous performance.That's nothing, though. The spirits come and go. Their peregrinations make no more sense than they did in "The Shining." There can be a ballroom full of whirling, well-dressed, waltzing men and women, and in the next moment they're gone. One is a lesbian. The reporter shoots one of them, a dim muscle man, and he apparently dies, only to show up later thirsty for blood.They're all thirsty for Riviere's blood. It's going to keep them alive for another year, until the next visitor brings next year's supply. But just as the reporter seems cornered, Steele appears, sobbing out her love for him, and shows him the door to the outside, where it will soon be light.Riviere drags her along, screaming. Once outside, though it is still night, she drops to the grass and dissolves into a skeleton. Riviere beats it to the gate and slips through it to wait for the carriage that will pick him up that morning.Too late, though. Being outside the castle may have skeletonized Steele but it doesn't prevent the other spirits from following the reporter and slamming the gate shut behind him, impaling him on one of its spikes. Their voices keep repeating, "We need your blood. Now you are one of us." In fact, there is no blood from the puncture of the spike and nobody around to drink it. And if the spirits can wander around at will outside the castle, what's to stop them from wafting into London and treating themselves to a real repast of Dickensian losers? And, not that it matters much, but the elderly fellow who owns the castle shows up with Poe at dawn to pick up the reporter and they find his body held upright against the gate. Both Poe and the owner are properly shocked. Yet, what is the owner playing at? He seems to know nothing of what's up, but he sends the ghosts a fresh victim on the same night of every year? Riviere keeps checking his anachronistic pocket watch to see how much painful time has passed. I felt his pain. Castle of Tedium.Want to see a good, scary movie without a cascade of gore? Watch "Dead of Night." Want to see a good, scary, CHEAP movie? See "Carnival of Souls."

christopher-underwood Well executed old and very dark house horror. Good set-up which includes the character of Poe, himself, alluding to the story in a London pub. Although from here it is pretty much the one guy who has taken the dare to visit the house on a particular night running from room to room either looking for or avoiding people, it is still most enjoyable. Plus we have the delightful and enigmatic Barbara Steele. There is some wooden dialogue and some unexplained bits and bobs but it is the super creepy atmosphere that is maintained throughout, that and the super musical score that keep this one moving nicely along. DVD originates from US and has a few extras