Nightmare Castle

Nightmare Castle

1965

Director- Mario Caiano

Cast- Barbara Steele, Paul Muller, Helga Liné, Marino Masé

From Italy

            

     Stephen is a cold intellectual. His wife Muriel (Barbara Steele) finds love in the arms of the gardener. Stephen finds them, captures and murders them, but not after torturing them. There is only one problem. Muriel left everything in her will to her sister Jenny. Stephen plans to marry Jenny (also played by Barbara Steele), who suffers from mental illness, drive her insane, and take possession of her wealth. He is aided by the maid , Solange, played by the  beautiful Helga Liné, who had a long successful horror career herself in films like The Loreley's Grasp, Horror Express, and the excellent Horror Rises from the Tomb. Solange was elderly, but thanks to a procedure involving Muriel’s blood, Stephen has restored her youth.

            

     Stephen marries Jenny and brings her home but before he can begin his plan to gaslight her, she starts suffering from bizarre dreams where she sees her sister being murdered. The doctor is perplexed but sees it as a good sign that driving Jenny over the edge won’t be as hard as he thought. He invites Jenny’s daughter to stay and observe her. However, the doctor is a bit more open minded and correctly deduces that Jenny is being possessed by the spirit of her dead sister.

            

    Stephen’s plan to get Jenny’s fortune has failed and Solange’s body begins to reject Muriel’s blood and she needs a fresh infusion. Stephen decides to cut his losses and murder Jenny and give the blood to Solange. All of this is foiled however when Muriel’s spirit shows up to exact revenge.

            

      The movie has some similarities to some other Barbara Steele movies. Like Black Sunday and The Long Hair of Death, Barbara Steele plays multiple characters and like Black Sunday, it involves being possessed by another’s spirit. It’s not as artfully executed as either of those two films but there is a big pay off at the end. Barbara Steele’s ghost form looks like an anime come to life. Could her eyes big any bigger and more beautiful! It has a shock gory ending that looks very much like an EC comic.

            

     Not the best Barbara Steel film and not the best Italian horror film, but it is cleverly done with a bit of Poe and, as said before, has a rewarding payoff at the end.