My take: The movie is a bit hokey and a bit slow, but it does have Barbara Steele in it. She makes it slightly more interesting than it would be without her.
Rating: 2 out of 4 stars
Castle of Blood, which was released as Danza Macabre in Italy, opens with Edgar Allen Poe, a reporter and a member of that land-owning gentry at a bar. It seems ripe for a joke, and it certainly feels like one.
The reporter ends up being goaded into spending the night alone in the lord’s castle. The castle is rumored to be haunted, and those who spend the night are never seen again. The reporter agrees, for reasons I certainly did not understand.
Barbara Steele is dead girl in love in Castle of Blood.
When he is dropped off, the film truly begins with slow camera shots following the reporter as he enters the castle and walks from room to room. He eventually discovers that the castle is inhabited. He meets the young and beautiful Elisabeth Blackwood, played by Barbara Steele, and he instantly falls in love.
But it takes the reporter far to long to figure out that Elisabeth is actually dead along with all of the other residents of the castle. And the ghosts need his blood in order to keep coming back to life each year on All Soul’s Eve.
While the premise of the story is solid for a gothic haunted castle tale, the film is much too slow to be of interest. The ties of Poe are tenuous and the long shots of the reporter walking through each room seem to drag on. It is evident that the director wanted to build atmosphere and tension, but in that endeavor he failed.
I would still recommend this movie to fans of Barbara Steele and early Italian horror, but it is not one I would recommend to every fan of horror.
I watched the movie on Daily Motion. Here’s the trailer:
Leave a Reply