Nightmare Castle (1965)
Director - Mario Caiano
The Plot
The wife of a mad scientist catches his wife in an affair with a servant. He tortures and kills them and uses her blood to rejuvenate the maid of the manor. His wife, however, has left her inheritance to her sensitive, mentally disturbed twin. The mad man courts and marries the twin, and along with Solange, the maid, attempts to drive her to suicide. But the ghosts of the tortured lovers have other ideas.
Film Notes
Over the Top and Then Some
In the early 1960s, Italian Gothic Horror movies bubbled to the surface of a just about to explode pop culture. Moving in parallel with a similar horror style in England (Hammer Films), the Mediterranean version took advantage of the more relaxed censorship to dig more deeply into the blood, sex, delirium and dreams that were the characteristic trademarks of the genre.
Looked at broadly, these films generally took the formalism of 19th century motifs, morals, and elegance and shattered them with the punishing left/right combination punches of Freud and the Marquis de Sade. With art direction throwing dark shadows on a mix of the baroque and gothic set design, these films proved a successful box-office bet before grinding to a halt in the early 70s and splitting into two sub-genres, Giallo (killers in trenchcoats movies) and Occult (Dario Argento taking the bloody, sexual delirium to uncharted territory).
Nothing Like a Little Electro-Stimulation of the Blood...
But back to Nightmare Castle (Amanti d'Oltre Tomba). This film offers the standard elements of the genre — gloomy castles, dark twisting hallways, lightning storms, voluminous cleavage and perverted sexuality.
It begins with an Italian gothic horror version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Barbara Steele and Paul Muller go at it like a B team Taylor and Burton, mixing drinks and trading insults and sexual innuendos with equal passion.
The minor league Edward Albee opening quickly devolves into scenes of sexual and sado-masochism that even 40 years later are still shocking. And shocking is the correct term, as electricity is utilized for purposes better left unsaid. (Needless to say, this is not a film for the kiddies.)
Barbara Steele
Barbara Steele would have a place in cinema history for two films alone - her starring role in Black Sunday and her iconic role in 8 1/2. An English actress, she became "the" Italian horror glamour screen queen. Voraciously voluptuous, her reign lasted throughout the 60s when the genre lost its popularity.
Steele, however, had at least one big blast of pop culture prominence left in her, appearing in 1974 as the crazed and deranged Warden McQueen in Jonathan Demme's cult favorite Caged Heat, a women in prison film.
It wasn't the last shot of her career, though. She also produced the popular War and Remembrance TV mini-series and starred in another TV series, the revival of Dark Shadows in the early 90s.
Ennio Morricone
Without doubt the most distinguished member of the Nightmare Castle cast and production crew is composer Ennio Morricone. In fact, Morricone is perhaps the most successful and famous of all film composers. Known for his collaborations with Sergio Leone (Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Once Upon a Time in the West), he has worked in virtually every film genre (spy, gangster, war, Shakespeare, fantasy and on and on).
From faux western to orchestral to electronic, there is nothing he cannot do or has not done. Although Nightmare Castle may not be one of his most distinguished scores, his musical contribution always manages to keep driving the delirious atmosphere at times when the rest of the movie is falling flat.
Mario Caiano
Not anywhere near the class of the other Mario (Mario Bava, master director of Italian Horror), director Caiano was born in Rome and studied Greek/Roman archeology at university.
Also directing under the names Allan Grunewald, William Hawkins and Mike Perkins, Caiano was noted more for his Swords and Sandals work (Maciste, Gladiatore Di Sparta, Goliath e la Schiava Ribelle) and the occasional spaghetti western (Una Bara per lo Sceriffo) before finishing his career with Nazi Love Camp #27.
And I Quote...
"I'm going to rid you of your vulgar ways and replace them with others much more subtle and refined."
"You will remain a prisoner of your passions and obsessions forever."
"You can't destroy flesh any more than love or hate."
"You taught me the pleasure of the torment of the flesh that turns into ecstasy. I will reward you with that same pleasure."
-- Ed Schneider
Ingmar Ozu-Bresson on Nightmare Castle
"Un homme. Une bonne. Une épouse. Un amoureux. Une jumelle. La torture. La mort. Le sang. L'électricité. Le cœur se brûle."
("A man. A maid. A wife. A lover. A twin. Torture. Death. Blood. Electricity. The heart burns.")
Cast & Production Credits
| Barbara Steele | Muriel / Jenny |
| Paul Muller | Dr. Stephen Arrowsmith |
| Lawrence Clift | Dr. Derek Joyce |
| Giuseppe Addobbati | Jonathan |
| Helga Liné | Solange |
| Rik Battaglia | David |
| Mario Caiano | Director / Screenwriter |
| Carlo Caiano | Producer / Screenwriter |
| Fabio de Agostini | Screenwriter |
| Enzo Barboni | Cinematographer |
| Ennio Morricone | Composer (Music Score) |
| Renato Cinquini | Editor |
| Massimo Tavazzi | Art Director |
| Mario Giorsi | Costume Designer |
For more information on:
Italian Gothic Horror
Hammer Films
Barbara Steele