Absolutely "Castle of Blood" is one of the best film of Antonio Margheriti, for my opinion his masterpiece, that's why I hope that you will justify me if I spend to many words over this card. 

A stupendous opera, wonderfully interpreted by Barbara Steele and Georges Riviere, where each shot denotes a lots of care and a particular taste from the director, supported by an excellent photography made of darkness spots and sharp contrasts exalted by the black and white, which gives great mystery and fascination to the film and to the actors. The film, written by Giovanni Grimaldi and Bruno Corbucci, was originally supposed to be directed by Sergio Corbucci, which at the last moment was forced to quit because of another films he had signed a contract before. He was the one who suggest to the producer, Giovanni Addessi to hire Antonio Margheriti, that he knew very well and appreciate his films.

Anthony read the script and he accepted immediately: "In the life of a director, it happens very few times to read a great script. "Castle of Blood" was the best script which I ever got offered."  And so he directed his first Horror-Gothic film; a genre in which he would have find his excellence, becoming one of the greatest exponents of the Gothic in Italy. Often, in the following years Antonio has been associated by critics and film-writers to Mario Bava and Riccardo Freda, which were his good friends, defining them: "The creating Triads of the genre Fantastic and Horror in Italy." 

"Castle of Blood" has been made by Antonio Margheriti in only two weeks, using three cameras simultaneously, and shooting an average of eight minutes of edited film a day, a thing almost impossible, but Antonio succeeded. He was able to do it, because he was a great technician even more than be a good artist, and he had each shots already clear in his mind together with the final cutting well definite, so he turned only the essentials, avoiding the waste of precious time and film in shooting parts which he would not have inserted in the film. The actors were extremely good to stay after Antonio, working in a such a fast way that sometimes they didn't even understand to which scene belongs the piece that they were shooting, but they've had a blind faith in the director which was demonstrating to have the ideas very clear, and this was sufficient to them. 

An enormous helps was given from the director of photography: Riccardo Pallottini, which made a fantastic work using only few lights and being ready always in few minutes. With Riccardo it begins a strong and sincere friendship, that will endure for over twenty, in fact he was the cameraman in over half of Antonio's movies.

Anthony gives proof of uncommon talent in this genre Horror-Gothic, but he will only make four film of this kind, preferring other genre of film with more action and adventure. A real pity, to my opinion, for the Italian horror genre to which he could have given other masterpieces like: "Castle of Blood", "The Virgin of Nuremberg", "The long hair of Death", "Web of the Spider", this last one that is a remake of "Castle of Blood", made by Antonio ten years after. 

In its almost sixty film, he often had the idea of doing again an horror film, and many valid stories sprouted from his fervid imagination, but they came suddenly abandoned in order to realize other film, more rich of special effects, with explosions of trains, airplanes, helicopters, houses and whole villages, or collapses of dams, bridges or temples. The thing in absolute that he enjoyed more. 

"Castle of Blood" was his masterpiece, and Antonio knew that he had made an opera which would never be outmoded, maintaining his fascination unaltered in the years. And maybe this was the reason why he didn't make other Gothic film in the recent past, knowing that it would have been very hard to equal it.

Title

Castle of Blood

Aka

Terrore (Work title)  - Danza Macabra (Ita) - Castle of Terror (USA) 

Danze Macabre (Fra)

Director

Antonio Margheriti (Anthony Dawson)

Story by

Giovanni Grimaldi

Bruno Corbucci 

Screenwriters

Giovanni Grimaldi

Bruno Corbucci

Photography

Riccardo Pallottini

Art Director

Ottavio Scotti

Editor

Otello Colangeli

Music by

Riz Ortolani

Producer

Giovanni Addessi

Assistant Director

Ruggero Deodato

Cast

Barbara Steele

Role

Elizabeth Blackwood

Georges Rivière

Alan Porter

Margaret Robsham

Julia

Silvano Tranquilli

Edgar Allan Poe

Salvo Randone

Umberto Raho

Silvia Sorrente

Story

by: Edoardo Margheriti

In the British province, Alan Foster, a journalist sent by his editor to interview the novelist Edgar Allan Poe, about hi terror tales. Alan met him in a pub and his obviously skeptic when the Poe confess him that all his novel are really happened, and he's not a novelist, but a journalist like him. Alan will accept a challenge offered by Lord Blackwood, he will pay one hundred pounds if Alan will have the courage of spend the night of October 31st, that same night, in his abandoned castle, which seems to be habited by ghosts, if he will resist till dawn, the Lord will pay him the bet.

Alan accept and goes to the dark and macabre mansion. During the night he will meet a beautiful woman who lives in the castle, she is the cousin of lord Blackwood, Elizabeth. Alan it's enchanted by the beauty of the girl and did not realize that she's an "undead". During that night, which seems endless, he will be spectator of several things that happened it the past, and bring the death to all the ghosts that infest the castle and come back to live in that magic night, "the Night of the Dead".

Elizabeth it's obviously attracted by the young and "alive" man, and will ending to fall in love with him, also Alan get lost in the arms of the beautiful woman, who says that she's alive only when she make love. Alan did not realize that he's the next victim, needed by the ghost to come back alive again in that night of terror. A moment before the dawn, when all the ghosts rise up from their graves, Elizabeth help him to escape, sacrificing in this way  her existence.  When the sun rise on the horizon, the ghost of Elizabeth dissolve in dust for the eternity, Alan terrorized reach the gate and get out, but the destiny decide that he couldn't win. The gate close with an unnatural violence hits, whit one of his sharp metal spike, the head of Alan who died almost without notice it, standing near the gate, hanged to the spike.

Reviews

By: Ian Jane

Directed by Antonio Margheriti ("Cannibal Apocalypse") and co-written by Sergio Corbucci ("Django", "The Great Silence"), you'd think that "Castle of Blood" would be an action packed thrill ride of a film, when in reality, it's a slow and dreamlike trip highlighted by the amazing screen presence of Barbara Steele, one of the most captivating sirens in all of horror history.

The story revolves around Alan Foster, a not so famous journalist who, after interviewing Edgar Allan Poe, makes a wager with his friend, Sir Thomas Blackwood, that he cannot spend one night in his family's haunted castle. Foster accepts, and it's off to Castle Blackwood for him, where over the course of the night he encounters the ghostly inhabitants of the old building, and eventually falls head over heels in love with Elisabeth, the lovely and unfortunately, dead sister of Sir Thomas.

Less about plot and more about atmosphere, the movie moves at a slow and dreamlike pace, with a lot of long and lingering camera movements full of creepy and creaky old set pieces and populated with melodramatic characters. The most obvious comparison for the movie is Mario Bava’s "Black Sunday", and while there are certainly a few similarities, "Castle of Blood" isn’t really that close in any other regard than the fact that the two films have Ms. Steele in a lead role.  

While not really a good film as a Poe adaptation, "Castle of Blood" is still a great gothic horror film with a wonderful cast and some of the best atmospheric camera work to come out of 1960s Italy.  

Not recommended for those who need countless amounts of gore or action to keep a movie interesting, but for those who appreciate atmospheric chills and nightmarish visuals, there is more than enough to appreciate.

Great Eurogothic horror! (August 23, 2005)

I'm a huge fan of Italian director Antonio Margheriti, aka Anthony M. Dawson, even though I haven't seen very many of his films. How can this be? Because the ones I have seen revel in low budget schlocky glory. Margheriti is responsible for such classics as "Alien From the Deep". the infamous "Cannibal Apocalypse" and "Killer Fish". 

He's also the man who brought us several highly entertaining shoot 'em up action/war films, films like "Indio", "Indio 2", "Tiger Joe", "The Last Hunter", "The Hunters of the Golden Cobra" and "Ark of the Sun God". If you need any additional evidence pointing to Dawson's relevancy in the realm of low budget cult classics, he directed the catastrophic "Yor, the Hunter from the Future". If you've seen this disaster, you know how important Margheriti is to lovers of cheese cinema! I'm dying to see all of these films -- and a few others -- arrive on DVD. Until then, I'm contenting myself with the precious few of this director's earlier movies that have come out, or are soon to come out, on disc: "Castle of Blood", "The Virgin of Nuremberg", and "Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye" among them. 

"Castle of Blood" inevitably draws comparisons to Mario Bava's "Black Sunday"

Bava made the superior film, but "Castle of Blood" is just as entertaining in its own right. A black and white entry in the gothic horror field popular in the early 1960s, Margheriti's film possesses all the right elements for a creepy good time: a gloomy castle, ghosts, Barbara Steele, and Edgar Allen Poe. Fun! The movie begins when a journalist by the name of Alan Foster (Georges Riviere) stumbles over the inimitable Poe (Silvano Tranquilli) and a companion drinking at a small inn somewhere in England. Eager to interview the writer of superb supernatural tales, he soon agrees to a proposition offered by Poe's drinking companion, one Sir Thomas Blackwood (Umberto Raho). Blackwood owns a decrepit castle out in the sticks, a castle long rumored to hold the restless spirits of long departed souls. On one specific day of the year, he convinces someone to stay in the haunted building. And wouldn't you just know it? The night Foster stumbles into the bar is that very day of the year. Agreeing to Blackwood's bet, the journalist figures he can at least coax an interview out of Poe during the coach ride to the castle. The chances of him filing that story in the morning, however, will decrease with every minute he stays in the castle.

Blackwood's estate is indeed haunted, haunted by several spirits both benevolent and hostile. The first apparition Foster meets, Elisabeth Blackwood (Barbara Steele), couldn't be any nicer. She falls hard for the journalist, and he for her, before the truth about her status in the castle emerges: she's as dead as a doornail. That's sure to put the kibosh on any future matrimonial plans. What's worse, Elisabeth has a few companions to keep her company in eternity. One of them is another lady, the evil Julia (Margarete Robsahm), who has her own designs on poor Elisabeth. There is also a doctor in the house...er, castle who has resided there for quite a few years. Throw in a burly, thuggish looking chap and the hapless couple who took Sir Blackwood's bet the previous year, and it soon becomes apparent that this castle is a rocking place on one night of the year. As the evening proceeds, Foster witnesses the grisly circumstances that led to these people haunting the castle. Alan also discovers why Sir Blackwood went to such great pains to secure fresh meat for the estate. You see, the spiritual denizens of the castle need something from the living if they wish to reappear every year. I leave it to you to discover the identity of this item.

"Castle of Blood" has many good things going for it. The best part of the movie is Barbara Steele. This raven haired beauty starred in a number of these black and white European gothic horror movies, most notably in Bava's "Black Sunday" so it's always nice to see flaunt her copious charms again. She's like the original Goth chick--dark and dangerous yet incredibly sexy at the same time. Moreover, Margheriti gives us a fairly racy scene in which Steele and Robsahm make it abundantly clear what ties their two characters together. It's sort of surprising to see such behavior alluded to in a movie made way back in 1964! Anyway, Steele's appearance helps the film immeasurably. Another effective element in "Castle of Blood" is the atmosphere, which positively oozes doom and gloom. The masterful use of black and white photography helps, no doubt, but so does the claustrophobic ambiance of the castle. This is a building that screams at the top of its lungs, "I'm haunted!" Perhaps the only drawback to the film is pacing, which drags a bit when Foster first arrives at the castle and spends what feels like an eternity wandering about the premises. Aside from that small problem, "Castle of Blood" deftly delivers the chills and thrills.

This "Uncensored International Version" supposedly contains scenes cut out at the time of the movie's original release. I suspect we're talking about a flash of nudity towards the end of the film, and maybe a bit of the gore (tame by today's standards). A photo gallery, a trailer for the film, liner notes, and an alternate opening sequence round out the disc. If you like horror films, definitely give this one a watch. And if you think Barbara Steele is a serious babe, you'll love Margheriti's film. It's not quite as good as "Black Sunday" but it's darn close. Pick up a copy today!