Mid-19 th century London. A Times journalist, Alan Foster, goes to visit the famous author Edgar Allan Poe, visiting Britain for the first and only time.
Poe refuses Foster's request for an interview and intriguingly refers to himself not as an author of fictions but as a fellow reporter of fact. Every one of his tales, he says, actually happened exactly as he described it.
Foster's scepticism attracts the attention of another man at the table, Sir Thomas Blackwood. He wagers that Foster will not survive a night in his haunted mansion. Foster accepts.
The three men travel to the mansion, Poe giving Foster an interview en route – seeing it published will be an added incentive to endure the night ahead.
The mansion is certainly creepy but seems devoid of inhabitants. Then Blackwood's beautiful sister, Elizabeth (Barbara Steele), appears. Though instantly smitten by her, Foster is also curious: The Count had not mentioned her. Elizabeth explains that she had remained in seclusion the past ten years, which seems to satisfy Foster.
Then Elizabeth disappears and another denizen of the mansion, Dr Camus, appears. Foster asks him where Elizabeth has gone and, as Dr Camus explains the secrets of the Blackwood family and their mansion, Foster's hitherto unshakeable specticism unravels…
Usually a competent if uninspired director, Antonio Margheriti delivered a genuine classic of Gothic cinema with this film – an achievement which is all the more remarkable when one considers his taking over directorial reins from its primary screenwriter Sergio Corbucci late in the day and the tight schedule in which the film was shot.
Then again, many of the greatest achievements in this area – I Vampiri , Black Sunday etc – also arose out of challenging circumstances. So did Rome, Open City . What it is about these Italians?
While certain scenes – some nasty facial burning and neck biting, along with a soupçon of nudity and lesbianism – are obvious post-Hammer developments and the Poe allusions and inclusion of Barbara Steele a clear attempt to cash in on Roger Corman's AIP cycle, the overall look and feel of the film is more akin to something out of the 1920s or 30s.
Like Sjöstrom's The Phantom Chariot or Dreyer's Vampyr , Castle of Blood works first and foremost through its dream-like atmospherics and logic.
Dry ice, cobwebs, stimmung lighting and scratchy mood music have rarely worked so well.
This Region 1 DVD from Synapse is clearly a labour of love. Using four different audio and video sources, they have re-integrated scenes – generally the racier ones, unsuitable for a US matinee audience – hitherto unseen outside the French release, cleaned up the film as best they can and presented it in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio, enhanced for widescreen televisions.
Audio wise there is a choice of English and French dialogue. One awkward thing here is that the re-integrated scenes are in French with English subtitles regardless of the language you choose for the rest of the film.
In terms of extras we get informative liner notes from Tim Lucas, the US trailer and alternative opening credits sequence and an exhaustive stills gallery. The only thing missing is an interview with Margheriti himself – an omission all the more unfortunate because the director died barely weeks after this DVD was released.
But, overall, fans of Italian horror need this disc.
Copyright © K H Brown 2002-2005
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