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Badmovies.org Forum  |  Information Exchange  |  Movie Reviews  |  NIGHTMARE CASTLE (1965): SPOILERS « previous next »
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Rev. Powell
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« on: October 24, 2007, 12:26:18 AM »



After the success of BLACK SUNDAY (1960), Italian directors decided that they had to release at least one horror movie featuring Barbara Steele in a dual role per year.  Audiences fell for it, and it saved them the cost of exactly one actress per year. NIGHTMARE CASTLE (AKA THE FACELESS MONSTER) was 1965’s entry in the bi-Barbara sweepstakes, sandwiched in between LONG HAIR OF DEATH (1964) and AN ANGEL FOR SATAN (1966).

PLOT (Note: some spoilers may be slightly off):

This movie is about a sadistic mad scientist, Dr. Arrowsmith, who keeps marrying and killing Barbara Steele.  First he catches Evil mad scientist his beautiful young brunette wife Barbara making out with the 19th century equivalent of the pool boy, so he decides to torture them both to death even though Barb tells him she's cut him out of the will (which includes the titular castle) and given everything to her insane "stepsister" instead.  Still, doc chains them up and beats on them for a while, and starts dripping hydrochloric acid on Barb from a pipette.  Then he hooks the pool boy up to some electrodes and throws the adulterers on a bed together and pulls a giant switch, but we don't get to see them die because some wise guy decided to paint a sunburst on the film stock to cover up their death throes.     

The doc then drains Barb's blood and uses it to remove some really bad old-woman makeup from Solange, his maid and lover, turning her into a beautiful young woman. Also, he removes the couple's hearts and puts them in a tank of preservatives for later, then burns up Barb's bod and plants a petunia in her ashes. 

Then he goes and marries the now cured stepsister (Barbara Steele in a blond wig) and decides to drive her crazy by putting a snake in her bedchambers and LSD in her wine.  She trips out like crazy in a pretty effective dream sequence where she imagines she's making love to the dead pool boy and a faceless man is killing them, but it turns out that Solange forgot to spike her drink with the acid, and it was all just a vision from beyond the grave. 

So Dr, Arrowsmith decides she's going crazy on her own and invites her old psychiatrist to come by and treat her, hoping he'll declare her crazy so he can finally inherit Nightmare Castle.  Blond Barbara finds one of Brunette Barbara's old earrings, which freaks everybody out and convinces them the dead wife's spirit is possessing the body of the new wife.  Also, the psychiatrist finds out that Blond Barb's tomb is empty, which Dr. Arrowsmith is convinced will ruin his evil plot, but then no one ever mentions it again and the psychiatrist is ready to sign the commitment papers and send Blond Barb back to the funny farm. 

So it seems like Dr. Arrowsmith's original scheme has worked to perfection, but bad moviemakers always realize they need a backup plot in case the main plot resolves too early and there's still 30 minutes of the movie left, so Solange decides her old lady makeup is starting to come back and only a transfusion of Blond Barb's blood will remove it.  So Doc tries to electrocute the psychiatrist in a bathtub, but a butler wanders in from the movie the movie next door and falls in the tub instead and foils the plan.  Then he convinces Blond Barb that the shrink is just trying to sweet talk his way into her diaphanous nightgown, and locks the psychiatrist out of the castle in a freak thunderstorm.  Then he hooks his living wife up to the transfusion machine but Brunette Barb's kinky ghost returns and reminds him "You taught me the pleasure of the torment of the flesh, which turns into ecstasy" and gives him a fiery dose of his own ecstasy.  Meanwhile her lover's ghost slashes Slang's wrists with an operating scalpel just before the psychiatrist, who snuck back into the castle and fainted when he saw the spectral apparitions, wakes up and throws the two ghost's hearts into the fireplace and escapes with Blond Barbara.  Roll credits. 

CONCLUSION: 

The goofy, confusing sadistic plot keeps things reasonably entertaining, though things seriously sag in the middle, and Barbara Steele is always worth an extra slime.  Oh, and it's really badly dubbed, too.  I think Steele spoke Italian for the film, then dubbed herself back into English, as she's the only character whose lip movements almost match up with the vocal track. 

Final verdict: a weak three slimes (out of five).  Not at all scary as it was intended to be, but bad movie fans will find plenty to scoff at here.

Lesson learned: However emotionally satisfying it might seem at the time, do NOT keep your ex-wife and her lovers hearts in a tank after you off them.

Edited to add movie poster.
« Last Edit: October 24, 2007, 12:36:39 AM by Rev. Powell » Logged

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« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2007, 03:01:58 AM »

Karma, Reverend.  Smile

I have a copy of this film on a 10 DVD set that a friend bought for me in Kabul when her husband was working there on contract.

It is a truly eerie and scary film, my copy is made all the more scary because the source print looks as though it has been through a meat grinder.

Weird it may be, but it helped me sleep the other night when I was having terrible nightmares: I watched the film and had a peaceful sleep after that.  Smile

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« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2007, 05:52:12 AM »

 I like it too...I got it on 50 Horror Classics. And though it isn't the classic like BLACK SUNDAY (and not many movies are!) , it's a great early Itailian  spooker. I love Barbra's half rotted face all eaten away...laffing her head off at the end! Too groovy!
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« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2007, 08:42:54 PM »

I've never finished this movie.  I always go to sleep or decide there's something better to do, like ... I dunno, anything.
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