Horror Classic 4 of 50: NIGHTMARE CASTLE
Today's movie is Nightmare Castle, which IMDb tells me is also known as Night of the Doomed, Lovers from Beyond the Tomb, The Faceless Monster, and Gli Amanti d'oletretomba. Which title is your favorite?This is another Italian film, but this one is marginally better than Atom Age Vampire. Maybe. This is also Movie #2 of Side B of Disc 1, which means I'm finished with the first disc of the 12-disc set! Wooo!
Synopsis
Stephen Arrowsmith (cool name!) is a mad scientist who lives in a big, spooky castle (Is there any other kind?) with his hot wife Muriel. She's having an affair with their beefy gardener David, and when Stephen catches them he chains them up and tortures them... whipping, cutting, dripping of acid on the face, that kind of thing. Through all this, Muriel spews venom at him: Boy, do I hate you, she says. You're really a big fat jerk. Go ahead and kill me, jerk... You think you'll get my inheritance? Well, you're wrong, Mr. Jerkface, because I rewrote my will to leave everything to my dopey stepsister Jenny! Whaddya think of that? Stephen has a pretty snappy comeback: He kills Muriel and David, cuts their hearts out and burns their bodies. He's assisted in this endeavor by Solange, his elderly servant.
When we cut to some months later, a few things have changed. For one, Solange is now a spry young thing, thanks to Stephen's mad mojo and Muriel's youthful blood. Stephen, meanwhile, has remarried, and his new bride is... Muriel's dopey stepsister Jenny! Who looks exactly like her! Except with blonde hair. Jenny is also meek and paranoid, and before long she's having terrifying nightmares, hearing Muriel's voice, and having visions ins which she actually seems to be Muriel.
Now, Stephen wants his new wife to go insane so he can get the inheritance, but only as a result of his own machinations. So he brings in a doctor who doesn't mind making a house call to a haunted castle, Dr. Dereck Jacobs. But uh-oh, Dereck and Jenny start falling for each other, and Dereck begins to suspect that there's something fishy going on in the Arrowsmith household. Meanwhile, Solange is freaking out because she wants Jenny's young blood and she wants it NOW. Stephen resolves to take desperate measures to keep the whole situation under his control... but Muriel is exerting increasing influence on Jenny in her bid to achieve revenge from beyond the grave.
Is It Scary?
Yeah, somewhat. Muriel's a pretty hardcore dead chick, and her methods of haunting pack a punch, though they're undermined by the accompanying wicked cackling, of which there is too much. Hey, Muriel, what's so danged funny?
Lessons I Learned
- When making out with your gardener, make sure your husband is not watching, and consider using a location less visible than a greenhouse, which consists of many, many windows.
- There is such a thing as identical stepsisters.
- Don't marry your identical stepsister's evil mad scientist widower.
- Eletrocution by bathtub is a horrible way to die.
The problem with this movie is that there's not really a protagonist, or even a likable character. Stephen and Solange are wicked and selfish, Muriel is shrill, Jenny is dumb. I guess Dereck is a good guy, but he doesn't show up until halfway through the film, and he doesn't really do much.
Barbara Steele's dual performance as Muriel and Jenny is quite good, for this kind of movie. Muriel is defiant and Jenny is pitiful, and they really seem like two completely different people.
There are some interesting parallels here with Atom Age Vampire, the other Italian movie in this 50-movie DVD set. Both include women who regain their beauty by leeching the life from other women. Both feature mad scientists who are insanely jealous and possessive of the objects of their affection. Both feature greenhouses, too. They're practically the same movie!
There's a lot of kissing. Stephen and Muriel, David and Muriel, Stephen and Solange, Stephen and Jenny, Jenny and Dereck. I hope none of these characters has cooties, because that stuff spreads like crazy.
I didn't particularly enjoy the Stephen-chains-up-his-wife-and
Letter grade for Nightmare Castle: C+
Next film in the DVD set: Black Dragons
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