A reporter, Georges Riviere, accepts a bet that he can not spend the night alone in a broken-down castle. He loses.
The story opens in a shabby London ale house with a chubby Edgar Allan Poe telling a horrifying tale. You can tell that it's horrifying because his eyes are practically popping from their sockets. Of his two listeners, the reporter, Riviere, scoffs. The other man owns a mansion two hours from the city. The place is supposed to be uninhabited but those who visit it -- which happens once a year -- are never seen again.
Riviere is dropped off at the castle's gate by the owner and Poe, whose carriage then trundles off into the night in the film's most unsettling scene. Riviere enters the grounds and stumbles through a nightmare of thickets and bare hanging branches. Inside, the castle is filled with shadows and cobwebs. It's all reminiscent of Renfield's being dropped off at the Borga Pass and being taken by carriage to Dracula's castle.
Well -- "Dracula" was itself a bit confusing. You will remember that Dracula shooed his female consorts away from the unconscious victim and sucked the blood himself. So what did the females eat or drink? How long could they exist without drinking blood? Why was Dracula such a hog? If Renfield was turned into a vampire, how come he could subsist on flies? "Castle of Blood" is even less logical. The castle turns out to be filled with spirits. Most of them walk around like zombies but at least one of them, Barbara Steele, of the enormous eyes and magnificent mammaries, is pretty lively. She no sooner meets Riviere than she throws herself at him, has the reporter declaring his love for her, and they spend some time in the sack together. (The camera pans to the fireplace, where the logs send up brighter flames.) I don't know what the attraction is. Okay, Barbara Steele isn't bad looking, but Georges Riviere seems kind of plain to me and gives a particularly ligneous performance.
That's nothing, though. The spirits come and go. Their peregrinations make no more sense than they did in "The Shining." There can be a ballroom full of whirling, well-dressed, waltzing men and women, and in the next moment they're gone. One is a lesbian. The reporter shoots one of them, a dim muscle man, and he apparently dies, only to show up later thirsty for blood.
They're all thirsty for Riviere's blood. It's going to keep them alive for another year, until the next visitor brings next year's supply. But just as the reporter seems cornered, Steele appears, sobbing out her love for him, and shows him the door to the outside, where it will soon be light.
Riviere drags her along, screaming. Once outside, though it is still night, she drops to the grass and dissolves into a skeleton. Riviere beats it to the gate and slips through it to wait for the carriage that will pick him up that morning.
Too late, though. Being outside the castle may have skeletonized Steele but it doesn't prevent the other spirits from following the reporter and slamming the gate shut behind him, impaling him on one of its spikes. Their voices keep repeating, "We need your blood. Now you are one of us." In fact, there is no blood from the puncture of the spike and nobody around to drink it. And if the spirits can wander around at will outside the castle, what's to stop them from wafting into London and treating themselves to a real repast of Dickensian losers?
And, not that it matters much, but the elderly fellow who owns the castle shows up with Poe at dawn to pick up the reporter and they find his body held upright against the gate. Both Poe and the owner are properly shocked. Yet, what is the owner playing at? He seems to know nothing of what's up, but he sends the ghosts a fresh victim on the same night of every year?
Riviere keeps checking his anachronistic pocket watch to see how much painful time has passed. I felt his pain. Castle of Tedium.
Want to see a good, scary movie without a cascade of gore? Watch "Dead of Night." Want to see a good, scary, CHEAP movie? See "Carnival of Souls."
The story opens in a shabby London ale house with a chubby Edgar Allan Poe telling a horrifying tale. You can tell that it's horrifying because his eyes are practically popping from their sockets. Of his two listeners, the reporter, Riviere, scoffs. The other man owns a mansion two hours from the city. The place is supposed to be uninhabited but those who visit it -- which happens once a year -- are never seen again.
Riviere is dropped off at the castle's gate by the owner and Poe, whose carriage then trundles off into the night in the film's most unsettling scene. Riviere enters the grounds and stumbles through a nightmare of thickets and bare hanging branches. Inside, the castle is filled with shadows and cobwebs. It's all reminiscent of Renfield's being dropped off at the Borga Pass and being taken by carriage to Dracula's castle.
Well -- "Dracula" was itself a bit confusing. You will remember that Dracula shooed his female consorts away from the unconscious victim and sucked the blood himself. So what did the females eat or drink? How long could they exist without drinking blood? Why was Dracula such a hog? If Renfield was turned into a vampire, how come he could subsist on flies? "Castle of Blood" is even less logical. The castle turns out to be filled with spirits. Most of them walk around like zombies but at least one of them, Barbara Steele, of the enormous eyes and magnificent mammaries, is pretty lively. She no sooner meets Riviere than she throws herself at him, has the reporter declaring his love for her, and they spend some time in the sack together. (The camera pans to the fireplace, where the logs send up brighter flames.) I don't know what the attraction is. Okay, Barbara Steele isn't bad looking, but Georges Riviere seems kind of plain to me and gives a particularly ligneous performance.
That's nothing, though. The spirits come and go. Their peregrinations make no more sense than they did in "The Shining." There can be a ballroom full of whirling, well-dressed, waltzing men and women, and in the next moment they're gone. One is a lesbian. The reporter shoots one of them, a dim muscle man, and he apparently dies, only to show up later thirsty for blood.
They're all thirsty for Riviere's blood. It's going to keep them alive for another year, until the next visitor brings next year's supply. But just as the reporter seems cornered, Steele appears, sobbing out her love for him, and shows him the door to the outside, where it will soon be light.
Riviere drags her along, screaming. Once outside, though it is still night, she drops to the grass and dissolves into a skeleton. Riviere beats it to the gate and slips through it to wait for the carriage that will pick him up that morning.
Too late, though. Being outside the castle may have skeletonized Steele but it doesn't prevent the other spirits from following the reporter and slamming the gate shut behind him, impaling him on one of its spikes. Their voices keep repeating, "We need your blood. Now you are one of us." In fact, there is no blood from the puncture of the spike and nobody around to drink it. And if the spirits can wander around at will outside the castle, what's to stop them from wafting into London and treating themselves to a real repast of Dickensian losers?
And, not that it matters much, but the elderly fellow who owns the castle shows up with Poe at dawn to pick up the reporter and they find his body held upright against the gate. Both Poe and the owner are properly shocked. Yet, what is the owner playing at? He seems to know nothing of what's up, but he sends the ghosts a fresh victim on the same night of every year?
Riviere keeps checking his anachronistic pocket watch to see how much painful time has passed. I felt his pain. Castle of Tedium.
Want to see a good, scary movie without a cascade of gore? Watch "Dead of Night." Want to see a good, scary, CHEAP movie? See "Carnival of Souls."