Nightmare Castle Review

8.5/10

"Nightmare Castle"(aka "The Faceless Monster) is a 1965 Italian gothic film that was directed by Mario Caiano.  It starred horror legend Barbara Steele, and it is one of her most remembered movies. It was extremely shocking for its time, and I found it to be one of the coolest B-Movies ever.

The film starts off showing the unhappy marriage between a scientist named Dr. Steven Arrowsmith and his wife Muriel.  Muriel walks into Stephen's lab as he is working, and he becomes angry with her. The scene then skips forward a little bit, and we see the affair of Muriel and her lover. The two of them seem extremely happy, but then Steven takes them both, and a chain of brutal horrors begin.  I really feel that this beginning was fast moving, and that the supposed build up was almost immediately.  Regardless, these scenes of torture were quite shocking for their time, and there is a surprising amount of bloodshed. 

After the hearts of Muriel and her secret lover are removed from their bodies, Steven marries Jenny, this institutionalized sister of Muriel.  He does this because Muriel's will was only giving to her, and he wanted some of the money.  Jenny tries to be happy in the house of Steven, but she begins to go crazy again because of terrifying nightmares she has.  While this plot line isn't really an original, it truly gives a lot of mystery that really makes the viewer wonder about what is going to happen. 

One of the great positives of the film is the cast. Barbara Steele was truly the real deal in Italian horror films, because she had so much depth in her performances. This is shown to a great extent in this movie, because she plays both Muriel and Jenny. The thing that I really love about this is that she never failed to confuse me as to which character she was acting as.  Paul Muller was also quite amazing, because he was extremely dark, and he gave off the vibe that something was up the entire time.  Laurence Clift was very likable as Dr. Dereck Joyce, because he had the best interest of helping Jenny, and would do anything to help her figure out what is wrong. 

I love this paranormal elements of this story a lot. The taking over of bodies makes one heck of a shock, and I feel that for 1965, it was a pretty innovative plot twist.  All of the actors conveyed these possessions very well, because you almost forget that they aren't themselves, and it's very freaky. After the possessions, the actual bodies even come back, and it is quite amazing how haunting the once peaceful Steele suddenly became.  In fact, the last fifteen minutes of the film created one of the craziest endings ever, because all hell broke loose, and a plethora of outrageous and gory occurrences take place.  This is the absolute perfect climax to a horror movie, and I am utterly impressed in every way. 

I definitely recommend this film to any fan of the classics, because it has the perfect amount of shock value to make you go wild.  While some parts were arguably slow, they really help the build up for complete hell, and they're easy to look past.  There was also great performances by everyone, especially Steele, and it was just one heck of a fun movie.