Directed by: Mario Caiano
Starring: Barbara Steele, Paul Muller, Helga Liné
Maybe I’ve just been watching too many bad 60’s horror movies for too long, but Nightmare Castle didn’t seem all that bad to me. I mean, yeah, it was stupid and predictable, but it managed to hold my attention throughout the film, and a guy gets electrocuted in the bathtub! You can’t beat that, right?
Nightmare Castle takes place in a 19th century sort of castle. You know, the kind of place that Dark Shadows took place in? Yeah. Anyway, a guy catches his wife cheating with some other guy, so he tortures and kills them. Of course. He then marries his now-dead wife’s sister, who got all the money from her will instead of him. He tries to convince the woman that she’s going crazy, and it helps that she’s actually being haunted by the ghost of her dead sister. The ghost wants to help her and her doctor, who decides to come along, find the clues that’ll put away the bad guy. From there I think you can pretty much figure out what happens.
Oh yeah, and there’s some weird side-plot about the guy using his dead wife’s blood to make his maid young again… That wasn’t really dealt with, nor was it important to the story or anything. Just an extra little weird tidbit they threw in there.
So yeah, it’s a pretty standard old horror movie plot with no surprises (except for the bathtub thing) and nothing especially interesting. I do like the name, though. Nightmare Castle! Sounds like a VHS board game from the mid-90’s, doesn’t it?
Films in Boxes 
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