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''Nightmare Castle'', also known as ''The Faceless Monster'', () is a 1965 Italian
horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...
directed by
Mario Caiano Mario Caiano (February 13, 1933 – September 20, 2015) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, Film producer, producer, art director and second unit director. Career Born in Rome, he directed nearly 50 films between 1961 and 2001 and wr ...
. The film stars Paul Muller,
Helga Liné Helga Lina Stern (born 14 July 1932), known as Helga Liné (), is a German-born Spanish film actress, model, and former vedette. She was a star of the horror genre during the 1960's and '70s, and gained the reputation of a scream queen. Earl ...
and
Barbara Steele Barbara Steele (born 29 December 1937) is an English actress and producer, known for starring in Italian gothic horror films of the 1960s. She has been referred to as the "Queen of All Scream Queens" and "Britain's first lady of horror". She pl ...
in a dual role. Mario Caiano shot the film in Rome and declared it his tribute to the Gothic genre and to actress Barbara Steele. Among reviews of the film, critics and historians note Steele's dual performance.


Plot

Stephen Arrowsmith, a scientist, has his home laboratory in the castle owned by his wife Muriel. Stephen finds her having sex with a gardener, David. He attacks and disfigures David with a hot poker and burns Muriel's body with acid. Before electrocuting both of them, Stephen is told that he is not Muriel's heir, but that the estate has been willed to her stepsister, Jenny, who is mentally unstable. Stephen removes David's and Muriel's hearts and hides them in an urn. He uses their blood to rejuvenate his aged servant, Solange. Sometime later, Stephen marries Jenny, planning to have the rejuvenated Solange drive her insane. Jenny begins having nightmares, which include the sound of beating hearts and Muriel's voice urging her to murder Stephen. Stephen brings Dr. Derek Joyce to the castle to treat Jenny, who becomes convinced that supernatural forces are at work. Joyce discovers the hidden hearts of Muriel and David. The murdered dead return as ghosts. Muriel burns Stephen alive while David reduces Solange to a skeleton by draining her blood. Dr. Joyce then burns the disembodied hearts and leaves the castle with Jenny.


Cast

*
Barbara Steele Barbara Steele (born 29 December 1937) is an English actress and producer, known for starring in Italian gothic horror films of the 1960s. She has been referred to as the "Queen of All Scream Queens" and "Britain's first lady of horror". She pl ...
– Muriel * Paul Muller – Stephen Arrowsmith *
Helga Liné Helga Lina Stern (born 14 July 1932), known as Helga Liné (), is a German-born Spanish film actress, model, and former vedette. She was a star of the horror genre during the 1960's and '70s, and gained the reputation of a scream queen. Earl ...
– Solange *
Marino Masé Marino, Mariño or Maryino may refer to: Places * Marino, Lazio, a town in the province of Rome, Italy * Marino, South Australia, a suburb of Adelaide ** Marino Conservation Park ** Marino Rocks Greenway, a cycling route ** Marino Rocks railwa ...
– Dr. Derek Joyce *
Rik Battaglia Rik Battaglia (byname of Caterino Bertaglia; 18 February 1927 – 27 March 2015) was an Italian film actor. Career Battaglia appeared in a number of historical and peplum films, such as '' The Mighty Crusaders'' (1958, Carlo Ludovico Bragagli ...
*
Giuseppe Addobbati Giuseppe Addobbati (31 December 1909 – 4 January 1986) was an Italian film actor known for his roles in Spaghetti Western and action films in the 1960s and 1970s. He was often billed as John MacDouglas for films released to an American audi ...


Production

Director Mario Caiano stated that ''Nightmare Castle'' was born out of his passion for actress
Barbara Steele Barbara Steele (born 29 December 1937) is an English actress and producer, known for starring in Italian gothic horror films of the 1960s. She has been referred to as the "Queen of All Scream Queens" and "Britain's first lady of horror". She pl ...
and the Gothic genre, a style which he began to love between 1943 and '44 when he first read
Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe (; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre. He is widely re ...
's work. Caiano said that he was not influenced by director
Mario Bava Mario Bava (; 31 July 1914 – 27 April 1980) was an Italian filmmaker who worked variously as a director, cinematographer, special effects artist and screenwriter. His low-budget genre films, known for their distinctive visual flair and stylish ...
, and did not remember seeing his films at the time with the possible exception of '' Black Sunday'' (1960). The initial script treatment for the film was titled ''Orgasmo'' and re-uses ideas from Poe's "
The Tell-Tale Heart "The Tell-Tale Heart" is a short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe, first published in 1843. It is told by an unnamed narrator who endeavors to convince the reader of the narrator's sanity while simultaneously describing a murder the nar ...
". Caiano's father Carlo was the producer of the film and was given a low budget to work with. With his friend art director Bruno Cesari, Caiano found a villa to use as a shooting location. The film was shot at Villa Parisi in
Frascati Frascati () is a city and in the Metropolitan City of Rome Capital in the Lazio region of central Italy. It is located south-east of Rome, on the Alban Hills close to the ancient city of Tusculum. Frascati is closely associated with science, ...
and at Incir-De-Paolis Studios in Rome over 18 days. The film was released in black-and-white, shot by director of photography
Enzo Barboni Enzo Barboni (7 July 1922 – 23 March 2002), sometimes credited by his pseudonym E.B. Clucher; the surname of his grandmother,p. 115 Wong, Alzia S. ''Spaghetti Westerns: A Viewer's Guide (National Cinemas)'' Rowman & Littlefield Publishers ( ...
, but it was originally planned for some scenes to be given a red tint in post production.


Release

''Nightmare Castle'' was released in Italy on 16 July 1965 where it was distributed by Emmeci. The film grossed a total of 154 million
Italian lire The lira ( , ; : lire, , ) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually fo ...
on its theatrical release. The film was released by
Allied Artists Pictures Monogram Pictures Corporation was an American film studio that produced mostly low-budget films between 1931 and 1953, when the firm completed a transition to the name Allied Artists Pictures Corporation. Monogram was among the smaller studios i ...
in the United States on 5 July 1966, shortly before the studio's initial demise. ''Nightmare Castle'' has been released on DVD by several companies, including
Severin Films Severin Films is an American independent film production and distribution company known for restoring and releasing cult films on DVD and Blu-ray. It is considered a boutique Blu-ray and DVD label. History The label was created in 2006 in Los A ...
,
Alpha Video Alpha Video (also known as Alpha Home Entertainment) is an entertainment company founded in 1985 as New Age Video, based near Philadelphia, that specializes in the manufacturing and marketing of public domain movies and TV shows on DVD. Alp ...
and Retromedia in the United States. A
Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...
of the film was released by Severin Films on 11 August 2015. The release includes two extra films starring Steele: ''
Castle of Blood ''Castle of Blood'' () is a 1964 gothic horror film directed by Antonio Margheriti and starring Barbara Steele, Georges Rivière, Margarete Robsahm, Arturo Dominici, Silvano Tranquilli and Umberto Raho. It was an Italian-French co-production ...
'' and ''
Terror-Creatures from the Grave ''Terror-Creatures from the Grave'' () is a 1965 horror film directed by Massimo Pupillo, Domenico Massimo Pupillo. The film was an international co-production between Italy and the United States through M.B.S. Cinematografica, G.I.A. Cinematogra ...
''


Reception

In a contemporary review, the ''
Monthly Film Bulletin The ''Monthly Film Bulletin'' was a periodical of the British Film Institute published monthly from February 1934 until April 1991, when it merged with '' Sight & Sound''. It reviewed all films on release in the United Kingdom, including those wi ...
'' stated that "this period horror gets bogged down in mundane melodrama" and that the direction was "pedestrian". The review did praise
Barbara Steele Barbara Steele (born 29 December 1937) is an English actress and producer, known for starring in Italian gothic horror films of the 1960s. She has been referred to as the "Queen of All Scream Queens" and "Britain's first lady of horror". She pl ...
, stating she was "on good form as Muriel ..and just as good as the blonde, doe-eyed, raving Jenny." From later reviews, ''
TV Guide TV Guide is an American digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, vi ...
'' awarded the film a score of two out of four rating, stating that, while the film was not as strong as Bava's '' Black Sunday'', it was still a "worthwhile effort" and that "its greatest success in showing the beautiful horror icon teelein as many extreme situations and personas as possible." In his book ''A History of Italian Cinema'', Peter Bondanella stated that "Caiano's cinematography cannot match that of either iccardoFreda or arioBava, he may well have captured Barbara Steele in even more compelling shots in ''Nightmare Castle'' than either of them did in their own, much better films." Louis Paul, author of ''Italian Horror Film Directors'' noted that Caiano was "obviously infatuated" with Barbara Steele, while opining that Caiano's films in fantasy, sword-and-sandal peplums and
Eurospy Eurospy film, or Spaghetti spy film (when referring to Cinema of Italy, Italian-produced films in the genre), is a genre of spy films produced in Europe, especially in Italy, France, and Spain, that either sincerely imitated or else parodied the ...
genres "worked much better" than his Gothic horror efforts. Author and film critic
Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic, film historian, and author. He is known for his book of film capsule reviews, '' Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'', published from 1969 to 2014. Maltin was the film criti ...
gave the film two out of a possible four stars. In his review on the film, Maltin commended the film's atmosphere and Steele's performance, but criticized the film's plot as overly familiar.
IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...
felt the plot dated, noting that it included "false starts, drawn-out dialogue and a rushed ending" They did praise the acting and direction, noting " the performances and absolutely phenomenal direction and atmosphere are unparalleled. This is the definition of a lost classic in those regards."


See also

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List of films in the public domain in the United States Most films are subject to copyright, but those listed here are believed to be in the public domain in the United States. This means that no government, organization, or individual owns any copyright over the work, and as such it is common property ...
*
List of horror films of 1965 A list of horror films released in 1965. References Citations * * * * * * External links Horror films of 1965on Internet Movie Database IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of informa ...
*
List of Italian films of 1965 A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...


Notes


References

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External links

* * * {{Rotten tomatoes 1965 films 1965 horror films Italian black-and-white films Films directed by Mario Caiano Films scored by Ennio Morricone Films set in castles Italian ghost films Italian supernatural horror films Italian gothic horror films Films shot in Rome Films about uxoricide Allied Artists films 1960s Italian films