Rating: 
Summary: A Minor Masterpiece
Review: A fine example of the Italian horror-film of the sixties mostly concerned with atmosphere. A journalist is spending the night in a haunted mansion to prove Edgar Allan Poe wrong on his theory of life after death (!). The investigation of the old dark house and endless walking down dark corridors make up for most of the running time, but then Barbara Steele shows up and after two minutes they're in love. Well, the story is actually quite good, almost tending towards a greek tragedy with adultery and three people dying within ten seconds. As we have come to expect from the Italian horror-cinema there are plenty of hints to lesbianism, necrophilia and algolagnia, but as usual it's rendered with a lot of taste and poetical manner. Fans of Bava's Black Sunday will be pleased to see not only the otherworldly Barbara Steele but also the stoical Arturo Dominici, who played Javutich, as Dr. Camus, who becomes the journalist's spiritual guide in the haunted house.
The DVD looks great, but the sound is mildly worn. It can occasionally be difficult to make sense of the dialogue. As a European I'm often annoyed by the lack of subtitles on many american DVD-releases.
Rating: 
Summary: LOST SOULS.....
Review: Having recently read of director Antonio Margheritis' death from heart attack, I found it ironic that my copy of "Castle of Blood" arrived almost on top of it. I finally found the time to sit down and watch it and ,wow, was I impressed. I had never seen it before and had only read about it. Synapse has done a wonderful job in restoring this treasure. It's a tricky tale and you really have to pay attention. The dialogue is excellent and appropriately morbid in explaining the happenings and the metaphysical reasons behind them. Margheritis' direction is tight and keeps the action going without lapsing into confusion which would have been easy to do. The photography lingers in lurid detail on the dark and shadowy set pieces and most impressively on the otherworldly beauty of Barbara Steele as a sad and dissolute figure doomed by tragic fate. She and several others are bound to relive their final violent moments on earth once a year on the "night of the dead"---the anniversary of their deaths--- in the castle they occurred in. A writer accepts a strange bet from Edgar Allan Poe and a direct descendant of the castle that he won't survive this night if he stays alone in the "empty" place. There, he encounters these "lost souls" and witnesses them reliving their deaths. They need to be replenished with human blood on this "night of the dead" so that they may "live" again the following year. Steele is the Ist one he encounters and the writer determines to save her from eternal damnation. This is a dank, dark, gloomy film and is amazingly intense and even scary. The music score is great and perfectly enhances the horror to the hilt. Film is also relentlessy morbid from the writer meeting Poe in a tavern called the "Four Devils" all the way through to the last ironic shot where we see the writer has lost the bet. I cannot recomend this DVD enough. Extras include the alternate American opening credits as well as the lurid American theatrical trailer. "Danse Macabre" is certainly just that. A fitting tribute to a great director and a wonderful rendering of a near masterpiece of Gothic horror.
Rating: 
Summary: poor sound, dubbing, cliches, and stagy direction sink film
Review: I love gothic horror films, old black and white films, Italian films, and Barbara Steele - so you know where I'm coming from
The story may not be bad but its very familiar - someone takes a bet to stay in a haunted house where weird things happen
The big problems -
The picture and sound quality are not great.
Don't get me wrong I appreciate that Synapse brings films like this to DVD and that I have now been able to see this picture but.....
There is a most obvious hair bouncing around for a while in the bottom left - very distracting... and laughable.
The print is OK but too often washy or speckled.
The direction is very stagy and cliched.
The dialogue is hokey. The acting is wooden especially the most important lead characters. Somehow, unbelievably, the filmmakers managed to dress and shoot the beautiful Barbara Steele in a most unflattering way.
The music soundtrack is far too romantic along with being distorted, and squashed.
There are some nice errors too, such as seeing the film-makers in window reflections. The worst though is the dubbing. The dubbing actors suck all the interest out of the picture. They have the kind of voices that will put you to sleep. The actors sound like those that narrated travelogues or grammar school documentaries during the fifties.
Im sure this will be the best print of this film available ever. Barbara Steele and goth fans will find things to enjoy in this film. But you will probably not want to share this with the unitiated. Not unless you enjoy hearing laughs for all the wrong reason.
Rating:
Summary: Mood and atmosphere
Review: If you like a horror movie that is pre-special effects and that is predominantly mood and atmosphere then this movie is for you. I was born in 1964, and I'd never heard of this movie. I was delighted to discover it, and it's well worth the price. Five stars is perhaps too little praise. It has all the archetypal gothic hallmarks: A dark brooding castle, an unsuspectiing skeptical protagonist who agrees to spend a night therein, mysterious unforgetable nocturnal denizens who seem real and yet not and throughout it all the mysterious, desolate and grotesque (gothic) atmosphere...all in the dead of night, naturally. I thought the traditional plotting was very well developed. Nevertheless it was not formulaic or predictable at all. Quite the contrary! Furthermore the characters came across quite believably despite at times the dream-like quality of some of the scenes. This works though, for during them I felt the protagonist's unease and mystification along with him. Like many traditional horror stories, Castle of Blood is slow to build towards its climax; but it's well worth the wait. It's sort of like a fine wine: You drink it slowly and savor every moment and nuance. Poe was truly a great writer, and the conversion to screenplay was genius. I wish more modern horror was like this. If you also like movies directed by Dan Curtis and/or written by Richard Matheson: House/Night of Dark Shadows, Dark Shadows series, Norliss Tapes, Burnt Offerings, Turn of the Screw, Scream of the Wolf, The Night Stalker, and others then perhaps you'll like Castle of Blood too.
Rating:
Summary: Complete,finally!
Review: If you're in the 40-50 age range and grew up with Famous Monsters of Filmland,you know this film and have suffered through the off-track audio vhs versions and probably have a butchered late nightowl TV version(Castle of Terror)in your vid collection.Up till now the only readily available version was a heavily edited US version seen in very few drive-ins.Toss both of them.The years of numbing frustration that made nonbelievers of us for the'ultimate complete version'are over.It's here and this is it.So complete it includes French with subtitle scenes seamed in perfectly.Besides the fact that it's a beautiful print(goodbye monochrome)!A Barbara Steele steal!
Rating: 
Summary: You have to be a true horror movie fan!
Review: Oddly most viewers of this DVD rated the digital transfer as excellent. I found it had poor sound quality, and worse dubbing (into English). But the picture quality was excellent. Maybe I just had a bad DVD. Now on to the movie. Edgar Allen Poe, in London, bets a journalist that he can't survive the night in a castle in the countryside. Once in the castle, all sorts of strange things happen and this is where the movie shines, especially with it's surprise ending. But heed my warning. I would suggest, due to it's many flaws, that only die-hard horror movie fans consider shelling out money for this.
Rating:
Summary: A classic Euro-Horror
Review: Probably one of the best Euro-horror ever made. Barbara Steele looks wunderfull weird. One of her best movies ! For me it's also a marvelous love story just like "The ghost and Mrs. Muir" with Gene Tierney in a different way of course. The DVD quality is great, the french sound is pretty good, the english one less. So if you understand the french language, it would be better to choose the french version. For all fans of good horror movies this is a MUST !
Rating:
Summary: that sexy gila monster! the true female horror star
Review: that sexy gila monster, barbara steele!
she's a prime example of a great screen presence in (often) lackluster films.
but,
she reamins the sole great female horror star.
no, screaming bimbo here.
virtually all of her films are worth getting for her alone, but if you want a condensed list;
this one and black sunday are top 2.
then, nightmare castle and the terror of dr hitchcock (the longer british version).
enjoy
Rating:
Summary: Doomed Wager
Review: The film opens in London, where visiting writer Edgar Allan Poe is relating his story "Morella" to a group of English gentlemen. Alan Foster, a reporter, disputes Poe's occult theories and states his belief that there is no life after death. Another man present, Count Blackwood, claims that he owns a haunted castle and challenges Foster to spend the night there.The reporter accepts the challenge. Poe and Blackwood convey him to the castle via carriage, leave him at the front gate, and promise to return for him in the morning. Inside the castle, which Foster had supposed was deserted, he encounters the lovely but eerie Elisabeth, played by Barbara Steele. They rapidly form a romantic attraction and soon find themselves in bed together. But as their intimacy increases, Foster discovers that his new paramour has no heartbeat. . . . Things quickly go downhill from there. The reporter learns that there are several occupants in the castle-all of them having died there by violent means in years past. They need to drink blood to sustain their phantasmal after-life-and of course they have Foster sized up as their next donor. He spends a fair amount of time running through the castle, trying to escape the vampiric entities. With the aid of Elisabeth, he finally emerges from the castle and flees to the front gate, where he thinks he will be safe. . . . Long a staple of late-night television under the title Castle of Terror, Castle of Blood has now been released to DVD for the first time, in an enhanced and re-mastered version, by Synapse. Some scenes from the original European version that were deleted from the American and British releases have been restored, but with French dialog and English subtitles, since the scenes were never dubbed into English. The new footage includes: ·The European title sequence under the title Danse Macabre. (The English-language title sequence is included in the bonus materials.) ·Some extra dialog by Edgar Allan Poe at the Four Devils Inn. ·Poe's discussion of his theory of tragedy during the carriage ride from the inn to Lord Blackwood's castle. ·Additional entreaties by Elisabeth to Foster in their bedroom scene. ·In one of the flashback scenes, a longer and slightly more erotic encounter between Elisabeth and Julia, a woman fated to become another revenant at the castle-just before Elisabeth kills her. None of the new footage dramatically changes or enhances the plot, but it's nice to see the film in its intended full-length version. The print quality is good, although the black-and-white contrasts were not as crisp and sharp as I expected. But this may be a limitation of the original source material, not a fault of Synapse's restoration of the film for DVD. Castle of Blood is not particularly subtle in its narrative approach, but it has a creepy Gothic atmosphere and some interesting metaphysical conceptions. And of course, the always-welcome presence of Barbara Steele. This is one of the better Italian horror movies, in my opinion.
Rating:
Summary: Deep Dish Gothic Extravagance
Review: The simple fact is that this kind of film is a specialized taste. Imagine an old Universal horror film with the budget ramped way down and the Gothicism ramped way, way up.
It's like an extravagantly rich cheesecake, not everybody appreciates a flavor so strong and cloying. You have to love thick gothic atmosphere, stagey black & white cinematography lingering long on a dark castle full of dust, suits of armor, strange sounds and...something else. Much of the film's first half hour is devoted to the protagonist simply & silently exploring the castle by torchlight. There are other things here to enjoy, a ripely macabre plot and the eerie beauty of Barbara Steele, but this film is for those who relish lush Gothicism for its own sake. And you know who you are.
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