Customer Reviews

The Faceless Monster

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like the other posts have mentioned: the video quality is decidedly poor. It seems to have been taken from a videotape source due to the numerous drop outs that are evident througout. Still, it's by far the best version available (aka Nightmare Castle on other low-quality labels) and it's far from unwatchable and even fairly crisp in spots. The audio is okay, the dubbed dialogue is clear even if there's a slight hiss to it.

As for the film... it's a blast! This is my favorite Barbara Steele performance and she plays two roles: the insatiable, insane, raven-haired Muriel and the demure, blonde and driven insane Jenny. The whole thing's encased in a fog-thick atmosphere of dread, sadism and passion that even outdoes many of the Corman/Poe adaptions. Witness the doctor's torture of Muriel and her lover and then Muriel's gleeful climactic revenge. Pretty powerful stuff even by today's standards... and although it's draggy in spots it has many memorable scenes that make it worthwhile.

The print's uncut and 100 min. It's incorrectly framed at what looks like 1.50:1 instead of 1.66:1 and the first couple of credit titles are video generated. There also seems to be some new sound efx of crickets and such added over the first scene for some inexplicable reason.

The box cover art is hideously wretched (doesn't Retromedia have a designer that knows rudimentary Photoshop?). The slightly animated menus are passable as is a small photo gallery set to Ennio Morricone's cool theme.

Again, the quality should have been better but if you can score it for $... so (and you're a fan) than it's definitely worth it... until a superior version comes along.

I adore Barbara Steele, but this transfer is truly one of the worst DVD transferd ever. It looks to have been mastered from a videotape without any type of effort to clean it up whatsoever. It has a constant fluttering throughout most of the film which gives the picture a quality that is NOT in anyway seamless.
The box art is [bad] and this is definateley a sub par release.
In comparison with SYNAPSE'S beautiful job on CASTLE OF BLOOD starring BARBARA STEELE this disc is an atrocity.
THE ONLY REASON to buy this DVD is if you are such a fanatic for BARBARA STEELE that you cannot wait for someone else to put out a better copy. Surely, and hopefully, someone will. Cuz RETROMEDIA'S release would not even be competition if someone came out with an even slightly better version.
I mean they should pay people to watch this disc rather than charge them.

I've been looking high and low for an uncut version of this movie and Retro Media has done a bang-up job of restoring it. The transfer is clear, the sound quality is top-natch and Barbara does her own dub! ( insert pathetic squeal of joy ) The still gallery was a nice bonus too. Retro Media, you are truly gods among men. Keep up the good work. So, if you're a gothic Italian horror/Barbara Steele buff, then this is a sound investment.

Stephen, an evil, sadistic mad scientist lives in an old castle with his beautiful wife, Muriel (Barbara Steele). He has no idea that Muriel's been getting real familiar with David the gardener. One evening, he catches them getting busy in the greenhouse and goes ballistic! He takes the two down to his private dungeon, chains them up, tortures them, then electrocutes them together! Well, Muriel has an identical twin step-sister named Jenny (Babs again) who stands to inherit all of Muriel's vast fortune. So, hubby tracks her down and marries her! This doesn't sit well with his house-keeper / partner in crime, Solange. She never figured on more competition! Not to worry, Stephen plans on driving Jenny crazy, so she can be declared incompetant, therefore forfeiting her right to her sister's land and money. All goes well, until Jenny begins hearing Muriel's ghost laughing and telling her to do strange things. Soon, Muriel appears with David's ghost in order to exact their grizzly vengeance. Ms. Steele looks really creepy! NIGHTMARE CASTLE allows her to be a truly evil presence, full of remorseless hate and malice! Highly recommended...

Like the other posts have mentioned: the video quality is decidedly poor. It seems to have been taken from a videotape source due to the numerous drop outs that are evident througout. Still, it's by far the best version available (aka Nightmare Castle on other low-quality labels) and it's far from unwatchable and even fairly crisp in spots. The audio is okay, the dubbed dialogue is clear even if there's a slight hiss to it.

As for the film... it's a blast! This is my favorite Barbara Steele performance and she plays two roles: the insatiable, insane, raven-haired Muriel and the demure, blonde and driven insane Jenny. The whole thing's encased in a fog-thick atmosphere of dread, sadism and passion that even outdoes many of the Corman/Poe adaptions. Witness the doctor's torture of Muriel and her lover and then Muriel's gleeful climactic revenge. Pretty powerful stuff even by today's standards... and although it's draggy in spots it has many memorable scenes that make it worthwhile.

The print's uncut and 100 min. It's incorrectly framed at what looks like 1.50:1 instead of 1.66:1 and the first couple of credit titles are video generated. There also seems to be some new sound efx of crickets and such added over the first scene for some inexplicable reason.

The box cover art is hideously wretched (doesn't Retromedia have a designer that knows rudimentary Photoshop???). The slightly animated menus are passable as is a small photo gallery set to Ennio Morricone's cool theme.

Again, the quality should have been WAY better but if you can score it for [cheap] (and you're a fan) than it's definitely worth it... until a superior version comes along.

1965: Nightmare Castle is a lesser known film starring the favorite horror film actress Barbara Steele. Barbara Steele is the spotlight and the heroine in this film, as she is always in every film she does, portraying the beautiful tragic wife of a scientist. Steven, the scientist, is unaware that his wife is having an adulterous affair with their gardner. After he discovers them in a coupling, he storms into a heated fury and extracts his revenge. Chaining the lovers to a wall in his dungeon, he beats them and tortures them with his electric machinery. They die. Years later, he remarries a look-alike of his dead wife. This is when things get scary and confusing. The ghost of the dead lovers seem to appear again and haunt the castle. The special effects may be crude in contrast to today's horror imagery, but nevertheless has a 60's and Gothic feel to it with the right punch. The music is very effective, romantic piano and light chamber orchestra, and appropriately darker in certain sections. This film is a classic and a great collection to your cult horror favorites.

I have to say, I wasn't all that impressed with Nightmare Castle (1965). Perhaps the problem lies within the presentation. Obviously the film has fallen into the public domain, meaning no one owns the rights, and, subsequently anyone can put it out there for sale. That's why there are at least six different DVD releases. The one I viewed, released by Alpha Video (it has a colorful picture of a man and woman shackled to the dungeon wall) runs approximately 82 minutes, while The Internet Movie Database lists versions that run 91 minutes, and even 101 minutes. Would have those ten or twenty extra minutes have made the difference between being a so-so film and a great one? Who knows? Co-written and directed by Mario Caiano (Ulysses Against the Son of Hercules, Train for Durango), Nightmare Castle actually goes by quite a few names including The Faceless Monster, Night of the Doomed, Lovers Beyond the Tomb, Lovers from Beyond the Tomb, Orgasmo, and then the original Italian title Gil Amanti d'oltretomba. Starring in the movie is Barbara `I once worked with Fellini!' Steele (Black Sunday, The Pit and the Pendulum), along with Paul Muller (Barbed Wire Dolls), Helga Liné (Agent 077 - Mission Bloody Mary), Rik Battaglia (Shoot, Gringo... Shoot!), and Laurence Clift in his only on screen appearance.

The story begins pretty well, with some really creepy organ music, followed by the opening credits. After this we see a couple Stephen (Muller) and Muriel (Steele) Aerosmith (rock on!)...er, wait, it's Arrowsmith...he's a scientist, and she's, as far as I can tell, a boozehound (she'll later add trollop to her repertoire). Anyway, the two don't seem to get along too well, punctuated by what has to be the most awkward onscreen kiss I've ever seen (their lips don't actually touch so much as they mash their faces together), and we learn Stephen is preparing to leave for a conference or something, which he does, thus leaving his wife in the amorous arms of David (Battaglia), the strapping young stable hand...actually, he's really not that young, more like middle age, but he's a hell of a lot younger than Stephen. The two pitch their smoochy smoochy woo tent in the greenhouse, only to be caught by Stephen, as he really didn't leave at all (the sneak), and thus begins the whippings, and various other forms of tortuous punishment (Stephen is vindictive, if nothing else). Muriel and David do end up dying (sort of) for their transgressions, and normally the handsome estate and family fortune, which was all in Muriel's name, would go to Stephen, but because of her underlying hatred towards her husband, Muriel had fortuitously changed her will prior her demise, leaving everything to her up until recently institutionalized stepsister Jenny, who happens to look exactly like Muriel, the only difference being Jenny has blonde hair (Steele plays a dual role, donning a blonde wig to play the part of Jenny). Stephen plans now include marrying Jenny, preying on her delicate mental state, driving her back to the asylum, and assuming control of the family fortune...that is to say unless Muriel has anything to say about it...and she does...the vengeful little minx (I should say dead minx)...

Creaky doors, darkened crypts, dungeons, laboratories, hypodermic needles, candelabras, transfusions, whippings, electrocutions, bloodcurdling screams, acid drips, dead bodies...this film would seem to have it all...so why was I kinda down on it? Perhaps it was its excessively talky, painfully expository nature. Criminey...this is one of the more verbose movies I've seen in awhile. I don't mind a lot of communication if there's something to say, but for cripes sakes this is supposed to be a horror film...hit me with the scary visuals and some tension. Don't bore me to tears telling me what you're going to do (in great detail) prior to actually doing it...to be fair, the dialog was dubbed over, and poorly so...perhaps the original dialog with subtitles would have gone down better, but whatever....actually the first 20 minutes contained a whole lot of material, but then things slowed down, only picking up again within the last 15 minutes. There are a lot of things to like about this film, the main thing being Ms. Steele herself. She's very attractive, having a most distinctive appearance fitting ever so well within the genre, especially in term of her large, saucer-like, expressive peepers. She did pretty well here, presenting two, separate characters in Muriel, the saucy, strong-willed, sexy philanderer, and Jenny, the malleable, weak-willed bubblehead with the fractured psyche. As for the rest of the cast, they did so-so, the only other standout being the hammy (on rye bread, please) Muller as the wormy Stephen, who, incidentally, looks as if he could be a distant relative to Don Knotts. He really wasn't all that frightening as a villain type, but he was awfully sleazy, getting it on not only with the housekeeper, but also hooking up with his recently departed wife's stepsister. Part of his masterful plan involved inviting Jenny's therapist Dr. Derek Joyce (Clift) from the asylum to stay at the castle, which I didn't quite understand, but, apparently it was important to the plot that he be around, as to be the sane half of our protagonist duo. I did like the set pieces, along with the exteriors, as they really helped set the moody, gothic tones of the story, along with the creepy organ music. I did not like the piano music, though...it wasn't so much the piano music itself (which was pretty pedestrian), but the fact the same bit of music was used like 20 times...talk about monotonous. If you're a Steele fan, then you'll feel compelled to check this out, but if you're a casual viewer, you might want to start with Black Sunday (1960), an infinitely better film, and a lot more fun. If you're interested in this film, pay attention to the studio releasing the film, something which the Amazon website does list. If it says Gotham Distribution (apparently another name for Alpha Video), you might want to keep on going, as it is the extremely truncated version of the movie (Amazon mixes the reviews for all the different versions together, often confusing the hell out of the matter). My favorite scene involved Stephen hotwiring a bath for Dr. Joyce, and then things going not quite as planned...

As I mentioned prior, the version I have is the Alpha Video DVD release, and features DVD cover artwork consisting of a brutalized couple shackled to a wall. The fullscreen picture on this DVD looks pretty poor, feeling washed out, murky, and even a bit mushy, it that makes sense. Also evident is wear and tear, artificing, and even a missing frame or two. I own a number of Alpha Video releases and I swear they actually go out of their way to find the crummiest public domain prints for their DVD releases. The audio, however, is surprisingly clear and loud. There aren't really any extras (what would you expect for the price?) except for perhaps a rough looking trailer for the film, along with a video catalog where you can scroll through the covers of about 100 Alpha DVD releases.

Cookieman108

This version claims to be digitally remastered, but it doesn't look like it to me. I actually prefer the Alpha Video version, the print quality isn't as dark and indistinct. Nightmare Castle is a great horror film, but so far nobody has really done it justice. How about a remastered boxed set of all Barbara's horror films? - now that really would be something!

'Nightmare Castle' is one of those films that I saw at a young age. It has haunted me until now as I never knew the title of this film but, remembered it's unforgettable finale! There are several releases of this great fright flick and it might pay off to take your time and find out which one it best. The one I'm reviewing has a poor transfer but, it is completely watch-able. The film start off with some creepy organ music in an eerrie old castle full of atmosphere. This is a ghost story dealing with betrayal and revenge. This lost black and white gem should be completely restored as, it is a true horror film. I found this version with the color cover of two people in shackles included with two other horror films on one DVD disc for $6.00! so, it's hard to complain. I would double dip in a heartbeat for a restored version! Check this one out horror fans!

This horror film is distinguished with a rather intriguing and complex plot raising it far above the routine and mundane Italian horror film genre output of the 60s. Staring the exceptionally exquisite and alluring British born beauty Barbara Steele this film is very stylish and has vividly haunting atmosphere thanks in part to Enzo Barboni's black and white cinematography and Ennio Morricone's score. In a film full of images of torture, death, lunacy and other bizarre goings on for the sake of avarice how could one go wrong indeed especially with Miss Steele in the cast? This is an effectively well crafted bit of horror.