Review of Nightmare Castle

I first saw this chilling film from 1965 on a horror film showcase called Macabre Theatre co-hosted by Butch Patrick, Eddie from the Munsters. Directed by Mario Caiano, it stars Barbara Steele who was championed by horror film directors in Italy and who once upon a time even starred in Fellini's 8 1/2. Also in the cast: Paul Muller, Helga Line, Laurence Clift and Rik Battaglia. It has all the elements of Gothic romance/horror. Old castles, candles, organ music, ghosts, torture in a dungeon and eerie visuals. Muriel (Steele)is married to Dr. Stephen Arrowsmith (Paul Miller)but engages in an extramarital affair with the sexy gardener (Addobati). The lovers are caught en flagrance and Dr. Stephen extracts his brutal revenge by electrocuting them to death in his dungeon. Years later, he marries his dead wife's sister who looks just like her. Muriel and her lover, now ghosts, extract their own revenge on Stephen - and his current paramour the housemaid Solange (Helga Line)through the intervention of a psychiatrist Dr. Joyce (Laurence Clift). The latter parts of the film are the scariest, though the Eloctrocution scene is radically violent and sure to have earned the film an R rating. This movie seems to have been originally released in Italy and the sound/vocal-synch makes it obvious. It's in black and white but some versions are in color. Very evocative music and haunting cinematography. One of the greater horror classics.