Scream of the Demon Lover (1970)

How sad is this?

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

"Il castello dalle porte di fuoco", also known as "Scream of the Demon Lover", is a tedious horror flick with a plot that would have better suited a half-hour length blown up to an endless hour-and-a-half.The story is about an allegedly young and beautiful woman who goes to stay with a mad scientist in Victorian times. While there she is repeatedly menaced by a flaky hand while trying to sleep and apparently dreams or hallucinates herself stretched out topless on a rack.We end up getting the idea that this is a Jekyll-and-Hyde type story. Or is it? Who cares? I didn't. You probably won't either.For fans of sleazy Euro-horror, the nudity in the film is fairly negligible, either glimpsed from a distance or shot with something in the way so you don't get a good look. There is also really no violence.

Perfectly watchable with good looking cast and setting but doesn't bear too much thinking about. funny goings on in the castle where the hero's brother is said to have dies recently in a fire. Girls are also going missing and it is reckoned that as soon as someone falls in love with the surviving brother they die. Oh and also there is a laboratory in the castle where they are supposedly trying to reactivate the burned remains of the brother. The lovely Erna Schurer, later to be seen in Strip Nude For Your Killer, (she almost does just that in this too!) helps our hero, Carlos Quiney and the most unlikely looking scientists you could not imagine. Things go bump in the night and Erna gets transported to a cellar for some S&M but she doesn't seem to mind or even seem to care when it occurs to her that Carlos is the main baddie. As I say not a lot of sense to this if you start thinking about it, but colourful and diverting enough, and there is the wide eyed Erna.

I purchased the BLOOD CASTLE DVD on eBay for a few bucks not knowing what it was and all I can say is that I wasn't disappointed with this purchase. BLOOD CASTLE is one of those trashy European horror films that has almost no redeeming quality except for being thoroughly entertaining, for all the bad reasons. The opening alone was worth the price of the DVD: our heroine, Dr. Ivanna, arrives at the castle where she's supposed to help a scientist, Baron Dalmar, who does experiments on dead tissue. On her way to the castle 1) a man tries to rape Ivanna. 2) the castle's housekeeper fights with her. 3) the maid wants her dead. 4) and finally, Baron Dalmar nearly spits on her and wants her out the next day. Hmm...something tells me she's not welcome. With such a miserable arrival, you'd think Ivanna would leave the place in a NY minute but no, like so many great trashy films, our "headstrong" heroine decides to stay put and even enjoys a candlelight dinner with the grumpy Baron on that same eventful day. The intro is so over-the-top trashy (it's even greater than the memorable first few minutes of that Canadian film, JUNIOR) that I knew I was going to enjoy this.But the fun doesn't end there. Ivanna is repeatedly drugged whenever she goes to bed at night, only to wake up from unconsciousness, naked, bound and tortured in mild sessions of S&M by an unseen man. Even after experiencing these nightly S&M sessions, Ivanna stays at the castle, dully convinced by the angry Baron that what she's experiencing are nothing more than dreams. To be expected, even after being treated so badly from the get-go, Ivanna, falls in love with the Baron. Ivanna completely disregards anything negative about him, including the obvious fact that the dour Baron is popular with the young ladies. Every women at the castle (it seems only women work there) is in love with the miserable chump, who doesn't mind taking advantage of the pretty young things. Things get even sillier as someone lurks around the estate and kills (and has been killing) women. Basically, the Baron's physically disfigured brother, Igor is responsible for everything. In a very long winded scene, the brother warns the Baron he should not get too involved with Ivanna or he'll suffer the consequences. So what do the Baron and Ivanna do about this? Well, they get married of course! During the very brief marriage ceremony, the Baron is shot by one of the angry locals (father of one of the dead girls). But all of this doesn't deter Ivanna, who, amidst all the dead young ladies and torture surrounding them, cheerfully comforts the hurt Baron that "it's just a flesh wound" and the two can go on and enjoy their honeymoon at the castle, where the killer/rapist/torturer brother is. The whole thing quickly devolves into a nightmarish love triangle of sorts, between Ivana, the Baron and Igor. Blame it all on love!Anyway, you get the idea: subtle it's not. Almost everything is over-the-top ridiculous in this film and when it's not OTT, such as the predictable climax, things get a tad boring. But for most of the film, the director or writer revel in one illogically trashy moment after another. I really love these kind of films, everything as subtle as being hit over the head with a sledgehammer, and populated by characters behaving illogically. Even those who made the Retromedia DVD realize this and when you go to the scene selection section, we hear one of the funniest bits of dialogue from the dubbed movie looped endlessly. The production values are beautifully risible. The opening and closing credits, with those candles and red curtains...ah, a soupçon of class. The music sounds sometimes like something from a Tim Burton film, which only adds to the oddness of it all. And customary to these kind of films, when the young ladies take off their clothes, they just beg to be killed.As a standard film, I rate this a 2, but as a "it's so bad it's good" film, I rate it a solid 8 stars. If you enjoy trashy films, please watch this one. It's a must see. The only thing left for me to ponder about it: what would it have taken for that woman to get out of that freaking castle?

Ivana, a chemist, is hired by Baron Janos Dolmer to work in his secret laboratory in his big castle. The castle is located outside a small village, in which a series of brutal murders of young women has been committed. The townspeople all suspect Janos and his big doberman dogs (or is it rotweilers?). Ivana moves into the castle and pretty soon strange things starts to happen. Nobody of Janos' staff seems to want her around, her drink gets spiked and she has nightmares of a torture chamber in the cellar. Or is it really a dream? Janos himself is a bit suspicious, and the experiment he wants Ivana to participate in is far from normal. It's quiet a good plot, and the characters are interesting. There are some logical gaps and the `scientific' discussions held between Ivana and Janos are laughable. The castle is beautiful and the atmosphere in the movie is very gothic. The flick features some nudity and sex.I'd give this one a 6 out of 10. I'd recommend `La plus longue nuit du diable' by Jean Brismée instead if you're looking for an excellent 70's gothic horror movie.