Gorgeous Gothic Horror: Nightmare Castle On DVD!

Nightmare Castle (also known as The Faceless Monster), a gorgeous gothic 1965 Italian horror film by Mario Caiano, starring the reigning scream queen at the time, saucer-eyed beauty Barbara Steele, is out on DVD this week. After a deranged scientist finds his wife in an embrace with the groomsman in the greenhouse, he chains them in the basement and goes on to torture and kill them. Then he marries his wife’s sister (Barbara Steele in a blonde wig), a mentally fragile woman, and proceeds to drive her mad so he can steal her money. But the ghosts of the lovers he killed come back for fiery revenge. Filmed in luminous black and white by cinematographer Enzo Barboni with a lush score by Ennio Morricone, this is one of Barbara Steele’s best chillers from this period, and the restoration on DVD is fabulous. As extras, there’s a charming interview with the director (while his playful cat chews and licks his hand), and a fabulous half hour interview with Steele, who charmingly relates walking away from a Hollywood career and fleeing an Elvis Presley movie to go live in Rome, where she worked with Federico Fellini, Mario Bava, Riccardo Freda and others. Her stories are sensational, and she still looks extraordinary.