MY SCARE by Eric Lindbom
A worm is chopped in two and both halves keep crawling! This image, from a 1964 dubbed movie, scarred me.
Thomas Wolfe’s line “you can’t go home again” sadly can apply to works that chilled your spine as a kid. When you eagerly revisit them as an adult, these once seminal scares can atrophy into kitsch or embarrass you if you recommend them. Case in point. Billy the Kid vs. Dracula (1966).which I snuck into as a kid. John Carradine later dubbed it his all-time worst film but it’s more watchable than say Astro Zombies. Yet, this low-grade oater horror hybrid, by notorious quickie director William ‘one shot’ Beaudine, has no selling point other than Virginia Christie, who aging TV viewers will remember as Mrs. Olson in the old Folgers coffee commercials (Universal horror buffs righty fete her vivid performance in The Mummy’s Curse). It’s easy to cringe at once cherished scares grown stale.
Imagine my delight then when the worm film that so terrified me like no other stood the test of time decades later! I had no egg on face after revisiting The Castle of Blood.
Growing up in Minneapolis, Mel Jass Matinee Movies ran a bizarrely eclectic mix of films from Blondie to Hercules and dubbed Italian films were a staple. Twin Cities born cinephiles the Coen Brothers even claimed this agnostic film package was a huge influence.
Before Italian horror went full color with gory, shocking Giallos, directors like Mario Bava weaved eerie, haunting tapestries in glorious black and white. Director Antonio Margheriti was a one-hit wonder, but Castle of Blood gouged me and still endures.
It starred horror icon Barbara Steele. No scream queen, this sexy seductress with witch black hair and poached egged eyes had a dark vibe even as an undead romantic lead here You’ve heard this old war horse plot before – a skeptical reporter bets he can survive one night in a haunted house. The nifty conceit is he makes the wager with Edgar Allan Poe (!) who insists his famed macabre short stories aren’t fiction but reportage of real supernatural occurrences. Our hero decamps to the spook house only to encounter ghosts who re-live their own prior deaths in front of him before demanding his blood.
A stately study in Gothic dread, I forcefully endorse Castle of Blood without disclaimer. Should you pursue it be wary. Some versions are titled Castle of Terror and it’s easily confused with Nightmare Castle ANOTHER Italian Barbara Steele chiller from 1965. The director also remade his movie in color years later as Castle of Blood (again) also titled The Web of the Spider. Accept no substitutes.
Eric Lindbom is a hardcore horror buff with a strong stomach, weened on the Universal classics from the ’30s and ’40s. He’s written film and/or music reviews for City Pages, Twin Cities Reader, LA WEEKLY, Request magazine and Netflix. He co-edits triggerwarningshortfiction.com, a site specializing in horror, fantasy and crime short stories with illustrations by co-editor John Skewes. He lives in Los Angeles.
