Incredibly Strange Blog That Stopped Living and Became Mixed-up Movie Reviews

AKA Die Schlangengrube und das Pendel; Pendulum; The Blood Demon; The Snake Pit and the Pendulum; The Torture Room; and, the best, The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism. CASTLE is the story of Count Regula, played by Christopher Lee, a man intent on gaining immortality. After he killed twelve young virgins in his quest, he was executed by quartering, but only after he promised to get revenge on the families of the man who sentenced him and the thirteenth virgin, the one who got away. Thirty-five years later, his plan for revenge is slowly enacted, bringing the son of his sentencer and the daughter of the thirteenth virgin to his castle.

The most wonderful part of this movie is the art direction/art design. They tend to be geniunely creepy and well-executed. The plot and the acting are fine, including some subtly campy performances, and the torture devices are contantly used to ratchet up tension, often effectively. This is a movie full of wonderful details and a subtle, almost psychedelic madness. I think the most apt comparison would be to any number of Mario Bava films, although personally this film held my interest in the story more easily than many of those.


 

Highlights: The forest filled with people hanging from nooses by the branches, the outrageously deranged paintings in the castle, the variety of torture devices and secret passageways and chambers in the castle (apparently built only to torture and terrorize people), the passageway that seemed to use skulls for bricks, the ending, and, of course, Christopher Lee.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 29, 2005 at 3/29/2005 03:37:00 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.