Legend of Blood Castle (1973)

First, a few random notes: Move over Japanese Guinea Pig movies, here is something called AV Horror! I don't know what watching a whole movie of this is like, but it would appear that these are made up of simulated scenes of Hara-Kiri. See this nasty video clip or these sets of images (one, two, three). I don't know where to get these DVDs, I just saw a post about it on a message board and the source is not credited. The company that made these movies is called Fuji Kikaku.

one more thing: praise from Mondo Schlocko about this blog - "speaking of fantastic and brilliant here is a great site of reviews of the some of the many cult VHS horror flicks and Brentwood collections out there today. Besides Warrenzone's reviews is also interesting side commentaries from Cub. A guy who digs Brentwood and Polonia flicks is okay in my book." Thank you.

The Legend of Blood Castle is a rare one. Not on DVD to my knowledge, though one of director Jorge Grau's other films, Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, has received the Anchor Bay treatment. I'm pretty sure my tape of this movie was cut, but I like what I did see. The uncut version is allegedly titles The Female Butcher.

The movie centers around an evil royal couple who come into their wicked ways separately.The nobleman Karl is more interested in watching his hawks kill doves, than having sex with his wife. In a gruesome scene we see a hawk eat a real dove alive. I Could have done without that. Karl becomes a vampire deliberately by wearing some sort of cursed amulet.

Why is the Countess Erzsebet Bathory not attractive to Karl? It seams she is old and has lost her youthful beauty. Well, there is hope, a witch advises that bathing in the blood of a virgins removes the ravages of age. Of course one bath alone will not do. You can imagine where this leads.

It sounds like a conventional horror film, but this movie is a bit nastier than the average gothic tale and it has some unique touches. The relationships between the characters in the movie are a little odd. Witches seem to play a somewhat accepted role in this society and no one appears in the least bit surprised when a corpse in a clear coffin is given a large public trial. The royal husband and wife keep tabs on each other by looking through a little hole in the attic floor and bedroom ceiling. This hole doubles as a spout for a blood shower.


a Spanish/Italian production
the reviews on the imdb site are worth a look for this movie. No Cub Speaks this time (she did enjoy this movie), but I'll get one on the next movie we watch together.