A mix of Gothic horror and mad science. Scream of the Demon Lover (what a title!) follows a female biochemist who arrives at the castle of a wealthy Baron to help with his experiments to bring the charred remains of his brother back to life. The aesthetic is Hammer inspired, while the narrative is a hodge-podge of various influences. Despite plenty of intetesting ideas, it never really quite manages to fully pursue its own path. The central thrust is interesting enough and its paired with some hypnotic dream sequences that hint things are not quite what they seem. The film is very deliberately paced, with much of drama built up through the romantic tension between the two central characters. It's…

This Spanish-Italian giallo is entertaining in location, premise, and pretty ladies being pretty naked but unfortunately lacks in interesting set design or a more up-to-date score.

The plot is a mostly successful blend of the mad scientist/gothic horror/giallo tropes wherein we have a Baron trying to reanimate dead immolated tissue with the help of his new beautiful assistant chemist in a spacious eerie castle but unfortunately for him every lady he fucks gets fucked, and unfortunately for his assistant, she keeps getting drugged at bedtime and semi sensually stroked by someone with melty hands in a kind of weird bizzaro-world purity rape. Add to this angry villagers, lusty house keepers, werewolf research, a killer with a metal claw hand, secret…

“Stay pure, or my vengeance will turn on you!”

Make the Flesh Suffer

The moors are misty, the men are maniacal and the monsters are murdering loose women in Spanish action movie director José Luis Merino’s Italian (Gothic) co-production¹, Scream of the Demon Lover aka Killers of the Castle of Blood. A Roger Corman New World Pictures drove-in staple (often paired with The Velvet Vampire), I found this hodgepodge of tropes hard to pin down. Is it Jane Eyre? Is it Frankenstein? Is it a Corman-style Poe adaptation? Why does it briefly hint at the Wolf Man?

There’s an argument to be had for the film as a feminist-Gothic, thanks a nice showing for The Doll of Satan’s Erna Schürer…

I’m not screaming for this movie. If this was Andy Milligan, I would have gladly given it five stars. Here, the rats aren’t coming - and the werewolves have disappeared 😭 Milligan’s dialogue-heavy films are cathartic and hateful. Although this is better than “The Seventh Grave,” it’s not as inspired or as delightful as other Italian Gothic gone color. This isn’t the excess of sleaze and camp in “Lady Frankenstein,” “Blood for Dracula,” or “Flesh for Frankenstein.” It’s not the manic, coke-dream of “Black Magic Rites.” It’s not even Bava repainting the gothic as purgatory-fairytale in “Lisa and the Devil.” Rewatching Lisa reminded me of everything I love about Italian Gothic.

And this film brought me back to reality. Life can be…

I recently watched the Italian film 🇮🇹 Scream of the Demon Lover (1970) on the Full Moon app via Prime. The storyline follows a young woman who accepts a job from a wealthy Baron living in a remote area. As she begins working for him, people in the town start dying. She soon uncovers unsettling details about the Baron's experiments and his true motives for hiring her.

Directed by José Luis Merino (The Hanging Woman), the film stars Erna Schürer (The Doll of Satan), Agostina Belli (Scent of a Woman), Antonio Jiménez Escribano (Shoot to Kill), and Mariano Vidal Molina (The Mysterious Island of Captain Nemo).

This film surprised me in many ways. It feels more like a play than…

100 Horror Movies in 92 Days 2023

Film #4

I really love the Danza Macabra box set from Severin Films. And when I say I love the box set, I mean I love the design, the cover art, the inclusion of the film that started me an a discover of the films from Renato Polselli, and that some rare films were rescued and restored. As for the films themselves...I'm not a big fan overall.

Scream of the Demon Lover did not do much to help save the box set, although the film grew on me a little bit there at the end.

Ivanna is a biochemist who has been recently hired by Baron Janos Dalmar to help him in his…

SCREAM OF THE DEMON LOVER is quite a curious title for a film that was apparently released under many titles. The version I saw today was from Severin's "Danza Macabra" collection, and the title on the print was KILLERS OF THE CASTLE OF BLOOD (which is probably more apt). Severin did a surprisingly good job with a 16mm source that was in poor condition. It is less sharp than others in the collection, yet it is considerably better than "watchable."

As the story unfolded, I had the strong feeling that I was watching a Paul Naschy film with its grotesque situations, suddenly violent occurrences, and lovely women in various states of undress. It also bore a fairly strong resemblance to…