An
evil count named Dr. Stephen Arrowsmith
(Paul Muller) catches his wife Jenny
(Barbara Steele) cheating on another man
named David (Rik Battaglia).
He tortures and electrocutes both of them
to death and removes their hearts from
their bodies.
Years later he remarries a woman
identical to his late last wife named
Muriel and she goes into trances and
experiences nightmares and hauntings of
Jenny.
Then Jenny seemingly posessed Muriel's
body and tries to kill the count for what
he did to her.
He hires a shrink named Dr. Derek Joyce
(Laurence Clift) to try and cure her from
all of this but he thinks that he is way
too invovled with her and has deadly
plans for him as well.
This was a very
interesting B&W Italian horror film
that seemed almost promising at first but
duriing the middle of it the film gets
really boering with the dialgogues
between the cast. Plus the audio is off
on the actors.
It picks up towards the end and boy does
it ever and the film can be very
influential.
We have some nice
performers in this film but the one who
was the best out of all of this is UK
celebrity Barbara Steele playing
two characters in the film and pulling it
off well. She knows how to portray both
someone evil and someone frightened too.
Paul
Muller is fairly good as an insane
doctor and has good serious attitude.
Helga Line also did well playing
his assistant and shows nice intensity
too.
However, supporting actor Laurence
Clift did not have me convinced
playing a shrink in the film as he seemed
fairly wooden.
There is someone's
heart in a small water tank.
A ghosts face is half sliced off
Mario Caiano is
very wooden with his work during most
scenes of this movie but however he does
pick up in some spots.
He knew how to direct both lead actress Barbara
Steele and Rik Battaglia acting
lustful towards one another by touching
and feeling one another.
There's a real disturbing and intense
scene's involving Paul Muller
torturing these two as well as
electrocuting them on a bed.
We see a perfect camera shot on Steele
lying in bed and the clock chiming then
the camera focuses on her paranoid eyes
going into a trance which looks
incredibly eerie (This footage was also
used in shock rocker King Diamond's
video "Sleepless Nights")
He also made sure that Muller
showed great serious and evil expressions
to his character making him insane.
He also shows great dialogue between both
Muller and Steele when
Steele is tempted to leave the
castle but Muller sweettalks her
into staying as it's a very dramatic
moment.
He also shows perfect fright with Steele
having an expressionless look walking
towards Steele almost killing
him with a dissecting knife.
The most chilling part was close to the
end of the film with both Steele
and Battaglia portraying as
ghosts creating terror in the castle
saving this film from going below
average.
Ennio Morricone really
knew his craft as a composer which saves
this film too from going under. He has
perfect timing with his creepy organ
playing as well as some nice smooth
classical piano playing plus he has nice
sharp violin sounds to the film as well.
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