Castle of Blood
| Castle of Blood | |
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Italian film poster for Castle of Blood
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| Music by | Riz Ortolani |
| Cinematography | Riccardo Pallottini |
| Edited by | Otello Colangeli |
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| Distributed by | Globe International Film |
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Running time
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82 minutes |
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| Box office | ₤100.68 million |
Castle of Blood (Italian: Danza Macabra) is a 1964 Italian-French horror film directed by Antonio Margheriti and Sergio Corbucci. The film stars Barbara Steele, Arturo Dominici and Georges Rivière. The film was initially commissioned to director Sergio Corbucci who had Gianni Grimaldi and Bruno Corbucci set to write the film. A scheduling conflict led to Corbucci's friend Margheriti being hired to complete the film. To avoid going overtime, Corbucci was brought in to film one scene.
The film was released in Italy in 1964 and received low box office numbers which led to Margheriti remaking the film in colour as Web of the Spider (1970).
A journalist challenges the authenticity of Edgar Allan Poe's stories (which are presented in the context of the film as Poe's eyewitness accounts of the supernatural, not as literary fiction). To prove himself, the journalist accepts a bet from Lord Blackwood to spend the night in a haunted castle on All Soul's Eve. Ghosts of the murdered inhabitants appear to him throughout the night, re-enacting the events that lead to their deaths. One of the ghosts reveals that they all need his blood in order to maintain their existence. Barbara Steele plays a ghost who attempts to help the journalist escape.
The idea for Castle of Blood came to Sergio Corbucci when producer Giovanni Addessi commissioned him to create a film that would reuse the Medieval sets from Corbucci's comedy film The Monk of Monza. Corbucci had his brother Bruno Corbucci and screenwriter Gianni Grimaldi to write the script. The script is credited to a short story by Edgar Allan Poe in the film's credits, but the film is not based on any specific Poe work. According to Ruggero Deodato, who was the assistant director on set, he persuaded actress Barbara Steele to star in the film. Deodato continued that Steele had just done 8½ for director Federico Fellini, and wanted to distance herself from horror films. When filming was about to begin, Sergio Corbucci found his schedule conflicting and called upon his friend Antonio Margheriti to direct the film.
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