Im Schloß der blutigen Begierde

Several upscale partyers in modern Saxony are forced to stay overnight at a creepy castle. Good thing for the reclusive Earl (Howard Vernon) because he desperately desires to resurrect his recently dead daughter.

A West German production, "Castle of the Creeping Flesh" (1968), originally named "In the Castle of Bloody Lust" (translated), is castle horror by the director of the infamous "Mark of the Devil," which debuted two years later. It came in the tradition of earlier flicks like "The Terror" and "Bloody Pit of Horror"; these would influence future ones like "Devil's Nightmare," "Baron Blood," "Howling V: The Rebirth" and "Subspecies." The best thing about all of them is the spooky castle ambiance, but this is easily the worst of the lot and could be classified as Eurotrash, literally.

The entire first act is compelling enough while the second act borrows bits from the Gothic horror of Dracula and Frankenstein. However, once the protagonists of questionable character are staying overnight at the castle, the story bogs down with witless close-up footage of open-heart surgery and tedious ambiguity, not to mention a lousy fake bear sequence. Even "The Devil's Wedding Night" seems coherent by comparison.

Janine Reynaud (Vera) and Elvira Berndorff (Elena) are attractive enough and, for those interested, shown semi-nude, but they lack the essentials to cull much interest; for me anyway. Meanwhile Michel Lemoine (Baron Brack) has interesting crazy eyes and the horseback riding in the heart of Europe is nice, but that's about the extent of the highlights. As low-budget and quickly-made as Roger Corman's "The Terror" was, it's a masterpiece of cinematic art by comparison. Even "And Now the Screaming Starts" is superior (which, admittedly, has a good second half, the opposite of this one).

The movie runs 1 hour, 24 minutes, was shot in northeast Austria at Burg Kreuzenstein (the castle), Leobendorf, Lower Austria, Austria, and nearby Oberrohrbach, Korneuburg.

GRADE: C-

Watched this film recently, it may have been controversial stuff in the 1960's but seems a bit tame by todays standards. The infamous rape scenes were well shot and although not the most pleasant subject, suited the storyline well and did not prove cringe-worthy or upsetting. There may well have been one or two continuity errors but these did not detract from the story for me. This has been described as a shocking film, all I can say is I must have been watching a cut version then. The gore content is pretty much a lot less than most horror films, the nudity displayed seems tame by todays standards and although I would not let children watch it, as adult late night fare it was an enjoyable horror film and not as bad as I was led to believe. Dated by todays standards but watchable if you enjoy traditional horror films of this era.

The "cuts" of footage of actual surgery were excessive and unnecessary. The soundtrack was also puzzling, with some of the music giving a comic effect. Whoever dubbed Howard Vernon was two octaves too low and the actress who kept showing her boobs was underdeveloped. The Baron with his popeyed look was ridiculous and why was there a wrestling scene with a guy in a bear suit? I'm a fan of Franco but this was below par, possibly because there were three writers. I did enjoy the castle, though, and the medieval statuary that was inexplicably in Ms Smallbosoms' bedroom. The wax museum tableau showing the legend of the violated babe was also creepy.

At one of those annoying beatnik parties that probably never happened in real life, a lecherous man called Baron Brack invites a lady and her friends back to his place in the country via a vigorous horse ride. This is just a ruse however to separate this lady from her mates and rape her, which of course the Baron blames on her. "You shouldn't have tempted me!" I hear Harvey Weinstein is going to use that one at his upcoming court case.

The ladies friends all arrive but shortly afterwards she does a runner towards an old castle where the gothic action starts off right away. Here lives Graf Saxon, an old scientist whose daughter has just been found raped and murdered, and now he's got a bunch of beatniks stinking up the place. These beatniks are all into dressing up in period costumes and carrying on their annoying ways during a dinner party, but when another one of their friends shows up, things are thrown into turmoil. Let's start a new paragraph so we can analyse this Gothic horror 'trope'.

It seems this new girl is the spitting image of Katerina, Graf's daughter. That's just standard practise in Gothic horror. People don't even grieve that much in these films as they know it's only a matter of time before someone is reincarnated as their departed or some doppelganger walks through the door complaining that their car broke down. Graf gets all excited and starts his evil plan right away to replace his daughter's heart with this dead ringer.

While that's happening there's also some sort of time slip/flashback/dream involving a previous rape committed thirty years previous which somehow this Graf fellow feels the need to reproduce using dummies in a room (why?). We then get to see our beatniks as previous versions of themselves, some as rapists, some as victims, some as butt-ugly witnesses. It's all a bit disjointed.

There is a random bear attack that was pretty good in its crapness. The whole thing I guess revolves around old rapey McGhee and the reincarnation of Katerina, but even then the strange meandering plot, high nudity levels (no thanks Janine Reynaurd!) and terrible acting make it watchable for all the wrong reasons.

I'm giving this flick five stars instead of the mere two or three the writing and acting deserve due to the gorgeously Northern European gothic setting and fairy tale like elements.

I felt The Castle of the Creeping Flesh had a lot of potential in the first 15-20 minutes then it turned into some weird role playing game of rich people who hadn't got the memo two or three centuries had passed, with the sort of creepy mannequin displays used much more effectively in films like The House of Wax (1953) or Tourist Trap (1979).

The execution of this skeezey sleaze fest is lacking to say the very very least. The brunette who keeps pursing her lips into an "oooh" face over and over would be considered a bad actress in a porno, let alone a movie that's actually supposed to be watched in its entirety.