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Released by: Mya Communications
Released on: 6/9/2009
Director: Jorge Grau
Cast: Lucia Bose, Espartaco Santoni, Ewa Aulin, Ana Farra
Year: 1973
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The Movie:
Directed by Jorge Grau, best known for the excellent Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, one of the finest zombie films to come out of the European horror boom, The Legend Of Blood Castle is a pretty solid take on the legend of Countess Elizabeth Bathory, a story that's been milked in horror cinema time and time again (Hammer's Countess Dracula standing as a good example).
The film tells the story of a noblewoman named Marquise Erzsebet Bathory (Lucia Bose) who completely by chance winds up getting the blood of one of her super hot chamber maid's on her skin only to find out that it's got some pretty rad medicinal properties - it seems to preserve it, keeping it young forever. Vein beyond belief, Bathory decides that keeping a steady supply of the blood of foxy young ladies on hand will provide her with the eternal youth that she lusts for, and so she begins a killing spree with the help of her loyal husband, Karl (Espartaco Santoni).
To help cover his tracks, Karl decides to fake his own death and 'resurrect' himself as a vampire so that the local townsfolk, an uneducated and superstitious lot, will keep a healthy fear about themselves and not bother he and his wife, but things get complicated when he meets Marina (Ewa Aulin). The daughter of the town's innkeeper, Marina is just about the hottest thing on two legs and Karl starts falling for her much to the dismay of his wife, who would much rather drain her of her blood than see her cavorting with her beau.
While the film takes a little while to get going, an excellent last half ensures that this one delivers all the thrills and chills you'd expect from a seventies era European vampire picture. Grau directs with a pretty steady hand and paces the movie quite deliberately, building to a wholly satisfying conclusion while still managing to tell a pretty decent story. The cinematography is great, making excellent use of the Spanish locations and framing the sexualized violence with almost fetishistic glee and attention to detail.
In terms of the performances, Santoni is a bit wooden in spots but you can easily overlook this when you've got the compellingly interesting Lucia Bose to make up for it. She's got a naturally intense screen presence about her that makes her Bathory a very interesting and watchable character. Ewa Aulin, who worked with Tinto Brass on the bizarre Deadly Sweet, is a stunner to look at and the camera loves her, a quality that Grau has no hesitation exploiting.
So yeah, The Legend Of Blood Castle is a pretty awesome movie. You get all manner of buxom women, some great atmosphere, a bit of bloodshed and some fantastic and stylish cinematography. Too bad then that Mya has released the clothed version of the film, meaning that the nudity that was present in export versions of the movie has been replaced here with alternate scenes in which the would be hot naked ladies are no hot clothed ladies. This was a fairly common practice in Spain around the time in which this picture was made and it was done to avoid censorship problems, but it's certainly an annoyance to those of us who no longer abide by antiquated censorship policies and wish to see the film in its intended uncut version.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Mya has transferred the film from what looks like a video master, meaning that the picture is pretty soft. Sadly, the whole affair is presented in 1.78.1 non-anamorphic widescreen, and the feature is comprised of the 'clothed version.' Image quality, lack of anamorphic enhancement notwithstanding, is otherwise alright but certainly no better than that and the transfer is interlaced. Colors are good but detail isn't so hot. While there are some specks here and there, print damage is held firmly in check. Mya really should have put more effort in here, however, it seems like a pretty lazy job…
You've got your choice of watching the film in its original Spanish language track or a dubbed Italian language track, without any subtitles of any kind or in an English dubbed track. So yeah, unless you speak Italian or Spanish, you're watching this puppy in English, like it or not - a continually frustrating move on the part of Mya though to their credit the two scenes in the film that weren't dubbed into English do have forced English subtitles provided for them. As far as the English track goes, it's fine. You won't have any problems understanding the dialogue and the levels are well balanced. It won't blow you away but it gets the job done with little room for complaint. There's some background hiss here and there but it's never overpowering. Could it have been better? Yes, definitely, but it is at least sufficient, faint praise as that may be. Omitting subtitles for the Italian track on a release intended for an English speaking market renders that track more or less redundant, however…
As mentioned, Mya has presented The Legend Of Blood Castle in its clothed version, meaning that the scenes that contained nudity are not present in the feature version of the film. This material appears to have been included from an Italian language version of the film in the form of six minutes or so worth of deleted scenes which are presented with English subtitles. Also included on the disc are the alternate English version opening and closing title sequence, a pair of alternate scenes again culled from the Italian version and presented with English subtitles, and a small still gallery. Static menus and chapter selection are also included.
The Final Word:
Mya continue to release some interesting films in remarkably half-assed editions. The Legend Of Blood Castle is a great movie but there really should have been more effort put into the audio video here and while it's nice to see the deleted scenes, obviously presenting the uncut version of the film would have been highly preferable. So far this is the best option out there, which is sad considering the quality of the film, but it's hard to recommend it too strongly when the flaws are many.
Has anyone compared the MYA disc to the Sinister Cinema disc?
Might the Sinister Cinema disc be the grown-up version?