Castle of Blood

Castle of Blood follows Alan Foster, a British journalist who meets Edgar Allan Poe in a London tavern. When Poe insists that his macabre stories are drawn from real events, a wager is proposed: Foster must spend a single night in the Blackwood family castle, a place said to be haunted and from which no one who has attempted the same has returned alive. The skeptical Foster accepts, and once inside he discovers he is not alone, encountering the beautiful Elisabeth and her sister, among other figures with their own stories to tell. What begins as a test of nerve becomes an ordeal involving undead vengeance and a seductive presence offering forbidden pleasures.

The film is a 1964 Italian-French horror and thriller production directed by Antonio Margheriti, written by Giovanni Grimaldi and Bruno Corbucci, and produced by Walter Zarghetta, Giovanni Addessi and Franco Belotti. It sits between Assignment: Outer Space, his 1960 science-fiction entry, and Lightning Bolt in 1966, the second of the six titles listed from his directing career. Barbara Steele stars as Elisabeth Blackwood, with Georges Rivière as Alan Foster, Margrete Robsahm as Julia Allert, Arturo Dominici as Dr. Carmus, Silvano Tranquilli as Edgar Allan Poe and Sylvia Sorrente as Elsi.

On IMDb the film holds 6.8 out of 10 from around 3,400 votes, while on TMDB it sits at 7.1 from a much smaller base of about 127 ratings. The larger sample on IMDb points to a steady following rather than broad acclaim.