Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

I like Black Panther, but I didn't like this movie.

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

"Il castello dalle porte di fuoco", also known as "Scream of the Demon Lover", is a tedious horror flick with a plot that would have better suited a half-hour length blown up to an endless hour-and-a-half.The story is about an allegedly young and beautiful woman who goes to stay with a mad scientist in Victorian times. While there she is repeatedly menaced by a flaky hand while trying to sleep and apparently dreams or hallucinates herself stretched out topless on a rack.We end up getting the idea that this is a Jekyll-and-Hyde type story. Or is it? Who cares? I didn't. You probably won't either.For fans of sleazy Euro-horror, the nudity in the film is fairly negligible, either glimpsed from a distance or shot with something in the way so you don't get a good look. There is also really no violence.

This is the second José Luis Merino film I've seen this week and comparing the two, SCREAM OF THE DEMON LOVER is much more sexual in nature than TERROR OF THE LIVING DEAD due, no doubt, to the Italians being involved. DEMON LOVER is also set in the nineteenth century and stars Erna Schürer as a kittenish chemist who's come to Baron Dalmar's medieval estate to assist him in trying to bring his dead brother back to life. The villagers warn her that the Baron is killing women and ripping them to shreds after consensual sex but she stays on anyway, even after being drugged nightly and put on a rack in the dungeon (?!).Although it's nowhere near as atmospheric or entertaining, the movie owes something of a debt to Mario Bava's THE WHIP AND THE BODY and it's fascination with sadomasochistic mise-en-scène. The Baron and his hounds cut a dashing figure atop the grand staircase and sexy Schürer shows her globes a lot but she's outshone by the exquisite Agostina Belli, who also bares her boobs in the secondary role of a castle servant.Erna Schürer was born Emma Costantino in Naples, Italy and modeled for "Vogue" and "Harper's Bazaar"before appearing in the popular "fumetti" foto-comic "Satanik" in the mid-60s. Placed under contract by movie producer Alberto Grimaldi, Erna spent most of the '70s cranking out "classics" like EROTIC CONFESSIONS FROM A WOMEN'S PRISON, YOUR HANDS ON MY BODY, STRIP NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER, MY PLEASURE IS YOUR PLEASURE, and DEPORTED WOMEN OF THE SS SPECIAL SECTION before more-or-less disappearing from the cinema scene. There's no birth or death dates given for Erna on IMDb and there's precious little about her on the worldwide web, either, for that matter. Today, Schürer's sure as sh!t a GILF somewhere (unless she's split the scene, if you know what I mean).

Blood Castle AKA Ivanna AKA Scream of the Demon Lover (easily the film's best title, in my opinion) is a Gothic Euro-horror that, being a product of the early 70s, is able to spice up the more traditional goings-on (creepy castle, prowling monster, creepy housekeeper, hidden torture chamber etc.) with female nudity and a touch of mild bondage whenever matters threaten to get a little dreary.The film begins with the brutal murder of a young woman—the sixth girl to be butchered in the area in under a year—with the finger of suspicion pointing at ladies' man Baron Janos Dalmar (Carlos Quiney), who has had dalliances with all of the victims. Despite all the killings and the subsequent rumours, beautiful biochemist Ivanna Rakowsky (Erna Schurer) isn't deterred from assuming her position as the baron's assistant, helping with his experiments into regenerating burnt flesh: even when the baron tries to send her packing, having hired her unaware that she was a woman, Ivanna insists that her contract of employment is honoured.During her stay in the castle, Ivanna suspects that her every move is being watched, and experiences terrifying night-time 'hallucinations' (or so she is led to believe) in which she is stripped naked, tied up and groped by a hideously scarred man; she also falls in love with Janos, but is still not completely convinced of his innocence, believing him to be suffering from a split personality—at least until she discovers that the baron's brother Igor, supposedly killed in a fire, is still alive and living in the castle…Yup, you guessed it... it's Igor whose been slicing up the girls. With his manhood destroyed in the blaze and a face like a week old pizza, he's insanely jealous of his bro's success with women and is doing his best to spoil the fun.Although José Luis Merino's direction isn't quite as stylish as many an European Gothic horror, his wise decision to show as much bare female flesh as possible goes a long way to compensate, with the lovely Schurer frequently getting naked for the camera and gorgeous brunette Agostina Belli, as Janos' infatuated maid, shedding her clothes for a roll in the hay with her master. Hell, even middle-aged house-keeper Olga (Cristiana Galloni) strips off for Janos in an effort to get some.The hideously disfigured Igor is also a lot of fun when he finally shows his face (he's the one who has been abducting Ivanna at night and tying her up for a fondle, if you hadn't already guessed): in the thrilling finale, the twisted, emasculated freak (surprisingly decent make-up effects making for an effectively repugnant killer) tries to attack Ivanna, struggles with Janos, and ultimately goes up in flames for a second time.6.5 out of 10, rounded up to 7 for IMDb.

Blood Castle (aka Scream of the Demon Lover, Altar of Blood, Ivanna--the best, but least exploitation cinema-sounding title, and so on) is a very traditional Gothic Romance film. That means that it has big, creepy castles, a headstrong young woman, a mysterious older man, hints of horror and the supernatural, and romance elements in the contemporary sense of that genre term. It also means that it is very deliberately paced, and that the film will work best for horror mavens who are big fans of understatement. If you love films like Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963), but you also have a taste for late 1960s/early 1970s Spanish and Italian horror, you may love Blood Castle, as well.Baron Janos Dalmar (Carlos Quiney) lives in a large castle on the outskirts of a traditional, unspecified European village. The locals fear him because legend has it that whenever he beds a woman, she soon after ends up dead--the consensus is that he sets his ferocious dogs on them. This is quite a problem because the Baron has a very healthy appetite for women. At the beginning of the film, yet another woman has turned up dead and mutilated.Meanwhile, Dr. Ivanna Rakowsky (Erna Schürer) has appeared in the center of the village, asking to be taken to Baron Dalmar's castle. She's an out-of-towner who has been hired by the Baron for her expertise in chemistry. Of course, no one wants to go near the castle. Finally, Ivanna finds a shady individual (who becomes even shadier) to take her. Once there, an odd woman who lives in the castle, Olga (Cristiana Galloni), rejects Ivanna and says that she shouldn't be there since she's a woman. Baron Dalmar vacillates over whether she should stay. She ends up staying, but somewhat reluctantly. The Baron has hired her to try to reverse the effects of severe burns, which the Baron's brother, Igor, is suffering from.Unfortunately, the Baron's brother appears to be just a lump of decomposing flesh in a vat of bizarre, blackish liquid. And furthermore, Ivanna is having bizarre, hallucinatory dreams. Just what is going on at the castle? Is the Baron responsible for the crimes? Is he insane? I wanted to like Blood Castle more than I did. As I mentioned, the film is very deliberate in its pacing, and most of it is very understated. I can go either way on material like that. I don't care for The Haunting (yes, I'm in a very small minority there), but I'm a big fan of 1960s and 1970s European horror. One of my favorite directors is Mario Bava. I also love Dario Argento's work from that period. But occasionally, Blood Castle moved a bit too slow for me at times. There are large chunks that amount to scenes of not very exciting talking alternated with scenes of Ivanna slowly walking the corridors of the castle.But the atmosphere of the film is decent. Director José Luis Merino managed more than passable sets and locations, and they're shot fairly well by Emanuele Di Cola. However, Blood Castle feels relatively low budget, and this is a Roger Corman-produced film, after all (which usually means a low-budget, though often surprisingly high quality "quickie"). So while there is a hint of the lushness of Bava's colors and complex set decoration, everything is much more minimalist. Of course, it doesn't help that the Retromedia print I watched looks like a 30-year old photograph that's been left out in the sun too long. It appears "washed out", with compromised contrast.Still, Merino and Di Cola occasionally set up fantastic visuals. For example, a scene of Ivanna walking in a darkened hallway that's shot from an exaggerated angle, and where an important plot element is revealed through shadows on a wall only. There are also a couple Ingmar Bergmanesque shots, where actors are exquisitely blocked to imply complex relationships, besides just being visually attractive and pulling your eye deep into the frame.The performances are fairly good, and the women--especially Schürer--are very attractive. Merino exploits this fact by incorporating a decent amount of nudity. Schürer went on to do a number of films that were as much soft corn porn as they were other genres, with English titles such as Sex Life in a Woman's Prison (1974), Naked and Lustful (1974), Strip Nude for Your Killer (1975) and Erotic Exploits of a Sexy Seducer (1977). Blood Castle is much tamer, but in addition to the nudity, there are still mild scenes suggesting rape and bondage, and of course the scenes mixing sex and death.The primary attraction here, though, is probably the story, which is much a slow-burning romance as anything else. The horror elements, the mystery elements, and a somewhat unexpected twist near the end are bonuses, but in the end, Blood Castle is a love story, about a couple overcoming various difficulties and antagonisms (often with physical threats or harms) to be together.