Castle of Blood

A journalist bets he can spend a night in a haunted castle and, of course, cannot leave. Barbara Steele presides over the dead who re-enact their murders each night, and the film wrings genuine atmosphere and unexpected melancholy out of a threadbare budget.

It is one of Steele's best gothic vehicles, romantic and doom-laden, shot in crisp black and white. The dead here are tragic as much as threatening, which gives it a mournful edge.

Better than it has any right to be, and a fine showcase for the queen of Italian horror.