Nightmare Castle
Nightmare Castle is a 1965 film from Italy, directed by Mario Caiano, running 105 minutes. reelscum files it under euro-gothic.

- Year
- 1965 · 1960s films
- Country
- Italy
- Runtime
- 105 min
- Director
- Mario Caiano
- Updated
- 10 Aug 2026
- Obscurity
- cult (44/100)
- Also known as
- Les amants d'outre-tombe · The Night of the Doomed · The Faceless Monster · Nightmare Castle
Defined in the glossary: Euro-gothic
Barbara Steele twice over, one of them back from the grave, scored by a young Morricone.
A jealous scientist catches his wife with the gardener, tortures the pair to death, and drains their blood to keep his ageing mistress young, and that is all in the first reel. Then the dead wife's nervous half-sister arrives to inherit the estate, and Barbara Steele plays both women, victim and revenant, in the sort of dual role that sealed her as the face of Italian gothic. Mario Caiano shoots it cheap and cruel, all cobwebs and candlelight, and a young Ennio Morricone supplies one of his first horror scores.
Cheap, mean and dripping, with Steele doing the work of two.
Trailer
The numbers
Nobody has rated this yet. Be the first to make a claim you'll have to defend.
Your call
Where to watch
Legal options in USA
Links open in a new tab (↗). Availability data via TMDB and changes constantly, so confirm on the service. Legal options only. Checked 7 Nov 2026. All options ↗
Discuss with AI
Open a chatbot with a question about this film already typed out. Useful for a second opinion, plot detail, or where to find a copy.
The cycle in depth
- Fantaterror: the Spanish horror boom, 1968 to 1976
Two cuts of every film, one for the censor in Madrid and one for the drive-in. Democracy killed the trick in two years.
Filed alongside
Vampyres
Two women lure travellers to a country house and drain them. British, bloody, erotic.
The Night Evelyn Came Out of the Grave
A widower lures redheads to his castle to get over his dead wife. Nonsense plot, glorious mood.
Succubus
Franco's arthouse credentials, such as they are. Fritz Lang liked it.
The Nude Vampire
A secret society, a Paris chateau, and dream logic all the way down.
Fascination
Rollin's best, and the one where the pretty dream logic finally grows teeth.
Maciste in Hell
A muscleman drops into a full gothic hell. Peplum crossbred with a haunted-castle picture, and it looks it.
The Living Dead Girl
Rollin's best late film. Melancholy where the Italians were loud.
El Vampiro
Mexico's caped vampire, fanged on screen a year before Hammer got there.
The Long Hair of Death
Margheriti and Barbara Steele do the burned-witch gothic, and the fog does half the acting.
A Virgin Among the Living Dead
Franco at his dreamiest. Distributors added zombies later without telling him.
The Shiver of the Vampires
Rollin with a fuzz-guitar band and a vampire who lives in the clock. His most fun.
Zinda Laash
Pakistan's first horror film: Hammer's Dracula, plus musical numbers, minus permission.