Marco Castellini
•Writer Edgar Allan Poe makes a bet with a young journalist: if he manages to spend the night in a haunted castle, he will receive a reward of one hundred pounds. The journalist bravely accepts, but in the castle the spirits are real; the young man resists until almost dawn, but just when the nightmare seems to be over... This is the first gothic horror film signed by Antonio Margheriti, it is a refined story of ghosts who eternally repeat their sins and crimes. Shot in a cold black and white, the film benefits from the excellent performance of Barbara Steele, already the protagonist of Mario Bava's masterpiece «The Mask of the Demon». The supernatural terror here is combined with the erotic aspect, with strong sapphic components, all immersed in a nearly oniric dimension, paced by a slow and unreal rhythm that, in a certain way, increases the horror. And for once (but it often happens in Margheriti's films) the rule, generally respected even in the horror genre, of the happy ending is broken. Recommended.
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