I bought one of those, “19 terrifying movies in one mega collection” dvd sets years ago. Still working on it and the latest one I watched is Nightmare Castle. This black and white thriller from Italy is about a scientist who kills his cheating wife and her lover and tries to cheat her sister out of her inheritance. Watching the film is difficult with the amount of darkness on the screen (although faces or anything dressed in white seems to float in mid-air), the instrumental music distractingly fluctuates in volume, (composed by Ennio Morricone), and the special effects are obviously low budget and made in 1965 (as is the rest of the film). The scientist played by Paul Muller would be creepy in proper lighting, (makes a good villain), there are lots of interesting moving shots in the castle, (also still shots of character’s eyes), and the scenes with violence grabbed my attention, (more intended so than what you see and sometimes out of place against the rest of the film). The film’s pacing serves the building of tension, making me wonder what will the scientist get in the end, and will any other character figure out what he is up to. Both Barbara Steele and Helga Liné steal scenes fighting with the scientist, battling possible mental health issues, and moving around the screen in a manner perfectly suited for a thriller set at a dark castle. I wish I heard this film without the English dub.

Nightmare Castle

IMDB

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060097/?ref_=nv_sr_1

1965, unrated, 1h 45m