The Legend of the Blood Castle

Covered Version of a great film
It's worth noting that this dvd from Mya utilizes a covered print, ie: nudity filmed for the movie is replaced by 'covered' shots so the film would pass censorship rules in the Franco ruled Spain of the 70's.
This is not what the director intended and not what fans want from a 70's exploitation horror movie.
This is a wonderful film, but Mya has chosen the cheaper, easy route and delivered a dvd that is sure to annoy fans of the film. Buyer beware.

vampirism
The director of the film, Jorge Grau, is less known than other Spanish "fear makers" of his generation like Jesus Franco or Paul Nashy. But with only three films (this one and the excellent Pena de Muerte and No Profanar el Sueno de los Muertos) he proves an incredible ability to create disturbing and compelling horror films.

Ceremonia Sangrienta is for me not only his masterpiece, its also the best attempt to do horror cinema in Spain, its as good as other countries with longer horror traditions like the United States, United Kingdom or Italy. The story is fascinating. It proposes a new point of view of the classical myth of the vampire, more realism than existed in the moment that was made the film, and really visionary.

Visually the film is equally splendid. The photography of Fernando Arribas, present in a lot of Spanish horror films like La Cruz del Diablo, Horror Express or the recent Memorias del Angel Caido, is simply extraordinary, giving the film the...

Excellent Gothic Horror Deserves Better Treatment
"Legend of Blood Castle" is one of the best of the slew of international gothic horror movies that were so prominent in the wake of Hammer Film's success. A Spanish telling of the Elizabeth Bathory legend, it is beautifully shot, oozing with atmosphere, acted superbly, and has a great story - truly, it is one of the pinnacles of the genre. So its release from Mya, while appreciated, is both a blessing for being made readily available and a curse for being handled with the company's now-expectedly amateurish gloves. I don't know exactly where Mya gets their prints from but they usually seem to be about the same quality you would expect from one of those "Mill Creek" 50-movie sets, yet they come with a hefty "Criterion Collection" price-tag. However, it is in widescreen (non-anamorphic) and a pretty decent cut of the film, the most that has been made available since the medium of DVD arrived, though still incomplete. Although 3 audio options are available (English, Italian and Spanish),...

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