Barbara Steele was pretty much the female Vincent Price of the 1960s. She was a serial scream queen! So here’s a quick look at three of her flicks from the mid-60s.
CASTLE OF BLOOD (1964)
Castle of Blood is a classic black and white gothic haunted house movie. For no apparent reason at all other than to have his name attached, the movie begins with a reporter interviewing Edgar Allan Poe at a pub. Then the reporter accepts a bet to spend a night in a castle from which no one ever returns alive.
This castle has all the requirements right from the start: cemetery, black cat, spider webs, candlelight, creaking doors, a tomb, a rotting corpse, and of course, ghosts.
It appears the reporter is not alone and has his pick of two women—Barbara or a blonde. But it appears the blonde is more interested in Barbara…and that pretty much everyone who appears in the house is a ghost.
Bottom line is, the reporter keeps seeing a re-enactment of the murder and mayhem that has taken place in the castle. The best news of all? A hunky shirtless man keeps coming out of the woodwork to kill his wife.
NIGHTMARE CASTLE (1965)
Black and white flick Nightmare Castle starts of with some good old sadistic torture. Barbara is basically fucking the gardener. Her husband catches them and makes them pay with some serious pain before finally killing them.
Conveniently, Barbara had a sister who looks just like Barbara Steele! So the husband marries her, makes her the queen of his castle, then plots with the maid to drive her crazy to get all the money his deceased wife left to her.
They don’t even need a plan. The ghosts of the dead wife and her lover do the job for them. The movie drags a lot, but eventually, the dead wife pretty much possesses the sister to get revenge on the husband. Her appearance at the end is pretty much the creepiest part of the film…and appears to be the inspiration for Samara/Sadako. White dress, long black hair, one eye peering out.
THE SHE-BEAST (1966)
And finally, we move into the world of color for my favorite of this trio. Beginning in Transylvania way back when, townsfolk goad one of the most horrific fricking witches I’ve ever seen out of a cave, strap her to a big wooden contraption, spear her, and then dunk her in the water.
In modern times, Barbara Steele and her man come to Transylvania and drive right off the road into the water. That’s pretty much the extent of Barbara’s appearance in the film, for she comes out as the horrific hag! This piece of Euro trash is a hoot. The witch bitch cackles and screams and shoves her gnarly face all up in the camera as she runs around butchering people with scythes and hammers and shit. This one would have given me major nightmares as a kid.
My only gripe about The She-Beast is the need to throw Van Helsing into the mix and even drop Drac’s name. Don’t steal my witch’s thunder!
