MovieChat Forums > Amanti d'oltretomba (1966) Discussion > Wonder if George Romero saw this one...

Wonder if George Romero saw this one...

posted 14 years ago by lvrepoman
5 replies | jump to latest

There are certain elements in this film that remind me a lot of "Night of the Living Dead." I can't help but wonder if Romero had this movie in the back of his mind when he made his film.

The fact that both are black and white films made in the color era is enough to make me wonder a little. The style of cinematography is very similar between the two films--both very contrasty, lots of shadows. The thunder and lightning in each film is very similar, and even the music of Romero's film reminds me of the earlier film.

Of course, you could say that these elements are common in any gothic film, but when you stop to think that only three years separate the two, and that they were made well after the heyday of the gothic horror, it does make you wonder.

Hell, even the Hershey's chocolate syrup blood looks the same in each film.

Maybe one of you Romero fans knows more about this. If Romero has ever paid homage to this one, I'd like to know.

"He was running around like a rooster in a barnyard full of ducks."--Pat Novak

[–] hitfan 14 years ago

A google search doesn't really reveal much of a connection between "Night of the Living Dead" and "Nightmare Castle". But they have other things in common: they're both films in the public domain and in fact they both appear together in Treeline's "Horror Classics" DVD collection which I have.

I will say one thing that best defines these two movies: they are to me, the very best represenations of the specific genre of horror that they belong to. NOTLD is the very best zombie movie while Nightmare Castle, is the very best piece of Gothic horror put on film.

[–] lvrepoman 14 years ago

I hadn't seen Nightmare Castle until just recently, which is a shame. I agree with you that it is a top-notch film.

The version I saw was on a low-power UHF, so it was probably a 16th generation copy of a kinescope taken from a public domain print that had been buried under a chicken coop for 20 years, so it is hard to know if the contrasty/washed out detail cinematography was the creation of the director or just the result of a rotten print, but whatever the case, it was very effective.

"He was running around like a rooster in a barnyard full of ducks."--Pat Novak

[–] hitfan 14 years ago

They recently re-mastered the movie. I actually bought an autographed copy from Barbara Steele herself at the Toronto Fan Expo in 2009. I was quite a bit intimidated by her, she has a regal personality (accent and all that). All I could muster to tell her her was that Nightmare Castle is my favorite movie of all time (which it is, I even converted it to MP4 format so I could watch it on my iPod Touch).

The remastered version has better picture quality, and the intro's title cards are pretty awesome. But it adds 15 minutes of footage which I feel is not really needed. The 80-minute public domain version is well-paced and the re-mastered version seems to drag on a little.

I discovered Nightmare Castle from this public domain collection:

http://www.amazon.com/Horror-Classics-Movie-Pack-Collection/dp/B0001HAGTM/ref=cm_cr-mr-title

(all the movies presented here are freely available on archive.org, but it's nice to own these movies themselves in a low-price set)

[–] droptoonswatchacid 13 years ago

Fantastic thread.
I've always wondered if David Lynch was a fan of Nightmare Castle- call me crazy.
Thank you.

Pack your bags... we're going to Memphis.

[–] ElectricWarlock 12 years ago

It's funny you should mention George Romero, because this reminded me of a story from Creepshow called "Something To Tide You Over" in which a woman cheats on her husband, so he kills both her and her lover and then they later come back for revenge.

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