Castle of the Creeping Flesh (1968)

Day 30 of Sobriety.

I was not expecting much from Castle of the Creeping Flesh, mainly because it has a reputation for being cheaply made, incomprehensible trash. Valid as those criticisms may be, I’m happy to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The film has all the hallmarks of a typical Italian or Spanish “eurohorror” film of the period, but this one was actually made in Germany, directed by Adrian Hoven, better known to horror fan’s for producing Michael Armstrong’s gory witch-hunting film Mark of the Devil (1970). It was no surprise at all to learn that Jess Franco was involved in the writing, because if someone had told me that this was Jess Franco film shot in Germany, I would have easily believed them. It also features a few of Franco’s regular roster of actors.

The plot involves a group of wealthy party-revelers who decide to spend the night in an ancient castle inhabited by the very eccentric Earl of Saxon (played by Franco regular Howard Vernon).  The Earl’s daughter has recently died in tragic circumstances, and, unbeknownst to the foolhardy visiting hedonists, he has plans to resurrect her. Cue crazyness.

The film is characterized by bizarre dialogue and non-sequiturs, including a lot of strange semi-intelligible philosophic musings by the Earl and some of the other characters. The partygoers include other Franco regulars Janine Reynaud and Michel Lemoine. Lemoine is great at playing contemptible b****s, and certainly doesn’t disappoint in that department here. Reynaud, together with German co-star Elvira Berndorff provide top-drawer 1960s eye-candy.

I have to admit that I was confused at several points regarding what exactly was going on, but this is one of those films that you just have to kind of allow to wash over you like a delirious fever dream. One particularly strange element of the film is that, during its “mad scientist” operation scenes, it features prolonged use of real close-up footage of what is apparently an open-heart surgery operation to install a pacemaker. This is pretty gruesome, and fills the screen for what seems like minutes at a time at a couple of points in the film. It made me feel glad that I wasn’t watching it at a movie theater. Weirdly, in some scenes the footage is superimposed of erotic scenes featuring Janine Reynaud. What the intended effect of that was, I have no idea, but yeah—it’s very strange indeed. There is also a stunning bear attack scene in the film that puts modern CGI to shame. OK, I’m being ironic there.

It’s easy to deride a film like Castle of the Creeping Flesh for all of its faults and bizarreness. It is about as far away as possible from the kind of polished features currently being shown at 99.99% of movie theaters, but I liked it quite a lot. I liked the weird, dream-like atmosphere generated by its strange, disjointed dialogue and rule-breaking production techniques. The castle and sets looked great, as did the actors. I liked the fact that unlike, for example, The Pope’s Exorcist, that I watched the previous day, I had absolutely no

idea where the plot of Creeping Flesh was going to take me. Anything could have happened, and did—right up to the final confounding scene.

 

So, today marked 30 days as the Sober Horror Fan—my first full month. I’m glad I chose a suitably cool flick to commemorate occasion. Definitely not for everyone, but this is the kind of film that I can watch and enjoy multiple times. I might fast-forward through the heart surgery scenes next time though...