Baron Blood (film)

Baron Blood
Directed by Mario Bava
Produced by Samuel Z. Arkoff
Alfredo Leone
Written by Vincent Fotre
Starring Joseph Cotten
Elke Sommer
Massimo Girotti
Music by Stelvio Cipriani
Les Baxter (US version)
Edited by Carlo Reali
Production
company
Euro America Produzioni Cinematografiche
Dieter Geissler Filmproduktion
Release dates
 25 February 1972
Running time
 98 min. (Italy)
90 min. (USA)
Country West Germany
Italy
Language Italian
Box office ITL €262,741,000

Baron Blood (original title: Gli orrori del castello di Norimberga) is a 1972 horror film directed by Mario Bava. It is one of Bava's least critically popular films.

Plot

American Peter Kleist travels to visit the castle of his Austrian ancestor Baron Otto Von Kleist who had a reputation that earned him the nickname "Baron Blood" and who was cursed by a witch, Elisabeth Holle, for his evil deeds against the villagers before he burned her at the stake.

Peter is shown a parchment with a spell reputed to have the power to bring Baron Blood back to life. As a lark with Eva, a female architect renovating the castle for a hotel project, he reads the invocation out loud in the castle. Frightened by an unseen presence, they read the spell to send him back. They later read the invocation again, only this time the parchment is burned before they can read the dismissal. The revived corpse-like Baron goes into town and murders a doctor, starting a reign of terror against the villagers. With each murder victim he becomes more human yet can revert to his hideous appearance.

Gaining access to his hidden treasure, the Baron appears under the disguise of wheelchair-bound Alfred Becker and buys the castle. The murder spree has hurt the hotel project. Eva continues to work for Becker on renovating the castle as his home. After Eva is chased through the fog bound streets of the village by the Baron, Eva and Peter turn to a clairvoyant who puts them in touch with the spirit of Elisabeth Holle for clues on how to combat him. The little girl Gretchen who has seen both the "ghost" (the amubulatory Baron in corpse mode) and Becker (the Baron in human disguise) tell Eva and Peter that the eyes of the ghost and Becker are the same.

Cast

Production

The film was shot on location in an Austrian castle named Burg Kreuzenstein.[1]

Release

The film was bought of release in the US by AIP who cut the film by ten minutes and replaced Stelvio Cipriani's score with one by Les Baxter.[2]

Critical reception

Baron Blood has been poorly received by critics.

Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four, writing, "sometimes you can enjoy horror movies because they're so bad, but Baron Blood isn't bad enough."[3] On the other hand, film critic Leonard Maltin gave the movie 2.5 stars, briefly noting "standard plot is livened by unusual settings and lighting".[4] Daryl Loomis from DVD Verdict gave the film a mostly positive review stating, "Baron Blood is not Mario Bava's best film, but it's far from his worst. It's bloody and full of torture, if not so full of suspense, but it's still a lot of fun."[5] Dread Central awarded the film a score of 3 / 5 commenting, "Baron Blood [is] a particularly uneven piece of work; yet, Bava’s eye is consistently impressive, creating swathes of Gothic imagery such as a chase sequence through fog-laden streets, sterling use of shadow in framing his antagonist, and a great location in the form of the Baron’s castle. To be expected is also the director’s excellent use of lighting and primary colours, making this another rich visual experience with that distinctly European feel. While it certainly isn’t anywhere near the upper echelons of Bava’s filmography, it offers enough in the way of style and the gleefully macabre to keep it afloat".[6] A.H. Weiler from New York Times gave the film a negative review calling the title villain "bland", and stated, "Under Mario Bava's pedestrian direction, the concocted creaking, screaming, gory murders and Miss Sommer's frightened racing through dark passageways largely add up to spectral schlock".[7] The film currently has a 0% approval rating on movie review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on six reviews.[8]

In popular culture

The Well to Hell hoax is an urban legend that circulated the Internet and American tabloids in the late 1990s. The hoax was an audio recording of the sounds of Hell, recorded by seismologists in Siberia. The sounds in the nine-mile deep pit included yells and haunting screams for help from sinners supposedly sent to Hell.

The recording, however, was later revealed to have been a cleverly remixed portion of the soundtrack of the movie Baron Blood, with various effects added.[9]

Biography

References

  1. ↑ Hughes, p.97
  2. ↑ Gary A. Smith, The American International Pictures Video Guide, McFarland 2009 p 19
  3. ↑ Ebert, Roger. "Baron Blood :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". rogerebert.com. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  4. ↑ Leonard Maltin (2 September 2014). Leonard Maltin's 2015 Movie Guide. Penguin Group US. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-698-18361-2.
  5. ↑ Loomis, Daryl. "DVD Verdict Review - Baron Blood (Blu-ray)". DVD Verdict.com. Daryl Loomis. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  6. ↑ Jones, Gareth. "Baron Blood (UK Blu-ray) - Dread Central". Dread Central.com. Gareth Jones. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  7. ↑ weiler, A. "Movie Review - Gli Orrori del Castello di Norimberga - 'Baron Blood' Here From Austria - NYTimes.com". New York Times.com. A. H. Weiler. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  8. ↑ "Baron Blood (Gli Orrori del Castello di Norimberga) - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 16 August 2012.
  9. ↑ Dunning, Brian. "The Siberian Hell Sounds". Skeptoid: Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena. Skeptoid Media, Inc. Retrieved 18 October 2012.

External links