The Faceless Monster (best known to US audiences as Nightmare Castle) is a favorite among the Barbara Steele fan base. Highly regarded and quite often referred to as her best gothic horror outing, I'd tend to agree. Previously available on DVD from Madacy Entertainment (in the truncated US edition no less) as part of a bargain priced double feature (paired with the lackluster Track of the Vampire) Retromedia has recently released this gem on DVD in a sparkling widescreen transfer and totally uncut to boot! Priced to sell, this DVD is an exceptional bargain and I'm going to have to say right off the bat, a must purchase for anyone who refers to themselves as a fan of cinematic horrors.

Muriel, played by Steele (Castle of Blood, Black Sunday) is married to the unorthodox Dr. Steven Arrowsmith (euro horror fave Paul Muller here credited as Miller) who is conducting some abnormal experiments involving a youth serum with the help of their conniving housekeeper Solange (played by Helga Line). Muriel has been having an affair with the castle's handyman David (Rik Battaglia) and on one faithful evening, the two are caught red handed. The good doctor then takes it upon himself to chain the two lovers to the stone walls of his laboratory, torturing and ultimately killing them (in the films really only laughable moment, due to a horrid optical effect). David successfully administers the serum to Solange rejuvenating her youthful good looks and sets about a plan to acquire his now dead wife's fortune.

Discovering that Muriel's stepsister (a blonde haired Steele in a dual role) was to acquire the fortune, he marries here with the plan of driving her insane so he can extract the inheritance for himself. When Jenny starts to lose it in the big ole castle, David assumes the drugs are taking effect, until he learns that they have actually not been administered (uh oh). Things only get worse when Jenny's psychiatrist arrives and the two discover an attraction that has apparently been there all along. The nightmares continue to intensify for Jenny as her hallucinations slowly become clearer and it's evident that this could very well be a case of retribution from beyond the grave (what else were you expecting?).

The real beauty of The Faceless Monster lies within the simplicity of its execution. Simple ideas, simple story, extremely classy and beautiful gothic imagery to support it. Thus making The Faceless Monster a true horror fans cinematic wet dream. While The Faceless Monster is anything but scary by today's standards, there's a definite underlying creepiness that runs throughout and remains effective in giving one the willies up until this very day. Barbara Steele steals (don't pardon that pun!) the show here and is extremely wonderful in her dual roles as the sneaky Muriel and all to naive Jenny. Supporting roles are also filled out quite well, making The Faceless Monster a near perfect visual ghost story. Near perfect visually, yes. But extremely flawed in the script dept. The story is paper thin, but thankfully the outstanding visuals and exceptional mood definitely make this flick a stand out.

Quite shocking for the day, The Faceless Monster is actually pretty tame by today's standards (surprising, huh?). Still, one could see what all the fuss was about, with the minimalist, but impressive onscreen violence, and the frank discussions of the horrors to ensue. Sure, the whole thing can be seen as a total rip on Bava's style, and perhaps the letters of apology should have been written a long time ago. However, as it stands on it's own, The Faceless Monster is as good, if not better than any gothic telling the maestro had come up with himself (did I just say that?).

Retromedia does an incredible job in bringing The Faceless Monster to DVD. It appears as if the DVD was mastered from a video source, as there are slight amounts of video noise present and a few slight (extremely slight) video glitches. Surprisingly enough, print damage is minimal and black levels appear to be quite solid, It's evident that this source material went thorough some sort of restoration process to punch up the picture quality, and it worked. For a comparison screen shot from the previous Madacy edition (which was cut, looked dupey but was still acceptable) click here. You can really see the difference in quality; it's almost like watching a completely different film, or watching it for the first time. Even without the 16X9 enhancement, this transfer is a breath of fresh air and quite stunning to say the least. We have major thanks to give to Retromedia for this one. This is easily the best this film has looked on home video in the US.

Audio is equally impressive with nice clear dialogue and really no evidence of hiss or background noise. The mono audio sounds just fine as does Ennio Morricone's fantastic score.

Extras are limited to a brief Barbara Steele image gallery. All in all Retromedia has done a fine job in bringing this horror classic to the masses. Like I said earlier, with its budget price, this is a no brainer. I urge all horror fans to grab Retromedia's The Faceless Monster on DVD and see what all of the fuss is about. This DVD would make a fine addition on any horror fan's shelf, highly recommended.