Baron Blood Movie Review

Baron Blood is a 1972 horror movie directed by Mario Bava and starring Joseph Cotten and Elke Sommer.

The film begins with a man called Peter Kleist(Antonio Cantafora) who travels to Austria to find out about his family history. He is interested in a baron who was in his family. He meets his uncle, Karl and they talk about him. He was not a good man and they travel to see his castle. His name is Baron Otto Von Kleist. His nickname was Baron Blood. He was cursed by a witch called Elizabeth. She made sure that he will be able to rise from the dead so she can get her revenge on him again. Peter sees his torture instruments. His castle will be turned into a hotel. Peter meets the man who is in charge of the project. He is called Herr Dortmund and his has an assistant called Eva(Sommer). Peter likes her.

Eva is invited to dinner by Karl and they all chat about the baron. Peter shows Karl papers with an incantation on it that will bring the baron back from the dead. Karl is not in favour of Peter trying that. Karl's daughter, Gretchen tells them that she has seen the baron in the woods. They think that she is imagining it. Peter and Eva go to the castle and make the huge mistake of reading the incantation. They have set the wheels in motion and they hear noises in the castle. They leave before anything can happen. The baron is on his way back from the dead. He makes his way to his castle.
He is not happy and he wants to do some killing. He gets Dortmund first. Then he kills the caretaker, Fritz. The hotel is put on hold after the discovery of two bodies.

An man called Alfred Becker(Cotten) buys the place. He is an odd millionaire in a wheelchair. He wants Eva to help him to restore the place to its former glory. Eva tells him about Baron Blood and the curse. The baron comes after her in the castle and she decides not to stay there anymore. He pursues her to her room and she gets scared. She calls Karl and tells him. He knows a woman called Christina who is a medium and they go to see her. She is reluctant to help them but she relents and she performs a spell gives Eva a magic amulet and tells her that she and Peter brought the baron back, so they have to be the ones to kill him. He is aware of this and he is out to get them. When they have left, Christina gets killed by the baron.

Gretchen meets the baron in the woods. She is not killed by him, though and she returns home to tell her father what happened. She is brought to the castle and when she meets Becker, she tells her father that he is the baron. Eva, Peter and Karl decide that they need to confront Becker and find out what is going on. When they arrive there, the castle has been restored and they realise that he could be the baron after all. When he gets out of wheelchair and walks towards them, the penny drops and they realise that yes, he is the baron. Eva pulls out the amulet, but he just laughs. He goes after Peter and Karl and brings them to his torture chamber where the men are tortured. Eva drops her amulet on top of Fritz's dead body and some drops of her blood and he comes back to life! It turns out that the blood of Eva paired with the amulet is bringing back the baron's victims and they are going to make sure they send him back to the grave. They advance on him and tear him to pieces as Eva escapes and gets Peter and Karl out of the torture chamber. The tree leave the castle as they hear the death cries of the baron and the cackling of Elizabeth who has had her revenge.

This was entertaining and fun. It is not a brilliant film, by any means, but it is well worth your time, especially if you are a fan of Mario Bava. I preferred this one to Lisa and the Devil. I liked the story and the cast were decent too. The setting of the castle is creepy and there is a lot to enjoy about this movie. If you haven't seen it, I would recommend it. I liked it and I will give this a 6/10.