Beautiful scientist Ivanna Rakowsky (Erna Schurer) journeys to a remote country estate to take a job as lab assistant to Baron Janos Dalmar (Carlos Quiney). Mere moments after arriving she learns a monster in the area is murdering pretty girls, is almost raped by a perverted coachman and accused of being a prostitute by Janos' haughty housekeeper Olga (Cristiana Galloni). It has been a rough old day for poor Ivanna but one glance at the broodingly handsome Baron is enough to convince her to stick around. Not that Janos appreciates her dedication to science. Aside from snarling abuse at Ivanna over the next few days, he forbids her to visit the laboratory upstairs where his brother Igor (Enzo Fisichella) died during a mysterious experiment, and exhibits more interest in sexy young servant girl Cristiana (Agostina Belli). Things really get weird one night when Ivanna collapses in bed certain she has been drugged. She wakes up to find herself stark naked and tied to a rack with the hideously disfigured monster fondling her body. The next morning Ivanna awakens safe in bed, convinced it was only a dream. But then the next evening the nightmare happens again.
Also known as Blood Castle the Spanish-Italian produced Il Castello del Porto di Fuoco is a thinly-disguised rehash of Antonio Margheriti's The Virgin of Nuremberg (1963). Roger Corman's New World Pictures brought this to American grindhouse theatres where it played double-billed with Stephanie Rothman's arty The Velvet Vampire (1971). Spanish filmmaker José Luis Merino (active well into the Nineties) was more prolific in the action-adventure genre. He made Tarzan pictures, Zorro films, spaghetti westerns and Eurospy thrillers but only one other horror film: Beyond the Living Dead (1973) pairing leading man Carlos Quiney with who else but Latin horror icon Paul Naschy a.k.a. Jacinto Molina. Pretty much from the opening frames Merino throws subtlety out the window with a spooky organ led score, crashing thunder, a gothic laboratory full of bubbling multicoloured liquids and scene upon scene of shrieking full-tilt melodrama. Characters either spit venom at each other or simmer with overheated Latin passion and even our sweet heroine Ivanna seems a few fruit loops short of a full bowl of cereal. All of which leaves the luridly titled Scream of the Demon Lover impossible to take seriously yet irresistible to fans of groovy Seventies Euro-horror.
The plot blends choice chunks of Frankenstein, The Wolf Man and most surprisingly Jane Eyre into a heady brew either classically gothic or hopelessly kitsch depending on your point of view. As one might expect of a product of two cultures with famously less than enlightened attitudes towards women, the film's psychological reasoning is spurious to say the least. We are asked to believe even in the wake of a dozen murders, scores of beautiful girls still willingly risk their lives for a one night stand with the hunky Baron. On top of that the script (co-written by Merino and, interestingly enough, a woman: his regular scripter Maria del Carmen Martinez Roman) blithely excuses the sub-Rochester hero sexually exploiting innocent young peasant girls and lets him settle down with Ivanna. She is so smitten she happily, if inexplicably covers up the many crimes of which he initially seems guilty. Oh come on! Happily a veneer of kitsch smooths over the dodgy gender politics and ensures an amiable gothic romp. To the filmmakers' credit they draw heroine Ivanna as plucky and likable. She might be forever spilling out of her flimsy nightgowns but displays admirable fortitude in standing up to glowering misogynist Janos.
Despite her German-sounding name Erna Schurer was an Italian. Born Emma Costantino, the model, television host and stage actress signed a contract with super-producer Alberto Grimaldi and graced scores of genre films. She remains active in theatre to this day. Today however she is less well known among Italians than her achingly lovely co-star Agostina Belli. Belli worked her way up through the usual exploitation roles to become a major star. She worked with serious auteurs like Lina Wertmuller and Dino Risi and acted opposite international stars like Oliver Reed in Revolver (1973), Kirk Douglas in Holocaust 2000 (1977) and Marcello Mastroianni in Double Murder (1977). One of her most memorable roles was in Risi's original Italian version of Scent of a Woman (1974). Elsewhere Merino lifts a few effective stylistic tricks from Roman Polanski by way of Rosemary's Baby (1968), particularly in the monster molestation scene, staging scenes that resemble lurid horror pulp paperback covers brought to life.
