Poe Man's Gothic Terror: The Blancheville Monster (1963) Review [Gothic Fantastico: Four Italian Tales of Terror Box Set] (2025)

Director: Alberto De Martino

Notable Cast: Gerard Tichy, Leo Anchoriz, Ombretta Colli,Helga Line, Iran Eory, Vanni Materassi, Paco Moran, Emilia Wolkowicz, HarryWinter

Arrow Video has delivered another one of those classicbox sets they are known for unleashing with their latest: Gothic Fantastico:Four Italian Tales of Terror. Pulling together four films under a commonthematic and stylistic aspect, this set contains some 1960s cult cinema findswith brand new 2K restorations, gorgeous packaging, and enough newcommentaries, essays, and interviews to impress any movie collector.

After the messy, but highly entertaining aspects of theprevious film in this box set, Lady Morgan’s Vengeance, my expectationswere established for The Blancheville Monster. Like the rest of thefilms in this set, this one was going to be a blind watch, but if it was asentertaining as the last one, I was going to be in fine hands. Yet, while thegothic tones, sets, and final 10 minutes are effective, The BlanchevilleMonster feels like a very obvious Roger Corman-style Edgar Allen Poe movieknock-off - and one that is burdened by its pace and mystery.

At first, this film sets up such a premise for entertainmentthat it was easy to slip back in my movie-watching chair, grab a beer, and feelcomfortable that this film was going to deliver the goods. The atmosphere ofits opening, as a carriage bounces its way through the woods towards aclassic-looking gothic castle in the distance, is nostalgia 101. Original, nay,but certainly a welcome sight. Even as the film starts, which includes adisfigured “monster” in a tower and an Agatha Christie-style ensemble ofcharacters all seem to possibly hide their own monstrous secrets, it is settingthe stage for a great gothic horror film.

However, as the narrative and plot start to unwind, TheBlancheville Monster reveals the real monster that stalks its cobb-webbedhalls. A monster called “boredom.” Despite some fun elements including a doctorthat might as well be twirling his mustache evilly, a running plot thread whereone character is being seemingly hypnotized at night by a rumored family curse,and the titular monster that lives in the tower, the film is far more contentin dragging its feet in moving any real pieces of its mystery forward.

The Blancheville Monster spends a significant portionof its time trying to establish red herrings and possible false threads to whatis happening to the characters, particularly Emily - played with the standardwide-eyed confusion of a damsel in distress by Ombretta Colli. It spends toomuch time on it. On paper, it is a classic “spot the villain” kind of angle tothe story, but in doing the plotting and narrative become a meandering saunterwhere nothing actually happens. When something does happen, for example whenthe film remembers to use its ruinous setting the “monster” in the tower, itstill does so with little tension or sense of urgency which undermines some ofits better aspects.

For fans of those who enjoy the Corman era of Poe films,there is a sense of fun to the knock-off elements at play in The BlanchevilleMonster, and the final act hits some great visual pops of atmosphere, but overall,this one is a relative chore to get through. Some of the performances helpcarry the film and the use of ruins as a setting and the castle addsubstantially to the atmosphere, but it is too little to make the film standout.

If anything, here’s to hoping that the rest of the GothicFantastico kicks up the entertaining value over this one. Not that TheBlancheville Monster is bad, but it’s plodding and generic. Take that howyou will.

Written By Matt Malpica Reifschneider