Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.5

The Haunted Castle Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 19, 2019

Note: This film is available as part of The Haunted Castle / The Finances of the Grand Duke.

For all the craziness the internet and social media have brought into many of our lives, one of the saving graces of our particular era is recognizing what wonderful senses of humor many people have, as evidenced by both social media posts and (sometimes especially) responses to those posts. In that regard, one of my social media friends who is a diehard horror film fanatic posted a rather odd news story a few years ago about the skull of famed director F.W. Murnau having been stolen from his crypt. (You can read about the shocking theft here.) That bizarre item may have provoked a laugh or two in and of itself simply because it’s so weird, but a friend of this friend posted a laugh out loud (to me, anyway) non sequitur comment underneath the news item that remains my all time favorite social media riposte: “See? See what happens when you let gay people marry?”. For those unacquainted with much of Murnau’s oeuvre beyond classics like Nosferatu and who would like to expand their horizons regarding films made by Murnau when his head was still (ostensibly?) attached to his body, this new double feature from Kino Lorber offers an interesting duo that may surprise those who think of Murnau as "only" a "dark and stormy night" filmmaker.

The Haunted Palace predates Nosferatu by about a year, more or less, but it has some of the same Gothic horror elements, albeit in passing and “dressed up” in almost a The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari way in terms of offering scary moments that may in fact be fantasies or nightmares. The real story is actually more of a melodrama, as a bunch of people gather at a vast estate for a hunting party (shades of later films like The Rules of the Game), where secrets are disclosed and one character goes to extreme lengths in order to escape some long lived gossip about a murder he supposedly committed.

Lord von Vogelschrey (Arnold Korff) is hosting what is supposed to be a hunting party, something torrential rains have postponed if not outright canceled. His assembled guests are shocked when an unexpected man named Count Oetsch (Lothar Menhart) shows up, accusing Vogelschrey of having more or less intentionally slighted him by not offering an invitation to the festivities. As Voglerschrey and Oetsch discuss the misunderstanding in another room, Vogelschrey’s other guests waste no time in detailing Oetsch’s controversial past, one that includes accusations that he murdered his brother and got off scot free.

When the widow of that murdered brother, Baroness Safferstätt (Olga Tschechowa), also arrives, things get into almost Douglas Sirkian territory, with the obviously rattled woman seeking solace from Father Faramond, a holy man who knew her first husband. The film ping pongs back and forth between events at the supposed hunting party and increasingly detailed flashbacks by the Baroness (which are "confessional" moments relayed to the good Father), where the truth of what actually happened to her first husband is ultimately doled out.

While the "haunting" aspect of the film may in fact be more relevant to the roiling psyche of the Baroness, Murnau plays with things, offering some gruesome visions that some of the guests appear, including one scene that definitely presages Nosferatu and the more than memorable makeup Max Schreck donned for that film. Still, The Haunted Castle probably doesn't completely successfully join its probably wobbly horror moments with its more "mundane" melodramatic aspects, though it certainly is a fine example of some of Murnau's stylistic proclivities.

The Haunted Castle Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Haunted Castle is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Lorber with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. For information on the provenance of the source element and the restoration process, I refer you to screenshots 8 through 10 of our The Haunted Castle / The Finances of the Grand Duke Blu-ray review, which are of text cards that precede the film itself and which mention the original camera negative was utilized for a 2K scan undertaken in 2002. This is by far the better looking of the two films Kino Lorber has brought together for this release, which is not to say that the typical kinds of age related wear and tear that are often seen in older silents are completely absent here. There are still regular recurrences of scratches, specks and flecks, but nothing approaching the levels of damage and disruption seen in The Finances of the Grand Duke. The Haunted Castle's tinting is quite interesting at times, and includes some rather evocative blues and purples, but a lot of this presentation actually plays out in tones that are at least relatively closer to a modern day understanding of "black and white". Detail levels are very good to excellent throughout the presentation, especially when Murnau and cinematographers László Schäffer and Fritz A. Wagner linger on close-ups of faces, where things like the bristly beard of Father Faramund look precise. Motion looked fluid and natural to me, with none of the "stuttering" that can sometimes show up on presentations where frame rates may have been tweaked. Grain resolves naturally throughout the presentation. There are the usual signs of flicker and slight density variations that tend to accompany older silents, but on the whole, this is a really nice looking transfer that should appeal to lovers of silent films.

The Haunted Castle Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Both films in this set feature LPCM 2.0 tracks offering nice solo piano scores accompanying the features. The piano sounds bright but never brash on both of these tracks, with excellent fidelity and no "wobbliness" in the higher frequencies. Dynamic range is rather surprisingly wide on both tracks, due to some nice modulations between pianissimo sequences and fortissimo outbursts.

The Haunted Castle Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

There are no supplements devoted to this film on this release.

The Haunted Castle Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Haunted Castle is a rather interesting silent that sees Murnau plying a kind of psychological ambience while at least occasionally injecting a bit of Gothic horror into the proceedings. There are some really moody framings here, including a couple of moments that are exemplars of Abstract Expressionism. I'm personally not sure the whole thing gels as an organic whole, but it's never less than fascinating to watch. Technical merits are fine, with an understanding of the sort of damage that is often seen in older silents like this one. Recommended.