ohnny (Steverlinck) has recently been told that his rock band is on the cusp of making it big, but he's also just learned that his estranged mother (Baerstoen), once a successful musician herself, has just died. In her will, she's left him a grand castle on the sea, but when Johnny goes to check the place out, what he finds is far from a happy home.
Mere moments after closing the door behind him, Johnny learns that there's something quite amiss with this place--statues and suits of armor come to life, and not to be hospitable. And these aren't even close to being the worst of the castle's inhabitants. The thing that comes to serve as Johnny's tour guide is nothing less than a wisecracking demon by the name of Mephisto (Shearer), who informs Johnny that he'll be leading him around the castle, showing the young musician the sights and eventually introducing him to "Mr. D." (also voiced by Shearer), who's got a proposition for Johnny.
The tortured souls of countless musicians haunt the vast rooms of the place, some of which seem to be parts of hell itself. The castle's sights are at once breathtaking and infernal--as is Mr. D's proposition. The archfiend (who holds his conversations while straddling, spiderlike, a great flaming fireplace flanked by two living gargoyles) knows that the young musician's career is on a major upswing. Sure, Johnny can sing, but Mr. D can offer the youth the ability to play the guitar, too, like no other. All that Johnny needs to do is sign away something to Mr. D. in return.
Despite everything he's seen around him, after getting a taste of what the benefits would be, Johnny is actually tempted to do the deal. Even the spirit of his dead mother, which comes from beyond the grave to warn him, might not be enough to deter the fledgling rock star from making the ultimate contractual obligation.
A roller coaster ride with soul
For better or worse, filmic experiences like 3-D IMAX movies can't (yet?) really be judged by the same standards that are used to examine other, "regular," theatrically released movies. This doesn't mean that things like 3-D IMAX movies aren't enjoyable in their own rights, however. That said, as far as "these kinds of movies" go, Haunted Castle is one of the best to date.
While the plot and dialogue are--almost expectedly--very much on the thin and even somewhat goofy side, they do serve as a decent, and not completely mindless, engine for driving viewers through the various and at times truly breathtaking visual experiences the film presents. Aside from the characters of Johnny and (the spirit of) his mother, nearly all of the visual aspects of the film are computer-generated. Perhaps the most exciting and/or innovative of these aspects is the exploration of the different spaces of this operatic, Faustian tale--the at-once sprawling and cramped Gothic architecture of the castle and the vast, cavernous expanses of what's presented as hell. Most of the character-generation is fairly run-of-the-mill by today's standards (as are many of the first-person POV shots), but the textures and overall design in the film as a whole are rather effective and appealing.
Haunted Castle is coming to be known largely as the 3-D movie the IMAX Corporation didn't want to be released on its screens. With some decidedly gruesome elements (of torture; though none of these is terribly shocking, really), the worry was in making too extreme and too controversial a leap from its largely G-rated family fare. Fortunately for the Belgian production company that produced the film, this--ultimately unsuccessful--censorship effort gave the movie (as these things often do) much more press than it likely would have had otherwise. Hype or no, Haunted Castle is a fun moviegoing experience.
