[2] Castillo was a prolific director who made 64 films throughout his life,[3] casting actors like Fernando Poe Jr., Vilma Santos, and Maria Isabel Lopez.

Castillo also made Ang Alamat (The Legend), 1972, with Poe as a reluctant hero who battle a whole private army all by himself to defend his townfolk.

Succeeding Castillo films aspired towards thematic originality: small-town perversion in Ang Madugong Daigdig ni Salvacion (The Bloody World of Salvacion), 1975; incest in Tag-ulan sa Tag-araw (Rainy Days in Summer), 1975; political and period gangsterism in Daluyong at Habagat (Tall Waves, Wild Wind), 1976.

One finds spiritual undertones in the story of an oversexed girl in Nympha(Nymph), 1971; a struggle of conscience in a stripteaser who laughed on the outside but cried on the inside in Burlesk Queen (Burlesque Queen), 1977; tribal conflict in Aliw-iw, 1979; a conflict of family values in Snake Sisters, 1983; and the politics of domination in Isla (Island), 1983.

Castillo also became the "Master Of Horror And Suspense" when actress Susan Roces shifts to the Classic Pinoy Gothic genre her first horror film was Patayin Mo Sa Sindak Si Barbara (Kill Barabara In Terror) about the malevolent spirit of a suicidal sister comes to torment against her very own sister out of jealousy and resentment and even possessing her own daughter for her own sinister plans, 1974; Maligno (Satan's Seed) about a family targeted by a Satanic Cult and their accomplices of witches and warlocks attempting to steal a beautiful woman's innocence and finds herself impregnated by an evil spirit fearing that the child she would conceive became the child of the devil also encountering bizarre events and hallucinogenic incidents, 1977.

He had ten children: Christopher (Jan. 19, 1964-Aug. 12, 2018), Catherine, John, Amerjapil, Crystal, Amir, Kid, Patrick, Monique and Roxanne Ad Castillo.

Celso Ad Castillo, died early morning of November 26, 2012, due to a heart attack, according to the director’s brother John.