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If
you're a horror fan looking for a prime slice
of sleazy '70s Eurotrash, this could very well
be the ticket.
The Devil's Nightmare opens with a sepia-toned
prologue set in Berlin at the end of WWII. As
Allied bombs rain down on the city, a
woman dies giving birth to a child. The dead woman
was the wife of Baron von Rhoneberg (Jean Servais),
a high-ranking German general who seems more disappointed
that the child is a girl than learning of his
wife's demise. He dismisses the servants, then
pulls out a dagger and stabs the baby to death
as it lies in its crib. (This scene definitely
shocked me. Though not gory, the blade is
shown being stuck into the kid. I've never seen
a baby murdered on screen before; that sort of
thing always happens out of camera range. No doubt
some folks would find this extremely offensive.)
After
the opening credits the story flashes forward
25 years. A bus carrying a small group of tourists
— a feuding married
couple, a handsome young priest-in-training, an
old crabby guy channeling Ross Perot, and a pair
of foxy, groovily-attired Eurobabes —
is lost somewhere in rural Germany. The driver
asks directions of a gaunt, creepy-looking dude
(The City of Lost Children's
Daniel Emilfork) encountered by the roadside.
He directs them to the nearby Castle Rhoneberg;
the Herr Baron, he tells them, should prove willing
to take them in for the night.
Though the baron's manservant
Hans (also quite odd and creepy) nearly chases
them off with his tales of past atrocities in
the castle, the tour group decides to stay overnight.
After being shown their respective rooms (the
two single gals decide to bunk together —
yeah!), Baron Rhoneberg greets the party prior
to dinner. From him they learn of his family's
legendary curse, which
decrees that the first born girl-child of each
generation must be given over to the Devil for
services the Dark One once rendered an ancestor.
(Thus filling in the backstory about the knifed
baby; von Rhoneberg preferred to see his daughter
dead by his own hand rather than give her to Satan.)
Said girl-child would become a Succubus, a demonic
creature that seduces and tricks its victims to
their destruction. When asked if he himself ever
had a daughter, the baron tells them no.
The dinner party is crashed
in a big way with the arrival of Lisa (sexy Erika
Blanc), another wayward traveler who's lost her
way — though strangely
she and the baron's old housekeeper, Greta, seem
to know each other. Lisa makes
her entrance to the dining room in an eye-popping,
flesh-revealing black dress that would give Liz
Hurley or J. Lo a run for their money. Not long
afterwards
a dead cat is found impaled on a torture device
in the attic, while von Rhoneberg shows the inquisitive
Mrs. Foster his alchemy lab in the basement. (Don't
ask.) Once everyone retires to their quarters
for the night, even
weirder things begin to happen.
Albert, the aspiring priest,
sees Lisa — dressed
in an even skimpier little nothing —
appear to him in his room, ghostlike, though she's
not actually there. Corinne, one of the swingin'
single gals, hooks up with Mr. Foster for a midnight
rendezvous that proves fatal to them both. They're
killed by Lisa, who is in fact the succubus of
legend. Her victims are left with a symbol, the
horned "Mark of the Devil", seared into
their flesh. She tries to seduce Albert by teasingly
revealing her breasts but the devout Christian
rebukes her. Teleporting about the castle, she
kills off the remaining members of the tour group
(in various ways) until only Albert remains. Despite
her considerable wiles he cannot be corrupted.
Her master, the Devil, will have to propose a
bargain if he wants Albert's soul...
The Devil's
Nightmare (the actual title on the print
used by this DVD is one of its many Continental
ones, La Terrificante
Notte del Demonio) is silly, sexy Eurotrash
fun. Capably directed (though actually helmed
by up to 3 different people!), the film displays
the occasionally artful stylized touch. It's got
all the elements you'd expect, too —
a medieval castle (complete with guillotine),
a bloody family curse, sexy women in various states
of undress, lesbian love
scenes, death by various means, and a kitschy/groovy
musical score. (The main melody, sometimes whistled,
is reminiscent of the Dark Shadows theme.)
Stunning redhead Erika Blanc easily steals the
show as Lisa, however, in her barely-there outfits
and undisguised lasciviousness. She can make evil
look very sexy, which, after all, is what
a succubus is all about. And since the low budget
did not permit for elaborate makeup effects, when
Lisa turns wacked-out monster Blanc has to achieve
this mostly through acting. She's not entirely
successful — one
interminable scene that has her stretching her
face while making ludicrous expressions is more
laughable than creepy —
but we got to thinking about that black dress
again and so forgave her.
The flick does have its share
of boners (no pun intended). Characters walk around
with candles to illuminate already well-lit rooms.
A plotline which has the succubus killing the
tourists to the litany of the Seven Deadly Sins
is inexplicably jettisoned after the first four
murders — the characters
left alive no longer fit the remaining categories.
Gorehounds will be disappointed that special effects
are minimal*
and lean to the cheesy side. Frankly I was disgusted
more by repeated close-ups of the bus driver eating
than the baby-stabbing scene. The dubbing, as
would be expected, is poor. Some of the dialog
is pretty goofy. (This is likely the only film
in which you'll ever hear the line "I'm a
succubus, Albert.")
Still, a neat little twist
ending — not to mention
ample titillation —
should keep Eurotrash fans content.
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The
disc is one of Image's "Redemption"
line of Eurohorror flicks for Region 1 DVD. A
number of French director Jean Rollin's horror
films have been released as part of this line.
Apparently they all feature an introductory segment
hosted by Razor Blade
Smile's Eileen Daly, dressed up as a winged,
leather-clad vampire woman with fangs and contact
lenses.
Apparently Daly is, or was, something of a horror
hostess in Britain, akin to Elvira here in the
States. The 'host segment' included with The
Devil's Nightmare (the disc's 1st chapter
stop; the film proper begins with Chapter 2) is
a shot-on-video affair highlighted by lots of
bare breasts and dripping blood. Daly talks for
a few minutes about cannibals and the movie Cannibal
Holocaust (???)
while topless women wrestle with pieces of fake
guts. I was really puzzled, and actually a bit
annoyed, by the whole thing. Obviously this was
originally the introduction to an entirely
different movie... Just what the hell it's
doing with The Devil's Nightmare
is a mystery. Perhaps Image —
or the company that sold 'em the rights —
simply tacked on the sequence thinking that most
folks wouldn't notice as long as it had tits in
it. (Hell, maybe they're right.)
As for the movie itself, it's
slightly letterboxed and comes with both English-dubbed
and Italian language mono audio tracks. Video
quality ranges from fine to somewhat washed out,
with occasional print damage evident. (It still
looks much better than it ever has in previous
VHS incarnations.) The English audio track is
the disc's main letdown, as it can be muffled
and scratchy at times. In comparison the Italian
track sounds much more clear, certainly fuller,
but unfortunately there's no English subtitle
option. And I don't speak Italian.
Aside from the U.S. theatrical trailer — which
is in pretty rough shape — and some brief (uncredited)
liner notes, the disc does not come with any Extras.
I certainly don't think the utterly pointless
Redemption intro, which I like to call Silicone
Breast Implants of the Damned, can be counted
as one. 6/21/01
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