The Devil's Nightmare (1974)

Very disappointing...

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The first must-see film of the year.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

The Devil's Nightmare opens in Berlin, 1945, with Nazi officer Baron von Rhoneberg (Jean Servais) brutally stabbing his newborn daughter as she lays helplessly in her crib. The reason for this jaw-dropping act of cruelty is that Gothic horror cliché, the family curse: the oldest daughter of each generation of the von Rhoneberg family is doomed to become a succubus, an agent of the devil tasked with collecting the souls of sinners. By killing his baby girl, the baron is ending the curse—or so he thinks… Years later, seven travellers seek shelter for the night at the baron's castle, and are killed one-by-one by his servant's sexy daughter Lisa Müller (Erika Blanc), the secret illegitimate offspring of his dead brother Rudolph.Any film that starts with gratuitous baby-stabbing gets my attention—it's not often you see that sort of cold-bloodedness, even in a horror—but the demented fun doesn't end there: this devilish Gothic tale from director Jean Brismée has virtually all the ingredients I look for in my early-'70s cult Euro-horror. A stormy night and the Baron's creepy castle provide the perfect setting, the impressive building coming complete with mad scientist's laboratory in the cellar and torture equipment in the attic. The baron's unexpected guests include a pair of gorgeous young women, Corinne (Ivana Novak) and Regine (Shirley Corrigan), who waste no time in stripping off for some steamy lesbian sex. And the deaths are both gruesome (decapitation via guillotine, impaled in an iron maiden and a high fall onto metal railings) and inventive (drowning in gold!!!).Brismée conducts proceedings with plenty of style, delivering enough sleaze and dreamlike atmosphere to keep most Jean Rollin and Jess Franco fans happy, but with the added bonus that it's never boring! All of this is enhanced by a wonderfully haunting score, and the film ends with a crazy twist that comes out of nowhere. What a shame that this was the director's one and only full length film.

This film, its original title translating as "The Extra-Long Night of the Devil," is an absolute misfire of a film on every level and isn't recommended for anyone except for possible use in film/script writing classes on how NOT to make a horror film. And boy, is it extra-long all right. Maybe the Devil had something to do with that, and that's what the title means? It is entirely free of the elements which make up a good horror movie.1. Characters you care about -- None are present. There isn't even any attempt to make any of them sympathetic. We are apparently supposed to believe they represent the seven deadly sins. Well, who can name all of them and who cares to, and anyway they don't do anything to demonstrate that they are bad people. And the malevolent presence doesn't seem particularly mad at anyone either. Score: 02. Suspense -- None is present. After a brief opening sequence which sets up the resident family curse, we are treated to an hour of people talking about there being a family curse in the castle. Why, yes, yes, in fact, as it turns out, there is a family curse, which is thoroughly explained to us so we don't have to have any fun figuring it out ourselves. What do you know about that. Thrilling. 3. An interesting or original "monster" or malevolent entity. Nope. It does have a lady in what looks like strange semi-skimpy 70s party-wear in it, whose face turns gray sometimes. Does that frighten you? She is in plain sight most of the time, doesn't lurk in shadows nor even seem to have sharp fingernails, and apparently, despite telling us at length that she is a succubus, seems to have no clue as to what one actually is. She does not kill people by taking them sexually in their sleep. She doesn't even actually end up having hardly any contact with her victims at all -- somehow instead she seems to possess magic powers which can create snakes in people's beds, or cause doors on iron maidens which just happen to be in the attic ready to open and close on people who step backward into them for no reason like actors in high school plays. When she runs out of similar ideas she just pushes people out of windows. Umm--4. An apparent motivation for killings of victims. There is none present here unless eating a chicken leg while driving makes you a fiendish glutton or engaging in lesbian sex because you are so bored nothing has happened for an hour in the movie you are in should be considered an offense punishable by death. The victims are not tied into the original business of the curse in any way. They're just random boring nobodies who do nothing of consequence. What could be less interesting?If this had been a Dracula movie it would have included long discussions with a tour bus group visiting castle Dracula about how vampire legends are present in the area, Dracula then telling them all he is a vampire, then instead of biting anyone in the neck to suck their blood, using his magic powers to make quicksand appear in their rooms or punching them in the nose till they all die. Honestly this is one of the worst movies I have ever seen; it is thoroughly off base in all areas and terrible directorial choices abound because both the writer and director are afraid to actually do anything which would create suspense or make any kind of commitment to doing anything except spelling everything out for you before it occurs. The cast looks bored throughout, and you will be also if you try watching this mess.

Wow...get a load of the opening titles. The film company must have spent at least 75 cents to get these done! Heck, most YouTube videos have much better production values! Fortunately the rest of the film looked a lot better.This film is about a group of seven travelers who represent the seven deadly sins all being killed off by a demonic succubus. While that's bad, at least the folks all have a good time before being sent to Hell. It all starts when a tour group is stranded and is forced to seek shelter in a creepy mansion owned by a Baron. Once there, two hot members of the party take a quick break for some gratuitous hot lesbian sex. While probably considered soft-core today, back in 1971 this was very hot and I am surprised the film received an R rating. I always thought it odd that there are so many Italian horror films that mix porn with horror--it must have been a very popular genre back in the 1970s. It's not really a style of film I like to rent--it just looked like a normal everyday horror film from its description on Netflix. Is there anything to it other than just a convenient excuse for some skin? Well, at times no--there is more gratuitous nudity here and there--including a weird but very sexy succubus. But at other times the film does a great job of capturing the mood--it is scary and very well-crafted and didn't need all the nudity to be worth seeing--even if many of the characters are one-dimensional and silly. It's not exactly film to show your kids or mother-in-law--that's for sure! I'd give a 5--it has its moments but all the nudity seems irrelevant and the film's quality varies wildly at times--from wonderful to cheesy.

Movies such as "The Devil's Nightmare" are exactly the type of cinematic smut I live for! It's got everything to magically conjure a gigantic smile on the face of every slightly deranged horror/cult/exploitation fanatic. There's bad & incoherent plotting, macabre set-pieces, a mild Gothic atmosphere, demented characters, shocking themes, lousy gore effects and – not to forget – authentically gratuitous lesbian sex! This Belgian/Italian co-production (love the combination since I myself am Belgian and Italy is my favorite movie-making country) is messed up beyond proportions and describing the essence of the plot would take up at least a couple of pages, so I won't go too much into detail. Let's just say the main storyline revolves on an ancient family curse that turns every first born daughter of the Von Rhoneberg generation into a succubus (= female servant of the devil), and a group of tourists stranded at the family castle are just in time to "celebrate" the devilish pact's 700th anniversary. Furthermore, the baron practices alchemy in his basement, there are Nazi child-executions, a gruesome murder story for every room in the castle, the random torture of cats in the attic, negotiations between a priest and the devil himself and a wide variety of shlocky massacres. A lot of the on screen events don't make sense, and there's no building up suspense whatsoever, but it has to be said that the screenplay does also feature a couple of ingenious and rather clever elements. For example, the Succubus (a luscious Erica Blanc) makes sure that every tourist's death symbolizes his or her biggest sin, whether it's greed, unfaithfulness, curiosity … The killings are very nasty, though hardly scary, and follow each other at an incredible pace, barely allowing you the time to wipe the sinister grin off your face. And if all that isn't enough just yet, wait till you witness the far out climax sequence. Oh yes, "The Devil's Nightmare" is pretty bad… So bad it's freaking brilliant! Easily one of the most entertaining European exploitation movies ever made. It's ten times more exciting than all Jess Franco's movies combined, sleazier that Jean Rollin's horribly dull vampire movies and more demented than … well, anything you've ever seen. It's a damn shame Belgians and Italians didn't collaborate more often back in the 70's, because this crazy puppy is a real keeper.