Screening Log

This new site feature is a collective effort to summarize our viewing habits. Occasionally, you will find titles here that are coming to a theater near you, in addition to films viewed on television, and even films viewed in piecemeal. The screening log is archived each month; to view past entries select a month in the menu below.


March 2005 activity

Total Log Entries: 38

Total Comments: 14


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The Devil’s Nightmare / La Terrificante Notte del Demonio / Belgium / Italy / 1971

A so-called “sleaze epic,” The Devil’s Nightmare is actually quite tame when compared with most R-rated films of today, its sole shock element coming in the form of two very brief sexual exchanges between a pair of frisky young ladies. Other than that, it’s a straightforward horror flick: a busload of tourists takes shelter in a creepy castle and each person meets his or her own horrible fate. There is an attempt to deepen the story by making the killer a sultry pawn of the devil that only kills when her victims are in the throes of committing a mortal sin, and I must admit that when the murder sequences finally take center stage, after nearly an hour of build-up, the deaths are fun, fast, and furious.

But what really makes the picture work, and saves it from obscurity, is a colorful cast of distinct characters who sufficiently offset the film’s slow pace with their enjoyable eccentricities. We have the gluttonous bus driver who works his way through two full meals, a couple of snacks, and at least four bottles of wine in one evening; the nubile temptress who spends nearly every minute trying to steal one of the married tourists away from his wife; and the pious priest-in-training who occupies himself with knocking books off shelves and trying his damnedest not to be seduced by the evil succubus. As is the case with nearly all Italian horror films, The Devil’s Nightmare can be found under a host of names, including but not limited to: Succubus, Castle of Death, The Devil Walks at Midnight, and Nightmare of Terror.

by Thomas Scalzo | Source: Platinum Disc Corporation DVD
19 Mar 2005 11:56 AM | Submit Comment


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