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Hot female vampire action with lots of blood & black feathers...sounds like an awesome movie, right? Well, on my copy of “Devil’s Nightmare” (http://imdb.com/title/tt0067592/), that’s just the logo for the production company!
Redemption Films (http://www.redemptiontv.com/x/movies.html) decided to open with a fanged black angel surrounded by scantily-clad “cannibal sisters” & a chick with bat wings, all writhing & chomping & salivating & bleeding every which way. The angel serves as hostess, in the vein (no pun intended...well, maybe a little) of Vampira, Elvira, & Zacherley. After an intro & some text cards telling us about the film & noting a factoid on its star, she launches into a brief history of cannibal movies (in which she describes several actresses as “lickable”), even though “Devil’s Nightmare” is not a cannibal flick...though she does mention a few classics, including the once-banned “Cannibal Ferox”!
But enough about the super-cool prelude. On to our feature, a clever little tongue-in-cheek number that’s sort of “The Real World” meets “Clue” meets “Seven”, with a supernatural twist a la “Faust”. Seven strangers, each representing one of the seven deadly sins, are on a guided tour of Germany. Reaching their destination is taking longer than expected, so they ask a creepy guy burning brush in a field if there’s a hotel nearby. He says no, but Baron von Rhoneberg over at the nearby castle might be able to put them up for the night.
The Baron is the descendant of a World War II general, whom we see at the beginning of the film. This original Baron von Rhoneberg waits tensely as his weak-hearted wife gives birth in the next room while the bombs are dropping outside. She dies in the process, & when the Baron discovers he has a daughter instead of a son, he stabs the infant to death. (No, it isn’t what you’re thinking, & yes, it will make sense later.)
After a campy song & the opening credits sequence (the film is an Italian-Belgian collaboration, thus the French title on the IMDB listing & the Italian title on the actual DVD),we see the present-day Baron talking to a reporter about his ancestors living under a curse. However, he refuses to allow her to photograph the house. Soon enough, though, she’s outside the place snapping pictures left & right. An arrow suddenly pierces the tire of her car. She runs, screaming, & falls...
The reporter’s body is found, & the townsfolk say she perished from a heart attack brought on by fear. There is an odd mark on her neck - “the mark of the devil” - & there is talk of a succubus.
It is at this point that we are introduced to our group, who find accommodation at the Baron’s home. In fact, the Baron’s butler, Hans (a dead-ringer for, & namesake of, the original Baron’s second-in-command), says a woman phoned to let him know the group was coming. She even gave him their names. However, as I don’t recall all the characters’ names, I’ll address them by sin.
Gluttony, the bus driver/tour guide, hides food in his suitcase & sneaks a snack at every possible opportunity. Lust is a pretty bisexual red-headed woman who has a vested interest (translation: groovy lesbian scene) in Sloth, a perpetually sleepy but totally adorable blonde with the creamiest skin ever (Shirley Corrigan, last seen hanging out with Paul Naschy in “Dr. Jekyll vs. The Werewolf”, if memory serves), yet is also seen getting it on later with Mr. Envy-Greed. Mrs. Envy-Greed can’t wait to point out how she watched him drooling over Lust, & thinks he only married her for her money. Though she is jealous of Lust for having such an effect on her husband, she seems even more interested in the Baron’s attempts at alchemy, & the riches he may or may not be concealing in his big, old house. Wrath is a bit of a curmudgeon, a crabby old so & so who complains non-stop about everything. Father Pride, the last of the bunch, is actually a priest-in-training, a seminary student. Can a priest embody pride, you ask? Aren’t they supposed to relinquish such thoughts when they become men of the cloth?
Well, that’s the clever bit. Or, at least, part of it.
Strangeness permeates the house. Bits of the ornate trim-work fall off, nearly crashing onto someone’s head. Doors shut of their own volition. Each room seems to have been the scene of some horrible occurrence or another, according to Hans - people found with their throats slit, fatal exorcisms, deadly accidents. And that succubus the townsfolk were talking about earlier finally shows up...
Her name’s Lisa (& she’s played by Erika Blanc - http://www.federicomancosu.com/forfun/foto2/ERIKA_BLANC.jpg - who had, apparently, made the rounds of European Gothic horror flicks in the 60s, considering she’s in 3 films on the same box set), though at first, no one knows what she is (however, she’s immediately recognised by Martha, the Baron’s maid, & not in a good way). During dinner, someone asks the Baron about his fabled family curse, & he tells how the original Baron sold his soul to the devil. The first daughter of each generation had to serve the devil as a succubus.
For those who are unaware, I quote from the Wikipedia definition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succubus): “In medieval legend, a succubus (plural succubi; from Latin succubare, "to lie under") is a female demon which seduces men (especially monks) in dreams to have sexual intercourse. They draw energy from the men to sustain themselves, often until the point of exhaustion or death.” (Warning: anyone seriously affected by grammatical errors will cringe at the numerous references in this movie to “succubuses”! Not sure if that’s a writing fault or a dubbing thing, but it’s a constant source of annoyance.)
Anywho, the fun begins as Lisa (in an uber-sexy outfit) reveals herself & begins to tempt the travelers, offing them one by one. Now anyone who’s read some of my old writings may remember that I had a succubus of my own. But whereas my girl, Eva, was, in the most traditional sense of the legend, purely sexual, I failed to take into account that desire - an important part of the succubus’ nature - is not always carnal.
“Devil’s Nightmare” is one of those nifty little gems that go largely undiscovered until people start buying DVD box sets like this one (http://www.navarre.com/prodhome.aspx?ItemNumber=2085247&Prod=video). With the atmospheric appeal of the Italian horror film, the pleasure of a slasher pic, & a wittiness that ties it all together (this includes the double-twist ending), it’s also a nice variant on the succubus story, a tale we don’t get too often, even in a genre that relies so frequently on mythical figures.
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angelicmousegrl:
Redemption Films (http://www.redemptiontv.com/x/movies.html) decided to open with a fanged black angel surrounded by scantily-clad “cannibal sisters” & a chick with bat wings, all writhing & chomping & salivating & bleeding every which way. The angel serves as hostess, in the vein (no pun intended...well, maybe a little) of Vampira, Elvira, & Zacherley. After an intro & some text cards telling us about the film & noting a factoid on its star, she launches into a brief history of cannibal movies (in which she describes several actresses as “lickable”), even though “Devil’s Nightmare” is not a cannibal flick...though she does mention a few classics, including the once-banned “Cannibal Ferox”!
But enough about the super-cool prelude. On to our feature, a clever little tongue-in-cheek number that’s sort of “The Real World” meets “Clue” meets “Seven”, with a supernatural twist a la “Faust”. Seven strangers, each representing one of the seven deadly sins, are on a guided tour of Germany. Reaching their destination is taking longer than expected, so they ask a creepy guy burning brush in a field if there’s a hotel nearby. He says no, but Baron von Rhoneberg over at the nearby castle might be able to put them up for the night.
The Baron is the descendant of a World War II general, whom we see at the beginning of the film. This original Baron von Rhoneberg waits tensely as his weak-hearted wife gives birth in the next room while the bombs are dropping outside. She dies in the process, & when the Baron discovers he has a daughter instead of a son, he stabs the infant to death. (No, it isn’t what you’re thinking, & yes, it will make sense later.)
After a campy song & the opening credits sequence (the film is an Italian-Belgian collaboration, thus the French title on the IMDB listing & the Italian title on the actual DVD),we see the present-day Baron talking to a reporter about his ancestors living under a curse. However, he refuses to allow her to photograph the house. Soon enough, though, she’s outside the place snapping pictures left & right. An arrow suddenly pierces the tire of her car. She runs, screaming, & falls...
The reporter’s body is found, & the townsfolk say she perished from a heart attack brought on by fear. There is an odd mark on her neck - “the mark of the devil” - & there is talk of a succubus.
It is at this point that we are introduced to our group, who find accommodation at the Baron’s home. In fact, the Baron’s butler, Hans (a dead-ringer for, & namesake of, the original Baron’s second-in-command), says a woman phoned to let him know the group was coming. She even gave him their names. However, as I don’t recall all the characters’ names, I’ll address them by sin.
Gluttony, the bus driver/tour guide, hides food in his suitcase & sneaks a snack at every possible opportunity. Lust is a pretty bisexual red-headed woman who has a vested interest (translation: groovy lesbian scene) in Sloth, a perpetually sleepy but totally adorable blonde with the creamiest skin ever (Shirley Corrigan, last seen hanging out with Paul Naschy in “Dr. Jekyll vs. The Werewolf”, if memory serves), yet is also seen getting it on later with Mr. Envy-Greed. Mrs. Envy-Greed can’t wait to point out how she watched him drooling over Lust, & thinks he only married her for her money. Though she is jealous of Lust for having such an effect on her husband, she seems even more interested in the Baron’s attempts at alchemy, & the riches he may or may not be concealing in his big, old house. Wrath is a bit of a curmudgeon, a crabby old so & so who complains non-stop about everything. Father Pride, the last of the bunch, is actually a priest-in-training, a seminary student. Can a priest embody pride, you ask? Aren’t they supposed to relinquish such thoughts when they become men of the cloth?
Well, that’s the clever bit. Or, at least, part of it.
Strangeness permeates the house. Bits of the ornate trim-work fall off, nearly crashing onto someone’s head. Doors shut of their own volition. Each room seems to have been the scene of some horrible occurrence or another, according to Hans - people found with their throats slit, fatal exorcisms, deadly accidents. And that succubus the townsfolk were talking about earlier finally shows up...
Her name’s Lisa (& she’s played by Erika Blanc - http://www.federicomancosu.com/forfun/foto2/ERIKA_BLANC.jpg - who had, apparently, made the rounds of European Gothic horror flicks in the 60s, considering she’s in 3 films on the same box set), though at first, no one knows what she is (however, she’s immediately recognised by Martha, the Baron’s maid, & not in a good way). During dinner, someone asks the Baron about his fabled family curse, & he tells how the original Baron sold his soul to the devil. The first daughter of each generation had to serve the devil as a succubus.
For those who are unaware, I quote from the Wikipedia definition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Succubus): “In medieval legend, a succubus (plural succubi; from Latin succubare, "to lie under") is a female demon which seduces men (especially monks) in dreams to have sexual intercourse. They draw energy from the men to sustain themselves, often until the point of exhaustion or death.” (Warning: anyone seriously affected by grammatical errors will cringe at the numerous references in this movie to “succubuses”! Not sure if that’s a writing fault or a dubbing thing, but it’s a constant source of annoyance.)
Anywho, the fun begins as Lisa (in an uber-sexy outfit) reveals herself & begins to tempt the travelers, offing them one by one. Now anyone who’s read some of my old writings may remember that I had a succubus of my own. But whereas my girl, Eva, was, in the most traditional sense of the legend, purely sexual, I failed to take into account that desire - an important part of the succubus’ nature - is not always carnal.
“Devil’s Nightmare” is one of those nifty little gems that go largely undiscovered until people start buying DVD box sets like this one (http://www.navarre.com/prodhome.aspx?ItemNumber=2085247&Prod=video). With the atmospheric appeal of the Italian horror film, the pleasure of a slasher pic, & a wittiness that ties it all together (this includes the double-twist ending), it’s also a nice variant on the succubus story, a tale we don’t get too often, even in a genre that relies so frequently on mythical figures.
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angelicmousegrl:| You are Milk Chocolate |
 A total dreamer, you spend most of your time with your head in the clouds. You often think of the future, and you are always working toward your ideal life. Also nostalgic, you rarely forget a meaningful moment... even those from long ago. |
