The Devil's Nightmare (1974)

You won't be disappointed!

What a waste of my time!!!

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

A bus load of tourists spend the night at an impressive Gothic castle, the home to Baron von Rhoneberg who has a family curse due to an ancestor making a pact with the Devil centuries before. The Baron also dabbles in alchemy, which doesn't add much to the plot but is a good excuse to have a laboratory complete with human skeleton, etc. Not long in and two young sexy members of the group indulge in some lesbian love making. This isn't particularly graphic. This is by no means a classic of European Gothic horror but it's still an enjoyable watch. There's plenty of creepy atmosphere, some gory deaths and a few beautiful young women in the cast, including the stunning Erika Blanc. Daniel Emilfork gives a great performance as Satan in human form, very creepy.

1971. No wonder so many horror films released at this time sank without trace. No DVDs, no VHS releases. The only time to catch these films was by seeing them at the cinema (or waiting for a possible television showing years later) – and there were so many. 1971 was like an Indian summer for horror – something of a last gasp, but a hugely prolific one.This Belgian/Italian offering is directed by Jean Brismée and also known as 'La Terrificante Notte del Demonio'. It boasts a terrific soundtrack composed by Alessandro Alessandroni (with mesmerising vocals from his sister Giulia.) Following a harrowing scene were, during a World War 2 air-raid, a woman dies delivering a child which is then stabbed to death by Baron von Rhoneberg (Jean Servais), we are brought up to date when a bus load of lost tourists arrives at the Baron's castle, in search of somewhere to stay for the night. He is an alchemist in the grip of a curse involving a deal with the Devil, who has demanded the eldest daughter of each generation becomes a succubus.As the tourists are shown to their rooms, the sinister butler Hans (Maurice De Groote) gives them a gruesome history of each room – such morbid, relentless tales become somewhat ludicrous in the telling; there is barely a curtain or a slab of stone that doesn't hold some macabre secret – and each time, a claw-like pattern is left at the scene.Into this classic setting, the tourists – including a feuding husband and wife, two attractive young women who discover they are lesbians (leading to inevitable softcore scenes), and a Richard Chamberlain-like priest – then meet a new guest. Lisa Müller (Erika Blanc) immediately attracts attention from the men and a certain jealousy from the women. Blanc's sultry, pout-some presence and typically exotic, revealing clothing – as well as the way she moves lizard-like amongst them – sets her apart from the ordinary. Could she be the legendary succubus? Her transformation from lithe, mysterious seductress into a mad-eyed, chiselled malignant spirit is hugely effective, a triumph of minimalist make-up and a powerhouse performance. Scary and deadly as she is, she isn't quite the main monster here, for Satan himself appears. Another supremely frightening performance, this time from the skeletal (Daniel Emilfork) ensures we don't forget the appearance of the Devil in any hurry – it is he who orchestrates events that land the tourists into the castle in the first place, and then to a more permanent state in a twist ending.Ironically, only Müller and the priest (Jacques Monseau) remain at the end. Only after reading a synopsis of 'The Devil's Nightmare' did I realise a further detail to this excellent, underrated euro-film – each death represents one of the Seven Deadly Sins, with the Priest volunteering to sacrifice his soul to save the others, representing Pride. A highly recommended low budget frightener.

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.