La plus longue nuit du diable (1971)

User Rating:

5.5/10   

Director:

Jean Brismée

Writers:

Jean Brismée (writer)
Pierre-Claude Garnier (writer)

Release Date:

April 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Fantasy | Horror

Tagline:

Can You Be Possessed By The Devil?

Plot:

Six of seven tourists in a east European castle overnight are victims of a helper of the devil. Is Satan willing to spare their souls? |

Plot Keywords:

Tourist | Satan | Castle | Devil | Lesbian

Cast

Erika Blanc	...	Lisa Müller
Jean Servais	...	Baron von Rhoneberg
Jacques Monseau	...	Father Alvin Sorel (as Jacques Monseu)
Ivana Novak	...	Corinne
Lorenzo Terzon	...	Howard
Shirley Corrigan	...	Regine
Colette Emmanuelle	...	Nancy (as Colette Emmarvelle)
Christian Maillet	...	Ducha
Lucien Raimbourg	...	Mason (as Luciene Raimbourg)
Daniel Emilfork	...	Satan (as Daniele Emilfork)

Also Known As:

Au service du diable
Castle of Death (video title)
La notte piu lunga del diavolo (Italy)
La nuit des pétrifiés
La terrificante notte del demonio (Italy)
Nightmare of Terror (video title)
Succubus
The Devil Walks at Midnight
The Devil's Longest Night
The Devil's Nightmare (USA)
Vampire Playgirls (USA) (reissue title)

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

Belgium | Italy

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:18 (video rating) (1999) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Belgium

Company:

Cetelci S.A.

Trivia:

Each of the seven tourists, represent one of the Seven Deadly Sins.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Mad Ron's Prevues from Hell (1987) (V)

Insanely Brilliant 70's Junk!

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.