Cataclysm (1980)

Directors:

Phillip Marshak
Tom McGowan

Writer:

Philip Yordan (writer)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

Police detective, Mitchell, investigating the death of a victim of a Nazi concentration camp discovers...

Plot Keywords:

Nazi | Death | Nightmare | Omen | Psychic Power

Cast

Cameron Mitchell	...	Lt. Sterne
Marc Lawrence	...	Abraham Weiss / Dieter
Faith Clift	...	Claire Hansen
Richard Moll	...	James Hanson (as Charles Moll)
Maurice Grandmaison	...	Papini
Robert Bristol	...	Olivier
Klint Stevenson	...	Jim
Elizabeth Martin
Christie Wagner	...	Ann
Robyn Russell	...	Mrs. Ziegler
Georgia Geerling	...	Waitress
T.J. Savage	...	Morgue attendant
Phil Yordan Jr.	...	Waiter
Norma Clift	...	Old bookstore woman
Lou Edwards

Also Known As:

Satan's Supper
The Nightmare Never Ends (USA) (video box title)

Runtime:

94 min | USA:88 min (DVD version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Iceland:(Banned) | Australia:R | Norway:18

Filming Locations:

La Jolla, California, USA

Goofs:

Continuity: The car used to run over Satan's Little Helper towards the end of the movie miraculously repairs its own windscreen between shots.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Night Train to Terror (1985)

Soundtrack:

Only A Fool

a truly terrible movie in almost every way; a disaster, a Cataclysm if you will

I had originally seen this on video as The Nightmare Never Ends, and recently watched it on video as Satan's Supper. Evidently these two versions, and the version titled Cataclysm are all slightly different. Additionally, this movie was edited down to form one third of the wretched horror anthology Night Train to Terror.

Night Train to Terror can be found on DVD. Nightmare Never Ends is on DVD in a "Troma Triple B-Header" box with two other movies.

I'm not sure how the versions all differ. Evidently Cataclysm begins with James and Claire Hanson going to Las Vegas, where Claire gets hypnotized and had visions of Nazis killing some musicians at a dinner other Nazis are having. I don't recall if Nightmare Never Ends began that way; Satan's Supper begins without the Vegas trip and with the Nazis, and Claire waking up from it as a nightmare.

A Jewish Nazi hunter sees Mr. Oliver on TV who looks like the head Nazi from Claire's dream. He gets a police detective played by Cameron Mitchell to take him to see the man in person. They must spend ten minutes with the Jewish guy insisting he's found his man, and Mitchell saying the man is too young to be the guy from the photo he was shown. The Nazi hunter is incredibly annoying, the worst sort of Jewish stereotype personified x100. He repeats himself incessantly, stuttering and gesturing like an idiot. Not that Mitchell is on the top of his form here either.

Of course, their bad acting has a lot of company in this movie. Moll is pretty dreadful as James Hanson, and Faith Clift playing his wife is like a lobotomized deer in headlights.

The guy playing Mr. Oliver is pretty awful too. He's evidently Satan himself. The monk who tries to warn Hanson is quite awful as well. A number of these people acted in other movies together, including a movie about Joseph Smith and Brigham Young! I can't imagine the horror! James Hanson has written a book "God is Dead" that took him four years. It's a runaway best seller, and he's even allowed time on TV to pitch his message, which is hardly new. Whole families appear to watch him.

For some reason, Mr. Oliver thinks Hanson would like to work for/serve him. Since an atheist no more believes in the devil than god (as Hanson in fact repeatedly says), this makes not a lick of sense.

The movie is terribly shot, terribly edited, terribly acted, and at the base of it all, terribly scripted. It is a worthless movie. I'm quite curious as to the story behind its making, how it wound up with three directors, and how there came to be so many versions of it.