THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE (1971) (Mondo Macabro Blu-ray Review)

THE DEVIL'S NIGHTMARE (1971) 

Label: Mondo Macabro
Region Code: A
Duration: 95 minutes
Rating: Unrated
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.66:1)
Audio: English, French LPCM Mono with Optional English Subtitles
Director: Jean Brismée
Cast: Erika Blanc, Jean Servais, Daniel Emilfork, Jacques Monseau, Lucien Raimbourg, Colette Emmanuelle, Ivanna Novak, Shirley Corrigan

The Devil's Nightmare (1971) with a black and white prologue happening Germany in the year 1945, during the final days of the war the wife of Nazi General Von Rhomeburg (Jean Servais, Rififi) is giving birth to a baby girl. During the birth the woman dies, and for reasons not yet revealed the father plunges a dagger into the child's body, killing it. Moving ahead a few decades we see a group of tourists on a bus that become stranded in the Italian countryside when they miss their connecting ferry. That former Nazi, now Baron Von Rhomeburg, offers them lodging for the night in his eerie Gothic castle, with the creepy butler Hans (Maurice De Groote) showing each of the guests to their rooms for the night, going into macabre detail of how various members of the Von Rhomeburg clan have died in those very same rooms through the years. Earlier that same day we see a female reporter doing a story on the castle, dying mysteriously after being chased by an unseen pursuer through the forest, she is later found by the groundsmen who surmise she died of fright, but also noting that her body bears the cloven-hoof mark of the Devil.

As the guests gather around the dinner table for the evening the Baron reveals that the eldest daughter in each generation of his bloodline is destined to become the handmaiden of the Devil, a succubus, which is sort of an odd thing to tell a roomful of strangers, but considering how the night progresses not totally inappropriate. During dinner a surprise eight guest arrives, the mysterious red-haired beauty Lisa (Erika Blanc, Kill baby...Kill!) who is seated at the table for dinner, despite the maid attempting to turn her away at the front door.

The tourists are comprised of the pure-hearted seminarian Alvin (Jacques Monseau), a troubled couple by way of money-hungry Nancy and her philandering husband Howard (Lorenzo
Terzon, The Devil is a Woman), a bi-sexual seductress (Ivanna Novak, Seven Blood-Stained Orchids), lesbian looker Regine (Shirley Corrigan, Crime of the Black Cat), wrathful old man Mr. Mason (Lucien Raimbourg), and the gluttonous bus driver (Christian Maillet). The guest each are representations of the seven deadly sins and are damned for their sins as the gorgeous succubus Lisa exploits their weaknesses throughout the night, seducing each of them with their own sinful desires. We get a handful of fun deaths including a beheading by guillotine, death by iron maiden, death by snake, buried alive in gold dust, overeating, and impalement on wrought iron. None of these are overly gory but they're fun in a pulpy sort of way, all very well shot and executed.

Particularly effective is the transformation of Erika Blanc from ginger-haired stunner to a grey-skinned ghoul. She looks like she's having a lot of fun in the role, managing to balance an enthralling eroticism with a frightful transformation that is achieved through make-up effects and facial contortions that are delightful in their vintage.

A lot of these early 70's Euro-horror films were cheap and fairly schlock-y but there never seemed to be a shortage of gorgeous European women willing to flaunt their natural gifts on film, and this production is not different with several gorgeous ladies on display, including a wonderful lesbian tryst with Ivanna Novak and Shirley Corrigan, though none more striking than star Erika Blanc who cuts quite a erotic figure throughout, she's clearly the star of the film.

There's also no shortage of b-movie shtick, with dripping blood gags, dead cats, doors mysteriously opening and closing on their own, books randomly falling off shelves, and a laboratory full of multi-colored alchemy, it all makes for a fun Gothic film.

The pure-hearted Alvin proves to be the only one capable of resisting the sexual charms of Lisa, and when she finally exposes her true ghoulish self to him he is absolutely horrified, slashing at her face with his crucifix, leading to an overly long series of facial contortions that goes on a bit too long in my opinion, the effect becoming a bit silly. The priest runs from the castle and is greeted by a dark stranger having just arrived in a horse drawn carriage, it's Old Scratch himself, played by the sharp-faced Daniel Emilfork - the dream-starved Krank from The City of the Lost Children (1995)! Father Alvin offers his soul in exchange for the souls of his seven travelling companions, to which the Devil agrees. The priest signs a contract in his own blood, dipping a quill into an freshly opened vein, signing the contract which immediately bursts into flames, leading to finale that is not all that unexpected but devilish fun just the same. 

Audio/Video: The Devil's Nightmare (1971) arrives on region-free Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro with a new 2K scan of the original camera negative, looking pretty darn spiffy. There's some inherent source element issues like vertical lines, scratches and white speckling but overall it's a very filmic looking presentation with good looking grain. The viewing here is lush with vibrant colors throughout, vastly superior to all the versions I've seen previously, including the 20-year old DVD from Image Entertainment with strong blacks, good depth and clarity, that vintage 70's wallpaper has never looked better/worse.

Audio comes by way of English or French PCM 2.0 with optional English subtitles, thought the French option is not listed on the menu, you will have to toggle the audio on the remote to access it. The English-dubbed audio failed to impress me the way the video did, it has some hiss, distortion and dubby wonkiness in areas, but it is serviceable and perfectly intelligible. The French audio fares better, a tighter presentation, but this is a film I've watch many times over with the English dub, so that was my preference just out familiarity. The wonderful score from Alessandro Alessandroni (Killer Nun) sounds terrific, an isolated music track would have been a blessing.

Looking into the extras we get a brand new audio commentary from author Troy Howarth who does his usual bang-up job disseminating information about the film, the production and cast and crew. He keeps that track lively and there's rarely an empty space, plus he gives plenty of love to star Erika Blanc. Onto the interviews we get a trio of them, beginning with director Jean Brismée who speaks for about a half-hour discussing founding the INSAS film school, his short films, casting this film, and speaking fondly of star Erika Blanc, and saying that Lucien Raimbour who played old grump Mr. Mason was exactly like that in real life, no acting required! The director also goes into some detail of how Blanc's ghastly make-up effects were achieved, shot frame-by-frame, requiring her to stand perfectly still for prolonged periods of time. He also describes Emilfork an "unbearable" but perfect for the role of the Devil. He also goes into the budget, cinematography and his own fear of the python used in the film, which had been known to have bit it's handler several times.   

Assistant director Robert Labaerts appears for a 23-min interview speaking about coming onto the film after a career in TV, the production running late due to the slowness of the Director of Photography, and shooting second unit, including the lesbian stuff the DP did not want to shoot. He also touches on this being the only Belgian horror film at the time, describing the director as more of a technician than an auteur, and the strange sensibilities of set director Jio Berk. Also noting how gorgeous and wonderful Erika Blanc was, and of how most of the cast and crew were quite in love with her. He talks a bit about actor Christian Maillet, who played the gluttonous man, was quite a drinker, and how the green bile-spewing scene didn't quite go as planned. 

Experimental filmmaker Roland Lethem, and INSAS alumni, shows up for a 29-min interview discussing his early introduction to horror films in grade school, his early career writing about film, and eventually directing short experimental films, eventually addressing rumors he was originally attached to direct The Devil's Nightmare. He finishes up with speaking about why he believes there were/are so few horror films coming out of Belgium, referencing vintage and newer films from the area like Daughters of Darkness, Rabid Grannies, Amer and The Strange Color of Your Body's Tears.   

Extras on the disc are buttoned-up with a a pair of trailer, TV spots and the usual Mondo Macabro trailer reel, this non-limited edition version includes new artwork from Gilles Vranckx.

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary from Troy Howarth
- Interview with director Jean Brismée (33 min)
- Interview with Roland Lethem (9 min)
- Interview with assistant director Robert Lombaerts (23 min)
- Original Trailers (6 min)
- TV spots (1 min)
- Mondo Macabro Previews (11 min)

I've loved The Devil's Nightmare ever since discovering it on one of those dupey looking fullframe budget collections, and even in that less than ideal presentation the movie had it's considerable Euro-charms. Seeing it restored from the OCN in HD in the proper aspect ratio from Mondo Macabro is a whole other level of awesome, star Erika Blanc has never looked more gorgeous or frightful, finally giving this Euro-cult the home video presentation it deserves.