"La Plus Longue Nuit Du Diable" aka. "La Terrificante Notte Del Demonio" aka. "The Devil's Nightmare" of 1971 is an admittedly cheesy, but overall delicate piece of Eurohorror that no lover of Cult cinema should miss. Jean Brismées film has the overall reputation of being more or less a piece of crap, but while the plot is doubtlessly incoherent, the film profits from sinister characters, a macabre mood, a nice Gothic atmosphere, as well as some gore, sleaze and creepiness, and, last but not least the beautiful Erica Blanc in a genuinely demented role. The film starts out in the final days of Nazi Germany, when Baron Von Rhoneberg (Jean Servais) kills his newborn daughter after baptizing her - for unknown reasons. Two and a half decades later, a bus-load of tourists come to visit the Baron's castle. We learn that, 700 years before, an ancestor of the Baron's had made a pact with the devil, which resulted in every first-born Rhoneberg daughter becoming a Succubus, a female demon in service of the devil. And, apparently, the infanticide committed by the Baron years ago did not stop a devilish creature to come into existence... Erika Blanc is a stunning beauty, also in this film, but she looks creepy as hell as the Succubus. The most intense, creepiest moments in the film are those when she turns into the succubus, especially when she does so for the first time. I do not want to give too much away, but i can assure that these scenes alone make it worth watching the film. Blanc is best known to Horror fans for her roles in Mario Bava's 1966 masterpiece "Kill Baby... Kill!" (aka. "Operazione Paura") and Emilio Miraglia's Gothic Giallo "The Night Evelin Came Out Of The Grave" of 1971. This is another film a lover of European Horror/Exploitation cinema should not miss her in. Apart from Blanc, there are several other beautiful female cast members. Praise also goes to Daniel Emilfork - man, what a CREEPY-looking fellow! One would not want to run into this fellow by night, I can assure. "The Devil's Nightmare" is actually less sleazy than I expected it to be, with a rather small dose of occasional female nudity, sex and lesbianism. However, the film is as macabre as one could possibly hope, with loads of insanity, demented characters and a generous use of bizarre execution/murder devices. And, all the cheese aside, this also has quite a dose of creepiness All said, this is probably not the kind of film that will appeal to those who strictly fall for the "Citizen Kane" type of cinema, but all my fellow fans of demented Eurosmut should have a great time watching this. Highly recommended!
Review of Devil's Nightmare
