First up The Devil's Nightmare, a 1971 Belgium and Italian horror film. It's got a script from Patrice Rhomm and directed by Jean Brismee. I wasn't sure I had seen it before but once it was going there were a few things that were familiar. Turns out I saw it back in December of 2015 and then forgot about it. It was part of the Pure Terror 50 Movie Pack from Mill Creek. I just looked at that copy, it's fairly decent for a film from Mill Creek. Seems to the the same length. You can check it out in the link in the title above.
Much of the movie was films in the Chateau d'Antoing in Wallonia Belgium. Nice place. The Baron who lives there was married during WW2, we see his pregnant wife give birth to a baby girl in a flashback. The mother dies and the Baron kills the little girl. The movie jumps to 1971 and a woman is killed while taking pictures of the Chateau. The locals think it's the work of a succubus. We learn that the Baron's family has a curse, the first woman of each generation is born a succubus.
A bus full of lost tourists get directed to the Baron's place by a bald man in a field. He says the Baron might let them stay. That's where the succubus lives so you know that won't go so well. The body count rises until everyone wakes up and dies again. What the? It's got a twist ending that wasn't that twisty. There's nothing much original from this one, it's only about average, I gave it a generous 6 on the IMDb where it scores not unrealistic 5.8, I thought it was slightly better than a 5 but who knows.
Director Jacques Tourneur's Night Of The Demon was our second film. I've already seen this several times over the years. It's a favorite and I was interested in seeing the Blu-ray. Looks nice. The movie is based on an MR James story called Casting The Runes. The screenplay is by Charles Bennett and Hal E Chester with an uncredited Cy Endfield. The movie came out in Britain in 1957, it came out in the US the next year under the title of Curse Of The Demon. It was cut by 13 minutes to 82 minutes. In the 80s the film was restored to original length in the US. The Indicator Blu-ray has various versions of the film. We watched the longer British version.
Dana Andrews is an American scientist. He's come to England to attend a convention of scientists.That's Dana in the middle with Peggy Cummins. Who knew I would see a third Peggy film in such a short time. At the convention a professor, played by Maurice Denham, is to debunk a Satanic cult leader, played by Niall MacGinnes. That's Niall in the clown makeup. He's got a nice mansion from his proceeds as a cult leader. Athene Seyler plays his mother. She's not quite so happy with the whole Satan thing.
Maurice pleads with Niall to remove the curse. He won't and Maurice goes home only to see a giant demon coming through the trees. He panics and drives his car into a power pole, he dies when he touches the downed wires. It turns out Peggy is Maurice's niece. She's fearful of Niall even if Dana isn't. They go to visit Niall at his estate and Niall tells Dana he will die in 3 days.
There's plenty of running about as the rest of the movie plays out. At first Dana doesn't believe in the curse but strange things happen to make him change his mind. Brian Wilde plays a man frightened to a catatonic state is woken up and made to relive his encounter with the demon. He jumps out of the building to his death, rather than live with the demon memories. Some might remember Brian from Last Of The Summer Wine where he played Foggy Dewhurst for a number of years. Dana does his research and finds there is a way to defeat Niall. It's a good trick.
There was some strife on the production side. After Jacques finished filming the movie producer Hal E Chester decided that they should show the demon in the film. Neither Jacques nor writer Charles Bennett were for that addition but it was done anyway. Chester asked if Ray Harryhausen could do the demon as stop motion but Ray was busy. I never knew that and the demon appearing doesn't bother me. I do side with not screwing up a director's vision but the people that would do that sort of thing aren't going to listen to anyone. Even with all that it's still a good picture. Worth a look for the horror fan.