THE NIGHT OF THE DEVILS (Italy-Spain, 1972) Título original: The night the Devils.
Dirección: Giorgio Ferroni .
Interpretes: Gianni Garko (Nicola), Agostina Belli
(Sdenka), Roberto
Maldera (Jovan),
Teresa Gimpera (Elena), Cinzia De Carolis
(Irina), Luis Suárez
(Vlado), Umberto Raho
(Doctor Tosi),
Rosita Torosh (Nurse).
Duration: 72 minutes (annotated version).
Symptoms: A man is found in a state of shock in a secluded mountain. Admitted to a psychiatric hospital the patient seems not to remember anything of what has happened. Until it receives the visit of a mysterious young girl makes a traumatic back memories of a horror a description.
Diagnosis: Wurdalak Family of Tolstoy, one of the great classics of vampire literature, has so far had two very interesting film adaptations. The most famous of them belong to the triptych of horror stories,
The Three Faces of Fear , led by the great Mario Bava
. The other version, and adapted to a contemporary time to shoot, this title is probably less known but deserves a timely review.
Precisely in this contemporary
find one of the most interesting aspects of the film in question. Translation into modern times achieves a higher contrast between a rural, superstitious and medieval beliefs and the modern world from which the protagonist "pierced" by accident into an alternate reality, the remote mansion where lives a family dominated by fear and deception.
Its director Giorgio Ferroni was an iron craftsman Series B tanned in the Spaghetti Westerns and Peplum especially remembered within the fantasy genre for another cult film, a mini-classic of Italian Gothic:
mill stone women, work Bavarian captivating lyricism and beauty. In
The Night of the Devils Ferroni is close to, usually, sophisticated vampire myth from an unprecedented perspective much more rural and rough, devoid of romanticism that often accompanies these characters. The aesthetic appearance and Wurdalak attack here is more akin to the brutal image of the Living Dead Romero gave just a few years before, the elegance and allure of the vampire classic. Thus, the film shows, especially in its final climax, certainly disturbing images are recorded in the memory of the viewer, like ghostly apparitions lurking in the window of the old farmhouse, or those children laughing vampire from the branches of a tree.
Ferroni tone in the narration dry, gritty, away from the mannerism of Bava, creating a climate of anxiety and unease with such simple items as a constant sound of wind whistling through the trees of the forest ( gray forest, barren, almost threatening), or a director of actors equally spartan, where even the love affairs are cold and distant (Ferroni thus achieved a double effect, as the viewer hampered their ability to discern who is human and who has been "possessed" by the Wurdalak). In this somber tone of the film undoubtedly contributes the decent special effects (especially when we consider the tight budget that was counted) of a certain Carlo Rambardi
, father of cosmic horror
Alien (1979) or
endearing alien creature ET (1982).
The cast several faces familiar to the amateur as
Gianni Garko, actor who used an air to the "Franco Nero" to incorporate one of the iconic characters come out of Spaghetti the slipstream of Django: Sartana. Next to him the beautiful
Agostina Belli, best actress in what appears to his films and we remember other great games like
Holocaust 2000 (where a notorious romp starring with Kirk Douglas) and Ivanna
. Another recurring actress gender is the curvilinear
Gimpera Teresa, then known models, muse of Barcelona School of Management and walked its good titles such as Fata Morgana
,
House of undead ,
The Refuge of Last fear or desire
. And finally draw our
Luís Suárez, angular English actor that traumatized a whole generation with its undesirable character in the series Tonet
Cañas y Barro, directed by Rafael Romero Marchent
.
Although the night of the devils is far from being a masterpiece (in this respect is to say in its favor that can sense an obvious female in the footage that has survived, which is difficult to gauge the final result), it is one of the most worthy co-productions between Spain and Italy which took place at a time of great uncontrolled explosion. That, plus not exactly one of the most popular films of the genre make itself worthy of a corner in this MADHOUSE.
Opening credits of The Night of the Devils
can not miss it: The vampire movie buff (and zombies why not?)
Refrain: lovers vampirism in its most sweetened Twilight rate.
A DVD edition
poor, not even the original band in Italian but it's something.
