The Night Of The Devils — The Night Of The Devils(Blu Ray)
The Night Of The Devils is an early 70’s euro thriller/ horror film that starts off alive with both a keen sense of mystery & growing dread. Before later moving into moments of chilling unease, which are peppered with moments of pumping red & brutal gore. Here from Raro Video UK/ Radiance Films is a recent release of this lesser-seen Italian/ Spanish film- taking in a new scan of the film, a commentary track by Alan Jones and Kim Newman, and a good selection of archive extras.
The Night Of The Devils ( aka La Notte Dei Diavoli) is from the year 1972. It was directed by Perugia, Umbria, Italy-born Giorgio Ferroni. He has thirty-six feature-length credits to his name like comedy romance I Tre Desideria(1937), comedy western Il Fanciullo Del West (1942), sports doc regarding Olympic Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy White Vertigo ( 1956), gothic horror Mill of the Stone Women(1960), as well as a far few Plepum and westerns such as Conquest of Mycene (1963), and Two Guns and a Coward(1968).
The film begins with a panicked, moustached, and ripped-suited man running through a woodland area- he stumbles, to wake up in hospital with a jarringly cut collage of a nude woman being fondled, a bloody head being shot at, and a lightly fleshed skull crawling with maggots. The man doesn’t speak, and the doctors are rather puzzled about who he is/ where he came from.They post his picture in the local mail- and the rather mysterious Sdenka(Agostina Belli) who claims to know the man- he’s taken down to meet him, and he suddenly explodes ranting/ raving- and so we go into flashback.
We find out the man is Nicola(Gianni Garko) a lumber merchant- heading out to a mill, he breaks down in the woods. And starts go hunting for a house or people- we see a group of men burying a blood-soaked sheet body in a forest set graveyard- one of them sees the man, and says he’ll be taken care of him.
In time Nicola comes across some run-down buildings one with a severed cow head on a pole, and a cabin in the woods. After banging on several doors, and checking a few windows of the cabin- he finds two young children who close their curtains on him. In time he gets into the cabin to meet the glum peasant family who promise to help him the next morning- among their number is Sdenka. As night comes on they are clearly very scared of something outside the cabin.
The film is very much a slow-burn affair- with the mystery of what really is stalking outside slowly revealed, utilizing horror tropes in a most effective & fairly original manner. The feeling of unease nicely builds- with moments of real creep factor realized with subtle sound design, growing atmospheric tension, and use of shadow. As we move into its last quarter we get a few moments of very effective effect setups- a brutal chest puncture, a prolonged/ gruelling face melt, and fingers looped been among them.
The small cast is well picked- the family themselves really prevail the feeling of pale & twitchy nerviness- which initially seems to be down to superstition, but of course, is relieved to be very real/ tangible.
All in all, I was highly taken by The Night Of The Devils, and can certainly see elements of it being a precursor to what Sam Rami did with the first Evil Dead film- minimise that film's humour and deranged/ OTT effects. And it really is surprising it’s not more known- but I’m guessing this is down to the film's general slow-burn.
Moving onto this new region free Blu-Ray. We get a new HD scan of the film- this is well balanced, with good definition, with the nighttime shots as clean/ defined as the daytime shots- with the option of either Italian & English versions. On the extras side of things, we get a nice selection of things. First off on the new side, we get a commentary track from respected genre critics/ writers Alan Jones and Kim Newman, and as you'd expect with these two pros- it’s a very well-researched & entertaining track. They begin by admitting neither of them saw the film when it first ran on UK cinema screens in the 70s, not seeing it till its bootleg VHS release. We get talk about how the film is seen unfairly as a lesser version of one of the stories in Bava’s Black Sabbath. They point out bit-part actors as they appear- some who turned up in Dario Argento's output of the time. We find out the film was shot over five weeks in 1971, but wasn’t released until the next year- mainly remaining released only in Italy and Spain for many years. They talk about leading man Gianni Garko- who will be most known to genre fans for playing the spaghetti western character Sartana in a few films in the late 60s/ early 70s. They discuss the original novealla the film's story was based on The Family of the Vourdalak from 1839 by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, and talk about how it compares to the film. Later on, they talk about how the film is often seen as a post-Night Of The Living Dead- with its focus on detailing something been very wrong with the family unit. They discuss the feeling of folklore in the film- and how much of this is genuine- or invented for the film. They talk about the film's score, and it’s composer Giorgio Gaslini. They chat about the film's effects & the creature's design, how much was cut from the film for its UK release, and more.
Otherwise, we get a good selection of on-screen archive interviews- “The Devils Among Us” - with actor Gianno Garko (22.48), “The Angel and the Devils” - with actor Agostina Belli (24.48) “The Child of Darkness” - with actor Cinzia de Carolis (13.02). “Celestial Light” - with camera operator Nino Celeste (17.43) “Fear and Jazz” - Archival interview with composer Giorgio Gaslini (32.14). interview with critic and horror expert Chris Alexander (6.00).
The finished release comes reversible sleeve featuring artwork based on original posters, and a booklet with new writing by Rachael Nisbet and archival writing by Chris Alexander. With the release having a worldwide Ltd edition of 3000 copies worldwide.
If you enjoy slow-burn, dread-filled, and at points unsettling 70’s blend of thriller & horror The Night Of The Devils is a must. And it’s great to see this new release on Raro Video UK/ Radiance Films- with a classy new print, and a nice selection of extras.