The Night of the Devils

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The Night of the Devils
The Night of the Devils.jpg
Directed by Giorgio Ferroni
Screenplay by
  • Romano Migliorini
  • Giambattista Mussetto [1]
Story byEduardo Manzanos Brochero [1]
Based on The Family of the Vourdalak
by Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy
Produced by
  • Luigi Mariani
  • Eduardo Manzanos Brochero [1]
Starring
CinematographyManuel Berenguer [1]
Edited byGianmaria Messeri [1]
Music by Giorgio Gaslini [1]
Production
companies
  • Filmes Cinematografica
  • Due Emme Cinematografica
  • Copercines
  • Cooperativa Cinemátografica [1]
Distributed byP.A.C.
Release dates
  • 29 April 1972 (1972-04-29)(Italy)
  • 25 June 1973 (1973-06-25)(Spain)
Running time
89 minutes [1]
Countries
  • Italy
  • Spain [1]
Box office ₤156.686 million

The Night of the Devils (Italian : La notte dei diavoli, Spanish : La noche de los diablos) is a 1972 film directed by Giorgio Ferroni. It is loosely based on the Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy's novel The Family of the Vourdalak . [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Plot

The patriarch of a wealthy family fears that he will show up one day in vampire form. Should this happen, he warns his family not to let him back in his house, no matter how much he begs them.

Cast

Production

The Night of the Devils was an Italian and Spanish co-production financed by Eduardo Manzanos Brochero's Copercines and two Italian companies: Filmes and Due Emme. [1] The latter company was founded in 1971 by Roberto Maldera who also had a main role in the film, and Luigi Mariani. [1] The Night of the Devils was shot in five weeks starting in late 1971 to early 1972 near Bracciano Lake. [5] Director Ferroni was 63 when directing the film and nearly deaf and had to shoot the film with the assistance of a hearing aid. [5]

Release

The Night of the Devils was distributed theatrically in Italy on 29 April 1972 where it was distributed by P.A.C. [1] It grossed a total of 156,686,000 Italian lire in Italy. [1] It was released in Spain on 25 June 1973. [1]

Reception

In a contemporary review, Nigel Andrews reviewed a dubbed 88 minute version. [6] Andrews stated that despite "the brief surrealist promise of the opening scenes-a close-up of a face crawling with larvae cutting ingeniously to Niccola's head enveloped in the serpentine wires of an encephalograph", Night of the Devils had "all the usual defects of a low-budget horror quickie-careless direction, mechanical performances, some obtrusively unconvincing day-for-night sequences" find that the film "provides little in the way of style to compensate for a story which staggers dully from one bloodthirsty set-piece to another." [6]

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References

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Curti 2017, p. 74.
  2. ↑ Roberto Chiti; Roberto Poppi; Enrico Lancia. Dizionario del cinema italiano: I film. Gremese, 1991. ISBN   8876059695.
  3. ↑ "The Night of the Devils Blu-ray". blu-ray.com. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  4. ↑ Hal Erickson (2016). "Night of the Devils (1972)". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 14 December 2013.
  5. 1 2 Curti 2017, p. 76.
  6. 1 2 Andrews, Nigel (February 1973). "Notte dei Diavoli, La (Night of the Devils)". Monthly Film Bulletin . Vol. 40, no. 469. British Film Institute. pp. 32–33.

Sources

  • Curti, Roberto (2017). Italian Gothic Horror Films, 1970–1979. McFarland. ISBN   978-1476629605.


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