REVIEW: LA NOCHE DE LOS DIABLOS
By Elena Anele (*)
LA NOCHE DE LOS DIABLOS AKA LA NOTTE DEI DIAVOLI is a Spanish-Italian co-production from 1972. T was directed by Giorgio Ferroni (Wanted, Il colosso di Roma) and written by Eduardo Manzanos (The Strange Vice of Mrs. Ward), Romano Migliorini (The Inglorious Bastards) and Gianbattista Mussetto (The Senventh Woman, Miss Dynamite). It was based on Aleksei Tolstoy’s story Sem’ya vurdalaka, fans of Mario Bava’s Black Sabbath will be familiar with it.
Main stars that can be seen on the film are: Gianni Garko (The Psychic), Agostina Belli (Hollocaust 2000) ,Mark Roberts, Cinzia de Carolis, Teresa Gimpera, William Vanders, Umberto Raho, Maria Monti, Rosita Torosh (The Bird with the Crystal Plumage) and Sabrina Tamborra.
Giorni Ferroni was an Italian director who worked for Spanish and Italian production, especially in adventures, peplum and spaghetti western. For trivia let me inform you that he was behind the direction of a documentary called España, Una, Grande, Libre (1939) aka Dalla Barbarie Rossa Al Trionfo Della Civiltà Fascista- an ideological found footage movie which was most successful between all Italian fascist films. It was made of images filmed in Barcelona by the anarchists during the popular uprising in July 1936, the movie carried out an exercise in counter-complaint against the excesses of Spanish Republicans.
Focus on the movie it stars with the finding of an unknown man in real bad conditions in the woods. He is soon taken to the nearest hospital where doctors and nurses try to save his life and make him remember what happened to him. Then we are taking, thanks to a flashback, to his adventures in the middle of a Yugoslavian forest – meaning the Spanish area of Calatayud- when his car broke down and he is looking for help. There he finds a family coming back from burying on of their members and they invite him to stay some time in their house. The first night he is told not to one any window or door and to stay in as some danger is waiting outside. He will soon discover they all believe there is a witch or vampire wandering around trying to kill them and turn them into a kind of zombie. Once the patriarch chases the creature but… he may not come back as a human anymore.
It was release in Spain by Filmax Home Video (Region2, Spanish Audio, no subtitles) under their label DVD Bizarro: Cine de terror italiano in 2009. Be careful with this, I have to say that it is uncompleted and cut. It runs for 72 minutes although original footage is said to be 91. But as you are watching you realize there are several cuts and half of scene has been deleted in some cases. Also, the condition of the image is more than awful as most of the time there are green lines, blurry shots, etc. I cannot understand how this was out and sold for around 12 or 15 € due to the lack of quality and extras.
It is weird but I have found this promo video from the Spanish TV channel 8 Madrid in which the frames are amazing, not as it happens in the DVD.
What to expect from this flick? It depends on what you want to watch. I mean, it is same thing from the Mediterranean 70s: low budget zombies, witches, spells, lost man… but nothing else.
Could it be consider cult? No, I don’t think so as it is not even funny or there is any special feature on it.
It is just for entertainment and to spend some time watching having fun.
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Elena Anele is the woman in charge of SPANISHFEAR.COM, Horror Rises from Spain / El podcast surge de la tumba and Un Fan de Paul Naschy . A literature and cinema researcher, finishing her postgraduate studies with a thesis about the mystic filmmaker José Val del Omar. She has published in different media and books as Fangoria or Hidden Horror. She has also been in charge of several translations including Javier Trujillo’s complete works, La Mano Film Fest, The Man who Saw Frankenstein Cry and many more.
