Starring - Pierre Brice (Star Maidens, The Valley of Death), Patrizia Viotti (Amuck!, Death Falls Lightly), and Angela De Leo (Zorro in the Court of England, Julliette de Sade)
Release Date - 1971
Genre - Horror
Format - UHD (Personal Collection) (Screener)
Rating (out of 5):
It looks like my trip through 60s and 70s cinema is still going strong after watching Terror-Creatures from the Grave along with Sexomania, Lady Desire, The Odd Job, Negatives, and Sparrows Can't Sing. I had just finished Terror-Creatures from the Grave in the Danza Macabra Volume 4 set and decided to keep on going with the next film in the set which happened to be the 1971 film Night of the Damned which was originally titled La Notte Dei Dannati. I want to thank Severin for sending this one over for review!
The film follows a man who receives a strange letter from an old friend. Fearing he may be in danger, he quickly makes the trip to his castle where he finds him on his deathbed. He is convinced that he has been cursed but his new bride doesn't believe that to be the case. He starts to investigate his friend's property and uncovers something rather strange. Several centuries before, his ancestor had a woman burned at the stake for being a witch and had his family line cursed. Sadly, he soon dies and those close to him starts to die gruesome deaths and are drained of their blood. As he keeps investigating, with the help of the police, he uncovers the truth and the true evil stalking the property.
Night of the Damned was a new one for me and I was really looking forward to checking it out. Terror-Creatures from the Grave set the bar pretty high for me in regards to Italian gothic horror and, sadly, Night of the Damned did fall short. It has some solid moments but the overall film was a bit of a drag if I'm being honest. The acting in this is solid enough and is what you would expect from an early 70s film. The cast is a bit dramatic and most of the scenes have that theatrical flair that is a bit cheesy in film but I dig it. It fits the film and makes it feel like a slightly sleazy play. The story for this one has a lot going on for such a simple plot. The movie is basically a guy is cursed and the curse eventually kills him. However, we have a Countess Bathory angle, so much character development, and a lot of backstory. However, the film's pacing and extremely drawn out scenes with painstaking dialogue makes the movie feel a lot longer than it really is. The movie could have used a little tighter writing and even tighter editing. Finally, don't go into this one expecting a blood bath. The death we do get mostly take place off camera and leave the rest up to our imagination or we get the aftermath which is not that impressive by any standards. Overall, Night of the Damned is a movie that has a fantastic story but just doesn't live up to it. It's too long for it's own good and could have used a lot of editing in my opinion. This is one I would recommend skipping.
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