The Dark Side Triple Terror Treat

Following their DVD debut with a double bill of beautifully presented but middling Jean Rollin fun, the team behind the best horror magazine 'The Dark Side' are back yet again with another jam packed DVD release that should hopefully impress and sate their many readers…a double bill of 'The Devils Nightmare' and 'Cold Eyes of Fear'…

Jean Brismee's 'La Terrificante Notte del Demonio' or 'The Devils Nightmare' as it is known here opens in Nazi Germany, 1945 where after giving birth a Baroness dies from heart failure. Her nazi husband seems displeased that the newly born child is a girl so swiftly dispatched her with his army knife. Why would he do something so despicable? Well we'll soon enough find out…We cut to many years after the war has ended and the allegedly cursed castle residence of our prologues surviving ex army Baron. Nearby a passing coach load of tourists are looking for somewhere to stay for the night and unluckily for them an ominous looking man by the road (well ominous in a cooky aging beatnik sorta way) sends them in the direction of the castle. When they arrive there they are greeted by a spooky butler who not only eerily already knows each of their names but as he shows each of the guests to their rooms he tells them each a very differing bizarre haunting yarn about their abodes. Well you see this place truly has been cursed by the devil, a curse that goes back hundreds of years when a deal had been made with the devil and payment being that the eldest daughter of each generation of the family work for satan as his succubus! So…as you can guess our hapless house guests are in for some late night fun as the succubus (here in the form of the stunning Erika Blanc) visits each of them with death in mind…

'The Devils Nightmare' is an entertaining if somewhat middling slice of Euro fun. The basics of the plot is one that retro horror fans will be very much familiar with, well take a bus full of badly dubbed tourists to a spooky location so they can get killed and you have 'Vampires Night Orgy', 'Blood of the Virgins' and so on…Not that this is a bad thing, as its really not and this variation welcomingly adds Erika Blanc to the mix adding some welcome ghoulish eye candy to the proceedings (along with the soft core sexually charged shenanigans of the guests). But there's nothing of any real note to make this flick stand out above the rest of the retro Euro gems - the effects are half hearted, the direction is solid but unimpressive and whilst the soundtrack does shine at times it also sounds like it would be more at home in a low budget Spaghetti Western. Still, it makes for 90 minutes of pleasant retro genre viewing and as a support feature for 'Cold Eyes of Fear' makes it an enticing prospect indeed.

The image on the print here is a decent enough presentation, sure it's showing some age with wear and tear but it is down to the source print itself which I suppose is unavoidable. The optional English/Italian audio is simply fine with some moments of muffling on the English track (what is the Barons name?!) but not so much that it will ruin your viewing fun. Along with the movie itself we get a couple of extras specific to 'The Devils Nightmare' including a nice stills gallery and the short but sweet US trailer.

But very much like the good old days of visiting the cinema we have a double bill of genre movies to enjoy and similarly like those old double bills the connecting theme of the movies showing is very much unapparent - but who cares when you're having so much fun!

Next up for our delectation is Enzo G Castellari's alluring and underrated thriller 'Cold Eyes of Fear'. Well when you're faced with the prospect of a vintage Italian thriller set in groovy 70's London backed with a strong Ennio Morricone score you know you're guaranteed some viewing fun! The strong insular plot takes place in the home of a high court judge where his solicitor nephew is (ahem) entertaining a lady of the night, but they are not alone…when they stumble across the body of the family butler they discover that a murderous crook is lying in wait. This is no normal robbery though as this villain is connected to something far more ominous! As the tension inside the home builds between the villain and his captives a policeman arrives at the door, but as the scared solicitor tries to quietly plead for help things go from bad to worse and the pensive mystery grows…

Whilst misleadingly packaged as a 'giallo' on the discs cover (which it is not), 'Cold Eyes of Fear' is in fact a quite taut and atmospheric thriller that should please fans of the Italian crime drama genre immensely. Enzo Castellari proves that not only is he an accomplished stylish director but also very talented when it comes to writing an involving script that is full of engrossing twists and turns (leading to a cracking finale). Adding to the pleasure also is both the impressive performances by the lead cast members but as you can imagine Ennio Morricone's hip score.

The print used here for 'Cold Eyes of Fear' is pretty much faultless, clean and sharp throughout with only a couple of rare minor print damage flaws. Strangely though this version is missing the brief tagged on opening featuring the alternate title 'Desperate Moments' whish was used on the earlier non anamorphic Salvation release. The audio is fine if perhaps a bit wavering and could have done with some fine-tuning. For the extras we get a nice selection of Italian lobby cards and a great theatrical trailer that is riddled with plot spoilers so steer clear of watching this until after you've watched the movie. The team at the Dark Side may also want to note to make sure they thoroughly road test their check discs also as I found that the disc turned itself off after viewing this trailer, sure it's easy enough to reload and access the menu again but still worth keeping an eye out for future pressings.

So following a somewhat middling but watchable support feature in 'The Devils Nightmare' we get a real treat of viewing fun with the sleeper gem 'Cold Eyes of Fear' and as a double bill this represents real value for money for any genre fan.

But as ever, being a bumper packed release from The Dark Side there's still plenty more to find around this disc. First off there's the excellent section titled the 'Crypt of Zombies' which contains a lovely selection of trailers for our favourite gory shlockers including Night of the Living Dead, Zombie Lake, Nightmare City, Blood Feast, Anthropophagous the Beast, Return of the Living Dead and Zombie Creeping Flesh - we all know and love these films so well but I still had a great time rewatching these trailers again. Next we have The Dark Side section which as well as including info and stills galleries of all the lovely magazines and books they have produced over the years also contains a curious 36 minute short interviewing Salvation's living mast head Eileen Daly. Basically this is just Dark Side head honcho Allan Bryce popping round to his pals house with his video camera and getting a guided tour and chatting about life. How interesting this will be to the casual viewer is anybody's guess (Through the Keyhole anyone?), I found it interesting in that watching a friends home video sorta way but I'm sure Eileen Daly's fans will positively cream their pants at such self indulgent viewing. There is some interesting banter (Daly's comments on Japanese genre movies is particularly choice, tut tut) and this is all the info you're ever likely to need about Eileen Daly's lifestyle and career. Just don't go asking her for home décor tips! Finally, as with the first Dark Side release there's the welcome easter egg of a short filmed chat with main man Allan Bryce who has moved off the floor and onto the couch to discuss this DVD's many features.

Summing up, this second release from 'The Dark Side' represents both amazing value and hours of entertainment for any genre movie fan. The films are diverse in theme but both highly enjoyable in their own ways, the disc is jam packed with similarly diverse special features. Such a release as this is highly commendable and the team at The Dark Side should be loudly applauded - quite simply an essential purchase, pick it up now! (So Dark Side team, how about a Pete Walker double bill or even a pairing of guilty pleasures like Screamtime and the Monster Club?)

Review by Alan Simpson

'The Dark Side 'Triple Terror Treat' can be ordered direct from The Dark Side by clicking here.