Fresh and Exciting

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

"The Devil's Wedding Night" is a perfect example of everything that bugs me about Eurohorror. It boasts every cruddy cliché you can think of--magic rings and amulets, chanting Satanists, goofy-looking fake vampire teeth, and nudity out the wazoo--but has none of the style or atmosphere of, say, a Mario Bava film. Nothing inherently wrong with nudity, of course...but director Luigi Batzella pads this clunker with too much of it, hoping that T&A will prevent the viewer from dwelling on the lack of scares. No such luck. Mark Damon (who looks as if he'd done some hard living after starring in "House of Usher" and "Black Sabbath" a decade earlier) plays twin brothers Franz and Karl, both of whom are menaced by a beautiful but sinister countess (Rosalba Neri, who appears here as 'Sara Bay') in her gloomy castle. The countess has a scowling lesbian servant and a bald, apparently mute henchman whose cuspids are each about a foot long; eventually, some naked virgins and guys in executioners' hoods show up for an ill-defined, Black Mass- type ceremony which takes place once every fifty years. Or something. None of it makes a hell of a lot of sense. If you're not picky about your horror, or if you just want to have a good laugh, I guess "The Devil's Wedding Night" is an acceptable way to pass eighty minutes of your life. Everyone else is advised to steer clear.

This is another disreputable "Euro-Cult" item of the Horror/Erotica variety: its director, in fact, is likened to Renato Polselli – whose vaguely similar THE REINCARNATION OF ISABEL (1973) I recently watched. Mind you, this is nowhere near the incomprehensible mess that ISABEL was – but the plot also concerns vampires, sacrificial victims and lookalike protagonists (in this case, Mark Damon as twin brothers).It all starts with the search for the mythic Ring of the Nibelungens, currently residing in Transylvania(!)…which, of course, is the home of Count Dracula. When one of the Damons goes there, he finds a Countess ("Euro-Cult" starlet Rosalba Neri) living in Castle Dracula; having lost his protective amulet, he soon falls under her spell and is himself turned into a bloodsucker. Soon after, though, his twin turns up at the castle but, being the more studious of the two, he resists Neri's advances and, thinking something's not right with the place, spends a good part of the running-time roaming its various corridors and, naturally, the crypt (virtually a given for Gothic chillers)! As it turned out, the brothers happened to pick the time when five local virgins are to be sacrificed (presumably for the reincarnation of Dracula); the film's most erotic yet visually impressive sequence, as a matter of fact, shows the blood of a freshly-slain girl being spilled on the naked Countess – residing in one of the crypts – by her zombie-like black maid (yes, various horror myths are thrown in for no very good reason and with little real impact!). Anyway, it all ends with the afflicted Damon being initiated into the ways of the vampire – but he's actually been disposed of and replaced by his heroic sibling who, in no time at all, manages to disarm the various diabolists (who turn up out of nowhere) at the ceremony. Meanwhile, Neri retreats to the castle tower and, with the aid of the ring, draws the intended sacrificial victims to her – but Damon disturbs her plans even here, and she eventually perishes thanks to some providential lightning. The hero leaves the castle with a local girl he had befriended but, in a clichéd downbeat conclusion, she has been turned into a vampire (off-screen) as well – given that the driver of the coach is none other than the sinister-looking character occasionally seen prowling the castle grounds… To be fair, the tone of the piece is characteristically dream-like and it all looks pretty good for the little budget the director must have had at his disposal; on the other hand, being at once insufficiently-plotted and highly derivative, it's not memorable enough to live in the memory.

A 19th century version of Indian Jones goes looking for a Ring of Vermougglian of Wagnerian legend in Castle Dracula in Transylvania!(While he's at it he might also look around for the mythical South American city of El Dorado). He stays at an inn at a nearby town and finds out from the attractive innkeeper's daughter that once every year during the full moon the town sends five virgin sacrifices to the mysterious inhabitants of the castle (thus the Italian title of this movie). After briefly pausing to help the innkeeper's daughter with her virginity problem, he heads to the castle. (The guy has an amulet which supposedly protects him from all evil, but in an act of unbelievable stupidity he leaves it at the inn). He meets the inhabitants of the castle-- Countess Dracula (Rosalba Neri) and her sinister lesbian servant. He quickly forgets about the Ring of Vermougghlian (being obviously more interested in Aureolas of Neri) and winds up sealed in a coffin and turned into a vampire for his trouble. Then just when you think the movie couldn't get any stupider his identical twin brother shows up for some reason. . .This movie like "Death Smiles at Murder", "The Reincarnation of Isabel" and the director's more famous "Nude for Satan" was made at a time when the Italian Gothic horror films of the 1960's had pretty much completely sunk into blood-drenched and sex-fueled delirium. Most of these other movies were content to have no coherent plot at all; this one instead just has a really stupid one. The main attraction here, of course, is the numerous nude scenes by Rosalba Neri and the sequence where the five virgins are sacrificed (which, of course, involves each of them being stripped naked and stabbed to death by the lesbian servant). A professional critic I once read describes the famous scene where blood is poured on on Neri's nude, writhing body as "pretty unappealing". While I would never use the words "Rosalba Neri", "writhing, nude body" and "unappealing" in the same sentence, she is pretty much wasted here. Neri was a great actress when given a chance and this could have been a memorable role for her (like the famous Erica Blanc role in the similar "The Devil's Nightmare"), but this movie is just too stupid and ham-handedly executed. For what it's worth Neri's "blood bath" is longer and much more erotic than the one Ingrid Pitt takes in "Countess Dracula" (which no doubt inspired the one here). Die-hard flesh hounds at least won't be disappointed. I can't really recommend this to anyone else though.

If Rosalba Neri's (credited as Sara Bay) seductive charms are plenty enough to tease on your vital mammaries, then you must see this one. That's why Italian horror movies such as THE DEVIL'S WEDDING NIGHT focus more on sex to compliment the genre. Eroticism aside, it isn't all too horrifying. The classic vampire-ritual movies had their place in the theaters long ago, but it's turned into pure camp now. There's hardly anything in here to please the most die-hard horror sickies other than its erotic nature, despite some occasional dark chills. The most popular scene is Neri rising naked while drenched with blood. The rest is strictly exploitation fare. See this only if you have the strong desire to become addicted to seductive beauty. Otherwise, it's just plain outdated with nothing but old-fashioned vampire fun and plenty of sex to see.