I have always been a big movie fan - I even wrote articles for an online movie magazine for some years - and a genre that I can really appreciate is horror movies. Imagine my surprise when not so long ago I was introduced - by Vanessa Morgan - to a Belgian horror movie that has even reached cult status: La Plus Longue Nuit Du Diable. Released in 1971, the movie has a lot of alternative titles, the most popular being The Devil's Nightmare. I have watched it a couple of times on YouTube and have come to love it. It doesn't feature a lot of jump scenes, but it has a kitsch and eerie feeling.
What is the subject ofLa Plus Longue Nuit Du Diable? Let me give you a short summary. The movie follows 7 tourists travelling in a bus. It turns out that they have missed the last ferry and since evening is approaching they have to seek refuge in a castle. The group soon has a feeling that something is off, but they settle in quickly in their gorgeous rooms and have dinner with the Baron, who has a fondness for alchemy. Later that night a mysterious woman joins the tourists and things then take a turn for the worst. The woman turns out to be a succubus (a kind of demon) and kills the tourists who actually represent the seven deadly sins.
Somehow the movie was not a huge success in Belgium, but it became popular in Italy and later also in the USA, where it was released in 1974.The Devil's Nightmare features an eerie (and effective!) soundtrack and was shot in a stunning castle, which happens to be located in ... Belgium! But more about that in the next parts. Talking about filming locations in Belgium, Nicolas Cage is filming in Malmédy (south-east of Belgium) right now and Thomas Vinterberg is currently making his new movie - starring Colin Firth and Matthias Schoenaerts - in Jette (Brussels) and Lint (not far from Antwerp).
You can see an Italian version of The Devil's Nightmare on YouTube:
