Nightmares Come at Night (1970)

Fantastic!

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

This feels like it may have been an influence on Fulci's A Lizard in a Woman's Skin. Despite starting off this review with such a positive statement, Nightmares Come at Night is not exactly an undiscovered gem. There's a reason this erotic thriller is hard to find. Here, we have Franco at his most experimental- long, extended dance and strip scenes, gratuitous lesbian sex, constant use of the zoom function that can leave one dizzy, and a plot that is nearly completely incomprehensible. As far as I can gather our main character was working as a stripper when another girl, blonde, seduces and bewitches her. She forces our protagonist to come live with her in her (naturally) lavish mansion, where the girl begins having nightmares of bloodlust and murder. For some reason the blonde girl keeps calling the doctor even though it's pretty obvious she's the one causing the odd happenings. (this is somewhat cleared up later). Next door a random trashy couple is spying on the two girls. This also causes confusion as the neighbor girl looks almost exactly like the protagonist. Naturally infidelity abounds, but it feels more the product of an attempt at creating singe sort of tension than a real part of the story. Nightmares Come at Night is Jess Franco at his most impressionistic, it's highly psychedelic and completely incoherent- and believe me when I tell you that I don't say that lightly, being a huge fan of Franco and Rollin and giallo fanatic. So as you can see I'm very used to the dreamlike, surreal nature of 60's-80's European horrors and erotic thrillers; and even for me this is a conundrum- but a pleasant one nonetheless as long as you aren't too analytical and you can enjoy the visuals.

Describing a Jess Franco directed film as a curio is like describing the sky as 'a bit blue'. 'Nightmares Come at Night' – not one of the greatest titles – is either a hypnotic and sensual journey, or barely comprehensible, badly shot, softcore porn.Susan Korda, or Soledad Miranda as she is better known, plays the air-headed girlfriend of 'the neighbour' in very brief scenes that don't do her justice. Diana Lorys plays Anna de Istria, who is being driven out of her mind, or so it seems. Her friend Cynthia (Colette Giacobine) may or may not have something to do with this. The always brilliant Paul Muller plays Dr. Lucas, again pretty under-used. As the story goes, that is pretty much it – not that intricate plot contrivances usually bothered Franco too much.The rest is much as expected – a fine, jazzy musical soundtrack, lots of swooping cameras and 'deliberately' blurred scenes, extravagantly made-up women and shifty men. It doesn't, however, add anything new, horrific, or particularly interesting and so the attention tends to drift more than once before some answers are finally revealed at the end.Perfunctory by Jess Franco's standards. Not unenjoyable, but not very engaging either.

When things go bad in a Franco film, they really go bad. Even by Franco's standards, Nightmares Come at Night is a total bore. The plot deals with a woman who may be going insane. She has reoccurring dreams of killing people and cannot distinguish what's real and what's part of her dreams. But the plot is secondary to Nightmares Come at Night's primary purpose – show as much pointless nudity as possible. Most of the movie consists of Diana Lorys walking around with little or nothing on. I felt like screaming "Do Something!" at the screen. And it doesn't help that it's filmed in the most unimaginable way possible. To make matters worse, Franco introduces a diamond heist subplot in the final third of the movie and gives it little more than lip service. It adds nothing to the film.When you pick up the DVD, you would understandably think that Soledad Miranda was the star of Nightmares Come at Night. I mean it's her face on the DVD cover. However, as was the case with Lina Romay in Franco's The Erotic Rites of Frankenstein, Miranda has only 10 minutes of screen time. Plus, she has no connection with anything else in the movie. Her scenes were obviously filmed at a different time and location from the rest of the film.

I've just received and watched the R1 DVD of NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT (1970). I'm not quite sure what to make of the film on the basis of this one viewing: most of Franco's usual ingredients were there, to be sure – the accent on eroticism, of course, but also his customary virtues in the form of a bizarre and eclectic score and an effortlessly haunting, dream-like atmosphere. Special mention must also go to the stylish credit sequence, which was quite a nice – and unexpected – touch. However, I did feel that something was missing here: perhaps because it was all so hastily put together, the film seemed to be going nowhere most of the time. Maybe it also had something to do with the incongruity of the two female leads: on this and other Forums, I've read a lot of praise for Diana Lorys' performance but, personally, she didn't impress me too much – though I wouldn't call her acting bad, and she can certainly handle herself well in a nude scene – and seemed only to alter between playing agitated (especially in her scenes with Paul Muller, where she must have asked him if she was going crazy a thousand times!) and being in a daze. As for Colette Jack, to me, she didn't manage to put across convincingly either the spell her character is supposed to have over Lorys or the intelligence necessary to organize a jewel heist, let alone the elaborate way in which her accomplices are dispatched (her final confrontation with Muller clearly suggests she was the 'brains' of the outfit)!On the other hand, I was pleased by the contribution of both Muller (one of his few really meaty roles for Franco) and Jack Taylor (his one scene in the film – a very Godardian moment, by the way – is its highlight). To get to the jewel heist subplot, which many feel is out of place, one must remember that without it the film would have no plot whatsoever: since the whole ruse of hypnotizing Lorys is actually to get rid of Taylor (assuming he too is an accomplice, as this is never explained), Soledad Miranda and Andre' Montcall! Still, I would disagree that Miranda is wasted here: with only a few gestures and lines of dialogue in a couple of brief scenes, she manages nonetheless to create a character and, with the aid of her indelible sensuousness, leave quite an impression – I certainly wouldn't want the film to be without her!Regarding the DVD itself, I would like to point out that I too experienced a momentary glitch during the layer-change. Knowing of Media Blasters' notorious reputation through online Forums (this is the only disc I own by them), I don't think I'll bother sending for a replacement as I doubt a repressing has been made at all. What's more, having recently experienced disappointment with the replacements I got from Flicker Alley (JUDEX [1916-17]) and Mondo Macabro (MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN [1960]) – where this same glitch was still present on the extra copies I received from both labels – I'm a bit wary of the prospect, to say the least!As for the DVD transfer, the full-frame print used was rather soft (though this may have been intentional) and displayed occasional damage but it was certainly acceptable, especially when considering the extreme rarity of this item. On the other hand the French-language track, with its literate English subtitles, was very satisfactory when compared to the lifeless newly-dubbed version, clips of which were included in the Franco interview. The latter, then, is one of the most entertaining discussions I've seen featuring the Spanish director; his accent sometimes does get in the way but his recollections of Soledad were certainly articulately put, as well as obviously heartfelt, and the interview never wore out its welcome. The other extras were more basic stuff, though the photo gallery (sections of which are also featured in the interview) was quite a nice addition. In the long run, I would consider the film second-tier Franco: it's as if he was biding his time here waiting, as it were, for the full flowering of Soledad Miranda in order to embark on the next phase of his debauched career