Pretty Good

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Of course this movie is not a great one but you need to see it in its perspective. Within its genre this movie still simply remains a good and original watch, that will most definitely please most of the Italian horror movie lovers out there.To me, this was a movie that was all about its atmosphere. It's a pretty odd movie to look at and follow but it's all very captivating. The entire movie had a dream like feeling and look to it, which was something I particularly liked about this movie.The story...well, it's all very secondary to the movie really. It's all about the way it gets presented and looks. The story in itself is nothing special really, or anything that makes you care about the movie, or for any of the characters that are in it. It's also quite slow moving at times and it definitely takes its time with some of its moments. Not that I minded this very much though. It actually added to the moody and hypnotic atmosphere and style of the overall movie. Horror-wise, this movie is also being very typical for an Italian '70's production, meaning that it's also a quite sleazy at times, in terms of its nudity and female characters. I still always amazes me that vampire movies so often have an erotic, lesbian undertone to it. It's not a movie with any scares in it but it's one that constantly builds- and relies on its atmosphere instead, which is something perfectly dark, Gothic and weird, in a good and original way.Something that is also really worth mentioning is its musical score by Vasili Kojucharov. No idea who this guy was but his music almost sounded too good and classical for a movie of this sort. It's true that you need to be into the genre to fully appreciate it but to me it was a great, atmospheric, little Italian genre film.7/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Italian Gothic Horror films from the 60s and 70s are usually as elegant, eerie and rewarding as Horror can get. While Luigi Batzella's "Il Plenilunio Delle Vergini" aka. "The Devil's Wedding Night" of 1973 is certainly no highlight of the genre, it is an enjoyable little slice of Sleaze that my fellow Eurohorror buffs should enjoy. Even though there are some brilliant Italian Gothic Horror films made in the 70s, one might say that the sub-genre had its heyday in the 60s, when filmmakers such as the inimitable Mario Bava, Antonio Margheriti and Riccardo Freda delivered the greatest contributions to the genre. In the 70s, the main focus of Italian Horror/Suspense cinema was on the equally brilliant and elegant Giallo-Genre; however, there were still plenty of Gothic Horror films being made, and those went with the time and were filled with the delightful sleaze that is omnipresent in 70s cult-cinema. "The Devil's Wedding Night" is a good example for this.One has to admit that the storyline is not the film's strongest aspect, as it doesn't make a lot of sense. In search of the legendary Ring of the Nibelungen, Karl Schiller (Mark Damon) comes to Transylvania where he inspects Castle Dracula, claiming that he does so for architectural studies. The stunningly beautiful and sinister Contessa Dolingen De Vries (Rosalba Neri), who owns the castle, immediately seduces him. However, the sexy Contessa has some unholy secrets... In the meanwhile Karl's identical twin brother (also Mark Damon), has followed him to Transylvania in order to look after his safety...As stated above, the story doesn't make a lot of sense. The film starts out extremely cheesy, but it gradually gets better and more entertaining. Italian directors have always had a particular talent to make their films visually elegant, even when the budget was low, and this film is no exception. "The Devi's Wedding Night" is beautifully shot in nice locations full of elegant and macabre set-pieces. The ravishing Rosalba Neri (credited here as Sara Bay) who is best known for her roles in other sleazy Italian gems such as "La Figlia Di Frankenstein" ("Frankenstein's Daughter", 1971) and "La Bestia Uccide A Sangue Freddo" ("Slaughter Hotel", 1971) and who is once again more than willing to take her clothes off, fits in the role of the Vampiric Countess very well. The rest of the female cast members are also beautiful to look at, and all have exhibitionist tendencies. Apart from her beauty, Rosalba Neri also has a great screen presence and the talent to be effectively eerie. The film includes all the essential ingredients of 70s Eurosleaze, such as gratuitous female nudity, lesbianism and lesbian Vampires, and bloody and perverted Satanic rituals. Leading man Mark Damon was in the greatest of Gothic Horror films in the sixties, including Bava's "I Tre Volti Della Paura" ("Black Sabbath", 1963) and Roger Corman's "House of Usher" (1960). He continued to be in the sleaziest of Gothic Horror movies in the seventies, including the visually stunning "Byleth - Il Demone Dell'Incesto" and this film. Overall, "The Devil's Wedding Night" is no must-see, but it certainly is a fun flick to watch for a fan of low-budget Eurohorror. 6.5/10

"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.

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.