NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Mondo Macabro Blu-ray (April 2019): Mondo Macabro have transferred the Belgian horror Devil's Nightmare to Blu-ray. The film is also known by multiple names including "Vampire Playgirls", "Castle of Death", "Nightmare of Terror", "Succubus", "The Devil Walks at Midnight" or "The Devil's Longest Night". This is in 1080P and offers both the French and English version - not changeable on the fly - although they are the exact same transfer, and version - credits, titles - with only the audio different. The image has plenty of inconsistencies - often looking very soft but I suspect that this is a reasonable representation of the available source stated as being an 'HD transfer from original negative'. It is in the 1.66:1 aspect ratio and, occasionally, the image quality is quite strong. The inherent softness is visible - even in-motion. There is frame-specific damage - see last capture.

On their Blu-ray, Mondo Macabro use a linear PCM mono tracks (24-bit) in the original French language with an optional English DUB. Effects, audio-wise, are limited but there is a hyper-moody score by Alessandro Alessandroni (Lady Frankenestein, Killer Nun), sounding authentically flat. The DUB is reasonably weak but you get used to the sync and imperfections. The Mondo Macabro BD offers optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

One of our favorite commentators, Troy Howarth, fills the film with extraneous details of the genre, the actresses with some brief humor. He's great discussing the theme of the seven deadly sins (gluttony, lust, sloth etc.). There are three interviews. One running over 1/2 hour with the 90+years old director Jean Brismée (who also did a documentary about the life and works of the French director Jean Rouch.) Although he is not a well-known name and The Devil's Nightmare is the only feature film he directed, Jean Brismee is an important member of the Belgian film community - he had helped establish the INSAS film school in 1962 and taught there for many years. He has also written one of the definitive histories of Belgian cinema. His short film Monsieur Plateau won a special jury prize at Cannes in 1965 and he has directed over 40 short films, documentaries and TV shows. In this interview Mr. Brismee mentions his friend and collaborator Andre Delvaux - one of the foremost film makers to come out of Belgium. He also discusses the issue of Belgium being a country of two communities - the French speaking one in the south (Wallonia) and the Flemish speaking one in the north (Flanders). Each of those communities has its own film funding body with the money for each coming centrally from the Belgian State, but allocated within the relevant community. There is also an interview with the Belgian filmmaker and writer Roland Lethem (he frequently collaborated with Jean-Pierre Bouyxou and Jio Berk - who did the production design on Devil's Nightmare.) Like many of the people involved in making The Devil's Nightmare, Roland Lethem was one of the first students at the INSAS film school in Brussels when it opened in 1962. Here he tells us about the very different cinematic journey that he subsequently took and, yet, how he too ended up on the set of the film. We spend 23-minutes with assistant director Robert Lombaerts who actually had a limited career in film but shares some memories of Devil's Nightmare. There are original trailers and TV spots and Mondo Macabro previews. The Blu-ray package features newly commissioned cover art from Gilles Vranckx.

There are many typical conventions of this 70's Euro-horror including some exploitative nudity/erotica, unexplained lesbianism, and graphic-content (baby murdered) and extravagant 'monster' make-up - but despite the prop-limitations (science laboratory) and small cast - it  has effective moments. Devil's Nightmare is described on the Howarth commentary as one of the definitive of this genre - and it does have some sly humor. It is from the 216-page French language paperback that was released to coincide with the film. It will be appealing to many who have been exposed to it - that this is the 'uncut' version. So there are some real attributes to owning on Blu-ray for fans of this genre or fans or Erika Blanc or some of the other gals; Colette Emmanuelle, Ivana Novak or Shirley Corrigan (hubba hubba).

Gary Tooze