Night of the Devils
Night of the Devils
In this adaptation of Tolstoy's story the Wurdulak, a mentally-ill patient known as Nicola (Gianni Garko) flashes back to horrifying experiences that he encountered while driving through the country. Upon damaging his car, Nicola sets out for help, only to meet a mysterious family who lives in total fear of someone or something. This evil force slowly penetrates the household and thrusts each of its members into a frenzy of absolute terror.
Matthias_812 reviewedMay 12, 2025
Night of the Devils is a melancholic descent into folkloric horror. Based loosely on the same Tolstoy story that inspired Mario Bava’s segment in Black Sabbath, Giorgio Ferroni's take expands the tale into a moody fable of isolation and ancestral curse.
The pacing is deliberately slow, with long stretches of silence, slow zooms, and oppressive rural backdrops. There are sequences of melting faces and flesh being torn which really excites. The gothic overtones are rich and the film lingers, like a half-remembered nightmare.