Les Cauchemars naissent la nuit (Nightmares Come at Nig...

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  January 9, 2011

  WrenchLT

  psychological erotic thriller from Jess Franco. As it's an erotic film there's nudity and sex every two minutes, but there's still an intriguing little plot that plays out to hold the interest if you're getting bored of the naked flesh on show. Of course this is no masterpiece - ... read morea word that I've yet to associate with a Jess Franco movie - but this still a decent movie with a small part for the beautiful Soledad Miranda.

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  January 15, 2009

  drblood

  "Les cauchemars naissent la nuit" is yet another one of Jess Franco's least known and even lesser rated movies and for good reason too. It's awful! I couldn't make head nor tail of what was supposed to be going on and could barely stay awake throughout the whole pointless experie... read morence.
  Supposedly this was a "lost" movie that was only rediscovered recently and hacked back together again. In my opinion, it should have stayed lost as there is very little entertainment to be had from it at all. It certainly hasn't been restored much as the quality was terrible and the dubbing even worse.
  I watched the "Hardgore" Region 2 DVD version but I'm told that there is another original French language version with subtitles also available. I really don't think it would make a lot of difference though because the movie would drag in any language and probably still look as if the camera lens was covered in vaseline.
  It was all just too slow and too uninvolving. I can easily admit that the three women in the film are gorgeous as, I'm told, is Jess (or Jesus) Franco's trademark but HorrorNews.net's Dai is much better looking than all of them put together. Yeah, that would be a three-headed, twelve-limbed monster of course if you really want to get pedantic. You know what I mean. They are all ok to look at in small doses but the nudity just becomes samey after a while even though when you first see Diana Lorys (who plays Anna) you can't help yourself from just wanting to look and look.
  I didn't really like the blonde Colette Giacobine all that much either on an acting level or nude. I can't exactly put my finger on it (well, not on what you are thinking I want to finger anyway) but she wasn't right for the part of a character who supposedly has a kind of hypnotic control over others. She's not bad to look at at all but she's just sort of awkward and amateur somehow compared to Diana Lorys. This may be more evident in the French language version but even with dubbing you can tell how the two don't exactly gel or have any chemistry between them.
  The third girl who a lot is made of on the DVD extras and the sleeve itself is Soledad Miranda (as Susan Korda according to the credits). She was also Lucy Westenra in Jess Franco's Spanish version of "Count Dracula" starring Christopher Lee. I wouldn't say that she's wasted in her two or three minutes of onscreen time here but what seems like a subplot (until the end when everything is revealed) could just as easily be cut out and nobody would even notice. The only reason it even exists is to finally show a heterosexual sex scene which gets interrupted in the worst way possible and to give both Soledad Miranda and Jack Taylor (as her boyfriend) a couple of cameos. Neither of them even get given character names.
  The trouble with the nudity and eroticism in "Nightmares Come at Night" (the UK title) is that it doesn't have any real climax to it. There's a lesbian love scene with a lot of out of focus fades in and out which is beyond annoying and several other even more fake sex scenes later but none of them really make you want to bash one out while viewing. Even for 70s exploitation cinema this is all very poor.
  Perhaps the only saving grace of the whole movie is Paul Muller's role as some kind of doctor. I'm not sure if he is supposed to be a psychiatrist or just a G.P. but either way he is a lot more to do with the plot than you'd first imagine. From his first moments on screen where he is tormenting birds in a cage, you just know that Dr Paul Lucas isn't all he seems and the performance is one of the better ones since everyone else is so wooden.
  "Nightmares Come at Night" is a badly-paced and confusing mess at best. At its worst, it's a dull as ditchwater 70s hack job with T & A all over it. There's some fake blood at the start, very little on screen violence afterwards and nothing very horrific or scary about any of it. It's more of a thriller than a horror film and so even including it on the "Hard Gore" label is very deceptive and misleading. There's nothing in this to give you "Nightmares" apart from the thought of ever watching another Jess Franco movie again.

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  September 20, 2008

  cancercapricorn2002

  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 h... read moreer dreams. But the plot is secondary to Nightmares Come at Night's primary purpose ? show as much nudity as possible( not a bad thing exactly but even that can become dull after a while). 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. The 3 star rating I gave is for Soledad alone. We don't have enough films with her and this is one worth checking out due to her alone. So to sum up here, skip it unless your a diehard Soledad Miranda fan or Jess Franco movie junkie

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  May 13, 2012

  fb1731954250

  Ah Jess Franco, we meet again and the feeling is still so familiar. Without much research & with careful certainty, I believe that Jess Franco may be a competent, surrealistic, metaphorical, psychologically driven and deliberate director/writer. However, despite the presence of a... read more creepy/disorienting atmosphere and something somewhat intangible to me about his movies which leads me to have faith in his competence and meaning . . . i still find myself underwhelmed by most of his efforts. Lets look at what I interpret from NIGHTMARES COME AT NIGHT. I believe we have a story of identity confusion and crisis to the point of serious neurotic tendencies leading to the lead woman putting herself in serious physical and further psychological danger. Her poor self-esteem, poor self-efficacy, sexual confusion and other issues of the sort lead to a truly sad and disorienting story in which reality and fantasy become almost indiscernible as she becomes manipulated and disturbed by a sociopathic woman who we find out can sense weakness in others and exploits that. An interesting twist at the ending adds to the surface story we have playing out and Franco (as he seems to love to do) uses strong sexual imagery and potential symbolism to tell part (a large part! haha) of the story. Now regardless of whether the credit I wish to believe Franco deserves truly exists and regardless of whether my quick interpretation is accurate or conscientiously embedded into the film . . . this movie still falls short of making me a Franco fan. I.E: I don't really know that I care to see it again. If any of the above subject matter or symbolism strikes a chord with you, then you may be able to look past poor dubbing (I really should give it a chance in its native language with subtitles) and you may have the patience to look for the symbolism and see more than a softcore/rated R porn with some above average atmosphere. I believe Franco has purpose . . . I just don't think I like his presentation. For an introduction to Franco, I'd recommend: the even more atmospheric VIRGIN AMONG THE LIVING DEAD. But if psychosexual, possible metaphorical and nicely atmospheric tickles your interest, then by all means give this one a try!

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  January 26, 2011

  mpghoul1973

  Nightmare Come At Night is one of those experimental Franco films from the early 70's. And for me thats my favorite period for Jess Franco films. The first half of Nightmares was a bit of a bore. And i cant put my finger on it as to when it happened because the film really never ... read moreevolved from were it started as far as tone is concerned, but the last act of the film was totally brilliant. I think was i really disliked was the American dub track. It is by far the worst dubbing track ive ever heard in my life. Its almost as if they used actors from the Drama dept at Whidney High. But i switched it to the French track and clicked on the subs and was fine after that.
  Like all early 70's Franco this film has the obligatory performance art peice in a smokey lounge. Iam a total sucker for these moments in his films.
  The story here is pretty much hard to follow but that doesnt matter. What matters is the hypnotic dreamlike feel the film evokes.

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• Diana Lorys
• Paul Muller
• Jack Taylor
• Colette Giacobine
• Andrés Monales
• Soledad Miranda

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