User reviews

Devastatingly stylish, edgier-than-thou Giallo master, Massimo Dallamano's delightfully doomy tale of inexorable fate and diabolically demonic destinies remains a beautifully shot, ominously atmospheric example of devil-possessed Euro-Horror. In this haunting, quintessentially Italian shocker the malevolent narrative sinisterly unfolds in the evocative, myth-shrouded city of Spoleto, its medieval architecture steeped in ancient, macabre histories. Once handsome BBC documentarian, Michael Williams (Richard Johnson), his grief-traumatized daughter Emily (Nicoletta Elmi) and the earnest, long-suffering governess, Jill (Evelyn Stewart) are lavishly ensconced within picturesque Spoleto there begins a malign series of supernaturally distressing events that suggest poor, Emily's vivid night terrors might be inextricably linked to her dead mother's occult Medallion!

This relentless malediction grimly encircling the beleaguered Williams family darkly manifests itself in a caustic web of satanic intrigue, gruesome deaths, fulminating passions and a torrent of torrid Freudian phantasmagoria! If all that bravura B-Movie hoopla doesn't prove entertaining enough, maestro, Stelvio Cipriani composes yet another scintillating score, and highly regarded DoP, Franco Delli Colli's sumptuous photography is a visual treat. Unsurprisingly, fiery redhead, Joanna Cassidy is an absolute knock out, and the oppressively bedevilled milieu is morbidly maintained right up to the supernaturally skewed, penetratingly perverse finale! Like all the deceptively great 70s horror films, Dallamano's compellingly creepy 'The Night Child' loses nothing upon subsequent viewings, and the hysterical, preternaturally pale Nicoletta Elmi's tormented visage demonstratively remains one of the more indelible visions of shriekingly spectral terror!