''The Devil's Wedding Night'' ( it, Il plenilunio delle vergini, lit=Full Moon of the Virgins) is a 1973 Italian

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

Plot

Two rival brothers are looking for the

magic ring A magic ring is a mythical, folkloric or fictional piece of jewelry, usually a Ring (jewellery), finger ring, that is purported to have Magic (supernatural), supernatural properties or powers. It appears frequently in fantasy and fairy tales. M ...

of the

Nibelungen The term Nibelung (German) or Niflungr (Old Norse) is a personal or clan name with several competing and contradictory uses in Germanic heroic legend. It has an unclear etymology, but is often connected to the root ''nebel'', meaning mist. The te ...

, a mystical jewel that confers all power to the one who possesses it. The first, Karl, is an archaeologist who wishes to give it to an archaeological institute; the second, Franz, is a materialist who wants to appropriate it to be rich and powerful. Franz, after having read Karl's research, travels to the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Urals at and the Scandinavian Mountains at . The range stretches ...

Transylvania Transylvania ( ro, Ardeal or ; hu, Erdély; german: Siebenbürgen) is a historical and cultural region in Central Europe, encompassing central Romania. To the east and south its natural border is the Carpathian Mountains, and to the west the Ap ...

, to the ancient castle of

Count Dracula Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. He is considered to be both the prototypical and the archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by som ...

. The innkeeper's daughter tells him that on the first full moon night of the summer that five virgin girls from the village are chosen by the powers of evil and taken to the castle to be sacrificed, and that the place is infested with

vampire A vampire is a mythical creature that subsists by feeding on the Vitalism, vital essence (generally in the form of blood) of the living. In European folklore, vampires are undead, undead creatures that often visited loved ones and caused mi ...

s. She gives Franz an

amulet An amulet, also known as a good luck charm or phylactery, is an object believed to confer protection upon its possessor. The word "amulet" comes from the Latin word amuletum, which Pliny's ''Natural History'' describes as "an object that protects ...

for protection. After spending the night with the girl, Franz leaves her to go to the castle but forgets to take the amulet. In the manner of

, he is greeted by the housekeeper Lara and meets Countess Dolingen De Vries, the Count's widow. The Countess uses the famous ring to bring girls home to kill them, then to bathe in their blood. Bewitched and bitten by her, Franz immediately marries her. Their marriage is followed by the sacrifice of five girls. Equally looking for the ring, Karl arrives in turn in Transylvania, but does not know his brother was vampirized by the Countess.

Cast

Mark Damon Mark Damon (born April 22, 1933) is an American film actor and Film producer, producer. He became noted for roles in films like Roger Corman's House of Usher (film), ''House of Usher'', before moving to Italy and becoming a notable Western (gen ...

: Karl Schiller *

Rosalba Neri Rosalba Neri (born 19 June 1939) is a retired Italian actress. Early life Born in Forlì, Emilia-Romagna, Italy, Neri was regarded for her beauty even in youth, winning a beauty pageant when she was still young. Eventually pursuing an acting ca ...

: La Contessa Dolingen de Vries (as Sara Bay) *Esmeralda Barros: Lara the Zombie *Xiro Papas: The Vampire Monster (as Ciro Papas) *Gengher Gatti: The Mysterious Man (as Alexander Getty) *Enza Sbordone: Tanya the Innkeeper's Daughter (as Francesca Romana Davila) *Carlo Gentili: The Innkeeper (as Mort Baxter) *Giorgio Dolfin: First Villager at Inn (as George Dolfin) *Stefano Oppedisano: Second Villager at Inn (as Stephen Hopper)

Style

In his book ''Vampire Films of the 1970s'', Gary A. Smith described the film as "a throwback to gothic horror" and that it appeared to be influenced by

Hammer A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nails into wood, to shape metal (as w ...

vampire films of the 1970s, specifically ''

Twins of Evil ''Twins of Evil'' (also known as ''Twins of Dracula'') is a 1971 British horror film directed by John Hough and starring Peter Cushing, with Damien Thomas and the real-life identical twins and former ''Playboy'' Playmates Mary and Madeleine C ...

''.

Production

Producer Franco Gaudenzi stated that ''The Devil's Wedding Night'' was a film that actor

"wanted to do, it was a script he had, it was his creature." Gaudenzi expanded on this, stating Damon was planning on selling the film to an American production company who was interested in distributing it. The screenplay is credited to Walter Bigari and

Luigi Batzella Luigi Batzella (San Sperate, 1924 – San Sperate, 2008) also known as Paolo Solvay was an Italian film director, editor, screenwriter and actor. He made numerous low-budget genre films. Life and career Luigi Batzella was born in San Sperate, S ...

, while the copy of the screenplay which is close to finished product with many technical indications only credits Batzella's name. This version of the screenplay includes a prologue which is not in the film, in which the Countess summons the forces of evil while in her castle nude women are tied to a column with their throats being slashed. When choosing the director, Gaudenzi hired Batzella, stating that he was often in their office discussing film ideas with

Joe D'Amato Aristide Massaccesi (15 December 1936 – 23 January 1999), known professionally as Joe D'Amato, was an Italian film director, producer, cinematographer, and screenwriter who worked in many genres (westerns, decamerotici, peplum, war films, ...

and

Bruno Mattei Bruno Mattei (30 July 1931 – 21 May 2007) was an Italian film director, screenwriter, and editor who directed exploitation films in many genres, including women in prison, nunsploitation, zombie, mondo, cannibal, and Nazisploitation films. Ma ...

. ''The Devil's Wedding Night'' began shooting on July 31, 1972. It was shot on location at Castello Piccolomini in

Balsorano Balsorano (Marsicano: ') is a ''comune'' (municipality) and town in the province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of Italy. History Balsorano is mentioned for the first time in the 10th century. During the Middle Ages and modern era, it was hel ...

. Gaudenzi stated that despite only Batzella getting a credit on the film, it was directed by both D'Amato and Batzella, as Gaudenzi had D'Amato reshoot some scenes. Damon was impressed with D'Amato, and recommended him to

Roger Corman Roger William Corman (born April 5, 1926) is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has been called "The Pope of Pop Cinema" and is known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film. Many of Corman's films are based on works t ...

to work on the American production '' The Arena''.

spoke later about Batzella's direction on set stating that she "never understood him. It was like there were two of them, going different directions...and rarely meeting. A bit schizophrenic, indeed."

Release

''The Devil's Wedding Night'' was released in Italy by Florida Cinematografica on 14 March 1973. The film's erotic content was cut by Italian censors who demanded that a sex scene be shortened and that "all scenes be eliminated where the man kisses the lower part of the woman's body." The film grossed a total of 117,115,000

Italian lire The lira (; plural lire) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was first introduced by the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different states that would eventually f ...

domestically in Italy.

References

Footnotes

Sources

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External links

*
''The Devil's Wedding Night''
at

Variety Distribution Variety Distribution is an Italian-based film distribution company. It distributes Italian films worldwide, produced from the 1930s onward. History Variety Distribution (formerly Variety Film and Variety Communications) has been in the film ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Devil's Wedding Night, The 1973 films 1973 horror films Italian erotic horror films Gothic horror films Censored films Films set in castles 1970s Italian films Films about magic rings Films about archaeology Films set in Transylvania Italian vampire films Films based on the Nibelungenlied