The Night of the Devils

Giorgio Ferroni's 1972 Italian horror film adapts Tolstoy's story The Family of the Vourdalak, a text Mario Bava had already filmed. A man named Nicola is found in a hospital, unable to speak, and remembers what he saw in flashbacks. When his car broke down he took shelter in a house in the woods and realised the family living there was terrified of something. They know who is outside at night and watch each other to make sure nobody opens the door. Ferroni drops the gothic atmosphere of Bava's version for the barer, bloodier language of the seventies, and the effects in the final section in particular were considered harsh for their time. That the vampire threat comes from inside the family is what makes the material especially disturbing. Who it's for: viewers who like seventies Italian horror and vampire stories with literary origins. Who it's not for: anyone troubled by graphic violence and gore effects.