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Nightmares Come At Night
[Shriek Show]
1970; color
Directed by Jess Franco
Starring: Soledad Miranda, Diana Lorys, Paul Muller & Jack Taylor
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Nightmares Come At Night starts off with a hazy bang, as we meet Anna, an ex-stripper who's shacked up with an ice queen of a blond named Cynthia. Anna's pretty much going off the deep end because she can't tell if the violent and confusing dreams she's having are really dreams or if she's actually a bloody murderer. She dreams of killing a guy in her bed with a spear and wakes up screaming with blood on her hands, yet when she takes a shower there's not a spot of blood to be seen. Cynthia tries to soothe her and calls a local physician in to see to her care and maybe give her a sedative to calm her down. Once he arrives at her villa it seems evident this has been going on for some time. It also becomes obvious there's something else going on between Cynthia and the doctor. Anna tries to speak to the doctor as he's leaving but he tells her to meet him at the church in town the next day, which she does. As he's driving her home she begins to relate her full saga; from the moment she and Cynthia's first laid eyes on each other at the "sleazy stripclub in Zagreb" where she used to work, up to her possible descent into madness. (This flashback accounts for at least a third of the movie, which does begin to make things confusing.) Once she's back the villa we get a glimpse of the couple in the house across the way, a non-descript Euro dude and none other than the ultra-sexy Soledad Miranda. We learn he's a jewel thief waiting for his payday after a large heist; she's his GF who just happened to hook up with him at this particular time. Unfortunately their scene is little more than filler, and really nothing more than an excuse to have Miranda parade around nude or semi-nude, as they're soon dispatched during what may or may not be another one of Anna's dreams. (By the way, featuring her on the boxcover when she's got less than ten lines of dialogue and under five minutes of screen time is kinda bogus.) Finally, Anna cracks under the pressure of not knowing whether or not she's going crazy, and takes her own life. No sooner does she do that than we learn she'd been under a hypnotic spell from Cynthia, who's had her unknowingly kill all of her accomplices in the jewel heist. Clever. Unfortunately, not clever enough because the doctor, who was also in on the whole thing, threatens to tell the cops. As to how that all shakes out, you're going to have to see for yourself - and even if you think I've spilled the beans a bit too much here, believe me, I'm leaving out plenty of good stuff.
—the Kommandant
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