NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT (aka THE DEVIL’S UNDEAD, THE RESURRECTION SYNDICATE, CASTLE OF THE LIVING DEAD, 1973)

Directed by Peter Sasdy.
Written by Brian Hayles (screenplay), John Blackburn (novel).
I was pleasantly surprised at how much I became wrapped up in this slow burning shocker that repeatedly pulls the rug out from under the viewer all the way until the end of the film. NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT looks and feels like a late Hammer film, mostly because of its stars, Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, but thematically belongs more in the company of ROSEMARY’S BABY and THE WICKER MAN. Like those two films, NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT deals with more sophisticated themes than fangy vamps and the leaping missionaries that hunt them, venturing more into themes of conspiracy and paranoia.

Christopher Lee plays an investigator looking into the mysterious deaths of board members of a secluded school. He works closely with a forensic specialist played by Peter Cushing in investigating what look to be suicides, but still twinge the two investigators’ suspicions of foul play. Though the investigations lack the detail modern forensic detective stories possess, the mystery still takes its time to unfold and more than a few red herrings are tossed out to mislead us along the way. In many ways, Lee and Cushing play a modern day Sherlock and Watson with Lee handling the street investigations while Cushing is back in the lab. Seeing these two horror veterans in a film I didn’t know existed was the real treat here.

I don’t want to give too much away about the story. There is a lot of deception going on by the director right up until the end. Peter Sasdy also filmed TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA with Lee and Cushing and prefers to keep the audience misled along the way in this one. I found the ending to be both ballsy and shocking, though the real threat becomes obvious towards the end. Just lumping this film in with ROSEMARY’S BABY and THE WICKER MAN (released in the same year) might clue you in about what the ending is like, but still there’s enough originality to the script and strong performances by both Lee and Cushing (not to mention the ending, which will definitely take the wind out of you) to attract fans of old school horror in NOTHING BUT THE NIGHT’s direction. This was the first and only film produced under Christopher Lee’s company Charlemagne (named so because Lee is a descendant of the famous Roman emperor). I highly recommend this forgotten treasure of a thriller starring two of horror’s greats.<br.
Check out the trailer here!!