Nightmare Never Ends (1980)

   
Directed by: Phillip Marshak, Tom McGowan & Gregg C. Tallas

Written by: Philip Yordan

Starring:

Cameron Mitchell .... Lt. Sterne
Marc Lawrence .... Abraham Weiss / Dieter
Faith Clift .... Claire Hansen
Richard Moll.... James Hanson
Maurice Grandmaison .... Papini
Robert Bristol .... Olivier

Release Date: Theatrical: 1980
Rating:

 

A catholic Claire Higginson (Faith Clift) meets up with a playboy Olivier (Robert Bristol) who has a strange power over women and seemingly ageless too.
She also asks Olivier if there is a God and a Devil as her husband James (Richard Moll) wrote a novel titled God Is Dead as he has no beliefs.
Olivier tells her they both exist and an estranged man Papini (Maurice Grandmaison) tries to protect them both as he tries to warn them that Satan is after them and the apocolypse is about to occur.
Meanwhile, a police detective Lt. Sterne (Cameron Mitchell) tries to find out who this Olivier is as he was involved with Hitler in Germany decades ago and has been responsible for alot of deaths as he can't seem to put the pieces together.

 

The story seems to be rushed from the very beginning and things seem unnatural with conversations from what is happening that present time but a nice moment when Claire Hansen is on stage and being hypnotised which has an impressive hallucination sequence showing a bunch of Nazi's which the leader was the antichrist Olivier and him shooting them all as this psychs you out and well put into a flick such as this one as it leaves a nice twisted demonic feeling to everything.
We spot many corny discussions with Lt. Sterne talking to an eccentric old man about Olivier killing his recent family member as well as discussing his history along with Sterne telling him this person is too young to be the historical one who was the murderer as this was well put in showing that the antichrist is ageless. But at the same time their conversations were incredibly lacking and off the wall.
We also spot some moments with an attack of some demonic monster but it looks too quick to see what it totally looks like as this was supposed to make you jump a few times but misses by a longshot.
Yet the story seems to pick up later on as we have many scene's taking place at a local disco as things were well set out along as we have a moment with a woman approaching Olivier there as we see some beatiful women flocking near him as this looked totally set out for a devil and his babes with him as well as her coming up to his room along with a well drawn in mysterious moment on him taking off his shoe to see what is revealed which looked truly creepy to watch.
A nicely drawn in discussion with Sterne questioning Olivier about a death with his slick responses as this for sure delivers a nice coldness to a devil responding and being fresh about stuff as well as explaining about his wealth too.
Perfect situation with Claire at the local disco and she spots Olivier on the other side of the room and nice close up shots on his evil eyes staring at her along with a neat hallucination sequence on her in some sort of a tunnel with a red light shining on her and then the quick shot on what looked like a monster from what we saw beforehand. Also a nice moment when she is in a closet and some demonic hands crash through a wall to try and get her which was perfectly put into the story.
Well drawn in moment with Claire talking to what seems to be a blind preacher as things seemed cold and well done by what he tries to tell her on what to do about Olivier as this looked good and dark by all that is happening here. It was also very still by what we spot here.
An effective situation when James Hanson is hosting a show on the news station about God being a myth as this can be well remembered to anyone who saw this flick which draws in more of a horror story to what is going on as well as spotting different people that view it including Olivier himself with his women.
Nice twisted moments with James talking to Olivier and what happens to him later on after dropping a cloth after Olivier himself tries to demand for him to give in for Satan and him ignoring beliefs of any kind of power as there's nice camera shots on both of this happening.
Nice powerful moment when a monk Panini is at a roundhouse trying to talk to a beautiful woman and a wondstorm burst in as this woman has a deep demonic voice offering a good supernatural situation as well as him being dragged away by a powerful force into the sea with nicely concentrated camera shots on this happening which can thrill low budget horror fans on this type of genre.
Things roll greatly when we spot Clarie hitting Olivier with her car and then her and her assistant tries to bring him to an operating table at their work as this will jmake you cringe on what they do here with perfect madness going on here as this was the famous scene used in the flick that the fans of horror violence will love to watch. Plus some good twists that will psych you out a bit too. This moment was cleverly well done.
Bottom line: This was an extremely low budget feature and it looks like a total bore but eventually it gets a little better and very dark too. This film can easily be considered an Omen ripoff but it's an adult who is an antichrist and not a child. It's an obscure flick that it's so bad it's good. There are some fun touches in the film and years later it was used as a chapter for a horror anthology titled Night Train to Terror.

The acting is quite bad for the most part as cult horror icon Cameron Mitchell (Lt. Sterne) is a little better but on an average level as a detective. However, he was often cast in badly acted films. Shows a nice serious no nonsense type of behavior when discussing subjects but was over the top whenever he was aggressive or raised his voice. He needed to make that more natural and he didn't.
Faith Clift (Claire Hansen) cannot act her way out of a wet paper bag by any means as she just speaks her lines and shows very little expressions on her face but she does do well at being spooked out. However she had the right looks to portray a paramedic but that's about it. There was no hope for this person as she proved that not everyone was cut out to be a performer.
Richard Moll (James Hanson) who played her husband was pretty bad as well but not as bad as she was as at least he put a bit of energy into his character. Seemed to focus in well when he is on TV announcing his book as he put some enthusiasm into that. Also seemed to come ac ross nicely as the ideal husband too.
Maurice Grandmaison (Papini) certainly drew in by being an eccentric and mysterious monk in the flick with his obsessive atttiude as well as being anxious but even he acted too over the top alot of the times. However his energy was still there along with having a unique gravelly type of speaking. He was a ball of energy within whatever he did and tried his best to pull off his role. He needed a bit of improvement nonetheless.
Robert Bristol (Olivier) is the best out of them all as he plays a perfect antichrist with his cold sounding voice and evil expressions. Seemed to draw in quite well with his temptations and wicked charming personality. Also shows nice cold expressions as well as showing off some great intense energy when he calls out to someone with his hissing voice. Acts nice and smooth with his talking too offering a decent versatality. Studied his role pretty good as you can tell here.

Olivier is at an operating room table and his insides are revealed.

There is some boring piano playing but there are some good synthesizer performances surrounding Bristol's scene's as well as outdated classical music during the operating room towards the end as it was done by an energetic hype to everything. Plus some nicely low windy types of music as it suits the demonic moments all by Steve Yeaman and Casey Young.

There are a couple of cheesy disco songs at the local disco bar performed by Billy Kirkland with his songs "I'm Your Lover" and "Only a Fool" as the vocalising is a bit out of tone and needed improvement. Defientely needed a better choice for a soundtrack.