The success of The Exorcist led to a slew of knock-off films from Beyond the Door to the The Sentinel. Here we have The Night Child, originally known as The Cursed Medallion (that would have looked spookier in a ghoulish font). Directed by Massimo Dallamano who cut his teeth as DOP on films including For A Few Dollars More but enough of naming other films.
This film revolves around Michael Williams (The Haunting‘s Richard Johnson) a TV producer/presenter, working on a documentary. He is aided by an attractive colleague played by a pre-Blade Runner Joanna Cassidy (I promise to stop name dropping now). Along for the trip is his young daughter Emily (Nicoletta Elmi) who is still haunted by memories of her mother’s gruesome death and her Nanny (Evelyne Stewart) is secretly longs for Michael’s loins. In between investigating the occult for his new doc Michael sparks up a relationship with his attractive colleague, breaks the heart of his Nanny, meets a psychic countess – if I had a penny for every time I’ve written that out – and gives his daughter a medallion which belonged to her late mother.
Once around her neck the medallion starts to change Emily’s manner in such terrifying ways as; screaming a bit loudly and throwing vases. Not quite as bad as masturbating with a crucifix but I think you’ll agree nuisance behaviour nonetheless. As the plot unfolds we discover that Emily is in fact the re-incarnation of a little murderers who was once chased down by a mob of bad actors in cloaks. Slowly Emily’s true colours start to shine through as she generally acts a bit naughtier until the film climaxes with her being terribly naughty. The Night Child is a very nice looking film. The photography is travel-show pretty but the pace is languid and apart from Richard Johnson and Joanna Cassidy, who manage to be charming and watchable, the acting is average at best. Nicoletta Elmi is considered by some to be an etherial child presence in her early career. For me she’s just creepy. Not in a Damien, “that kid’s creepy looking and very mysterious”. More in a “her face is upsetting me” way. For a film that was clearly made to capitalise on The Exorcist’s success it’s a shame that Dallamano decided not to lift some of the more unsettling aspects from it. We have the possessed child but other than have fits of anger there is no disturbing physical or emotional transformation. Johnson remains stoic throughout whereas if he were to crack under the situation we may have felt more peril to the situation. The Night Child looks pretty but as a horror has very little to recommend.
The main reason to buy the newly released DVD is the accompanying documentary which discusses The Exorcist’s influence on Italian horror in the 1970s.
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