Two exotic dancers embark on a erotic friendship which takes a turn when one of them begins having recurring nightmares of her killing people in which the line between realty and fantasy begins to blur to the most extreme.Maybe I was let down because the film has some terrible dubbing, but if the words they say are accurate, this is an awful story. Such pointless dialogue, and no real plot. The film seems to revolve around showing a woman naked repeatedly, while she may or may not be crazy.Further, I am told this movie is actually two unfinished movies sort of edited together. Normally that would never work, but with a Jess Franco film, you can hardly say it is even much worse than his usual stuff. Sadly, this may be the worst of his films I have seen.

Sexy, but troubled stripper Anna de Istria (a convincingly distraught performance by lovely and well-built brunette Diana Lorys) gets involved with the aloof and domineering Cynthia Robins (an effectively icy portrayal by yummy buxom blonde Colette Giacobine). Anna suffers from disturbing nightmares. Is Anna going crazy? Or is someone trying to drive her mad? Writer/director Jess Franco relates the absorbing story with his usual singularly languid, yet engrossing style: the seething erotic content (Anna's seemingly endless lethargic striptease act in a seedy nightclub in particular is simply priceless), deliberate pace, and meandering flashback-ridden narrative combine together to create a strangely hypnotic dream-like atmosphere. Naturally, we also get a plethora of tasty distaff nudity and a smidgen of sizzling lesbian soft-core sex. This film further benefits from sound acting by the capable cast: Lorys and Giacobine do excellent work in the lead roles, Paul Muller lends sturdy support as sympathetic psychiatrist Dr. Paul Lucas, Jack Taylor has a stand-out cameo as Cynthia's amorous and charismatic lover, and the striking and mesmerizing Soledad Miranda makes a strong impression in the regrettably small part of a flighty and impatient tramp. Jose Climet's roving and restless cinematography boasts a wealth of wonky zoom-ins as the camera goes in and out of focus throughout. Bruno Nicolai's groovy score hits the get-down funky spot. The surprise downbeat ending packs one hell of a punch. Well worth a look for Franco fans.

Although the packaging for Nightmares Come At Night promotes Soledad Miranda as its star, it is Diana Lorys who takes centre stage as Anna de Istria, a stripper who is seduced by Cynthia Robins (Colette Giacobine), a mysterious blonde who frequents her show. After being lured to Cynthia's home, Anna suffers a series of nightmares in which she sees herself committing murder, but despite help from her doctor, Paul Lucas (Paul Muller), she gradually begins to lose all grip on reality.Recently rediscovered and never before released: so says the blurb on my DVD box for this erotic horror from prolific director Jess Franco. It's a statement that begs the question 'why did some idiot have to go and find the bloody thing?' because Nightmares Come At Night could have lain undiscovered for an eternity, and I couldn't have cared less: it's Franco at his most illogical, incomprehensible, and frustrating.The director takes a rather promising premise, packs it with quality naked Euro totty from start to finish, yet still somehow manages to produce a finished product that has the ability to make one's eyelids feel as though they have lead weights sewn into them, and as usual, his directorial style can be described charitably as 'unique', although I prefer the adjective 'crap' (this guy even shoves manic zooms into his opening credits!!!). Franco's story is extremely weak, and is merely a lame excuse to get his leading ladies to take their clothes off (although he can't even get this right: he has Anna partake in the most boring strip show to ever be captured on film).My version of this film was badly dubbed, something for which I suppose I should be grateful: I laughed a few times at the terrible dub track, and shudder to think how stupefyingly dull the film might have been without these unintentional moments of light relief. In fact, the highlight of the film for me was when the doctor uttered these words to Anna: 'you are a naughty little girl who, with a twitch of her magic stick, can transform her into a pink little pig or a stout and ugly black toad'. Whether this is an accurate translation I don't know (and what the hell it means is anyone's guess), but at least it made me chuckle! About the only other element worthy of note is the score, which lends a suitably grubby vibe and wouldn't be out of place playing in any sleazy 70s euro nightclub.There are those who have described this film as 'dreamlike'; my guess is that these viewers actually fell asleep whilst watching and dreamt of something far more interesting without realising.

Nightmares Come at Night isn't one of Jess Franco's most famous movies. And it's not his best either. But it really does deserves more attention than it gets. It's a very entertainment and erotic thriller starring the beautiful Diana Lorys (The Awful Dr. Orloff) and Paul Muller. The plot is about a woman (Anna) who starts having weird and scary nightmares of her killing people. To make things worse, the people in her dreams appear dead the next morning. Is Anna really going insane or she's the victim of a much more sinister plan? As I said before, this is not one of Franco's best films. It has an uneven pace, bad acting and he really waste the talent of actress Soledad Miranda, who appears in a tiny and incidental character. But the movie also has good things going on. The story is very worthy, there's a lot of nudity, there are some scenes that are very hypnotic and the score by Bruno Nicolai is brilliant (one of the best of his career in my opinion). The opening credits are a very nice touch also.Very underrated Franco flick. A 7/10 from me.