By: Joseph Perry
Joseph Perry cohosts the Uphill Both Ways podcast — part of the When It Was Cool family of podcasts — with Mike Imboden (ubwpodcast.com/). Joseph also writes for the websites Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), B&S About Movies (bandsaboutmovies.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom). You can also find previous reviews and articles of his at The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict (gbvreviews.com) and Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com).
Film Review: The Night of Death! (1980)
Official synopsis: There's something strange going on at Deadlock House, a secluded French retirement home locked behind a tall iron fence. The residents are gentle, elderly, and strictly vegetarian, but employees are disappearing and the whole place seems a bit odd. The house director plays the same creepy tune on the piano over and over again, and one man, in particular, seems overly violent and aggressive. Unfortunately for Martine (Isabelle Goguey), the new staff nurse, she's about to discover the horrifying secret of Deadlock House . . . a secret so evil, she may not live to see the dawn. As night falls, something evil walks the hallways. Something with a taste for blood... and human flesh! Raphaël Delpard directs THE NIGHT OF DEATH! (Original title: La Nuit de la mort!), a hallucinatory, low-budget descendant of the era’s cannibal-horror wave that’s become, in the decades since its release, a genuine cult object of French horror.
What a blast The Night of Death! Is! Creepy residents of a retirement home, beautiful nurses in peril, a weird caretaker and strange delivery man, atmosphere to spare in and around a secluded hospital, secret doors to hidden rooms — director Raphaël Delpard’s terror tale serves up all this and more.
What we consider the New French Extremity subgenre of horror and thriller films was still about two decades away when The Night of Death! hit the screens in 1980, but it certainly boasts its fair share of graphic gore. It’s all old-school practical effects work, and yes, you can tell that some of the work “shows the seams,” so to speak. But that’s part of the charm of practical effects, and I’ll take them over CGI any day of the week.
The Night of Death! has 1970s Eurohorror vibes to spare, starting as soon as protagonist Martine (Isabelle Goguey) steps onto the Deadlock House property. The residents stare at her silently with neutral facial expressions in one of the early, goosebumps-raising shots. Things get increasingly eerier once she steps inside.
The film is rich with dark humor, as well. For example, when Martine first arrives at Deadlock House to a chilly reception, she quips that she doesn’t expect to be there long. If only she knew.
Goguey is excellent as Martine. She and her character are both adorable, as Martine enchants the residents and rarely gets upset with them, even when, for example, she gets undressed and sees that several of the residents are watching her through a window. By the way, as an added bonus, those who appreciate the human body as an art form, ahem, will get two chances to do so. Martine heads up a stellar cast. The cast members play their oddball roles without quite stepping into camp or scenery-chewing territory.
Delpard, who cowrote the screenplay with Richard Joffo, does a fine job of building suspense and mystery, and has one heck of a shock saved up for the finale. He may give away the surprise regarding the secrets of Deadlock House very early on, but I won’t spoil that here.
Aficionados of 1970s and early 1980s horror will find plenty to enjoy in this film that bridges classic chillers from those decades with hints of harder, more gruesome fare that would follow. Eurohorror devotees need to put The Night of Death! on their need-to-see lists, too.
The Night of Death! Streams on Film Movement Plus (www.filmmovementplus.com) from September 18, 2026.
Joseph Perry cohosts the Uphill Both Ways podcast — part of the When It Was Cool family of podcasts — with Mike Imboden (ubwpodcast.com/). Joseph also writes for the websites Gruesome Magazine (gruesomemagazine.com), The Scariest Things (scariesthings.com), Horror Fuel (horrorfuel.com), B&S About Movies (bandsaboutmovies.com), and film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope (videoscopemag.com) and Drive-In Asylum (etsy.com/shop/GroovyDoom). You can also find previous reviews and articles of his at The Good, the Bad, and the Verdict (gbvreviews.com) and Diabolique Magazine (diaboliquemagazine.com).
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