Thursday, August 8, 2019

THE NIGHT CHILD 1976 (SINISTER CINEMA)

This bizarre Italian thriller is also known as "Together Forever" and "The Cursed Medallion".

Richard Johnson stars as Michael Williams, a man who is currently producing a documentary on witchcraft in Rome. This keeps him very busy and away from his young daughter, Emily (Nicoletta Elmi).

He gives his daughter a medallion and once she puts it around her neck she becomes possessed by the spirit of s child who was also a murderess. Needless to say this causes endless trouble.

Emily has a nanny named Jill (Evelyn Stewart) who is fond of Michael, but Michael has been too busy to notice. Michael is more interested in his executive producer, Joanna Morgan (Joanna Cassidy).

Emily is haunted by weird visions and strange things start to happen including the tragic death of Jill when she is pushed off of a cliff by someone unseen.

Things start to spiral out of control as Michael learns about the medallion as well as a painting depicting a small child being chased by torch wielding mob. It is explained by Contessa Cappelli (Lila Kedrova) but Michael refuses to believe in the supernatural.

Things come to a tragic end as Michael makes a last ditch effort to save his young daughter. I won't spoil it, but the title "Together Forever" explains things very well.

Johnson made a lot of these European horror films and is probably best known for the 1979 gore classic "Zombie", but his performance here is excellent, as was most of his performances.

The Sinister Cinema edition is a two disc set which contains the full screen US version of the film and the beautiful wide screen Italian version with English subtitles. This is a film not to be missed by any Euro horror fan. The rest of the cast includes Edmund Purdom, Dana Ghia and Riccardo Garrone.

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