Rating: 2/5
Hooptober 2.0 | 31/31 | Tobe Hooper
The camera descends into a dungeon. Men in chains and cages listen to the sounds of whips stinging flesh. One onlooker whips himself alongside each strike. We find the Marquis De Sade in the throes of passion as the whip hits him. He’s not supposed to be enjoying it. He suggests soaking the whip in vinegar. I guess they take a dropper of vinegar to one of his eyes, blinding that eye, and that finally stops him.
Duvall tries to mock Sade, but Sade torments him and performs some ritual that drives Duvall to pull his eyes out of their sockets. Sade paces about, rambling to a portrait of Madame de Beaumont, the woman who had him thrown in prison.
Alexandria 1993 Bob Mattison weaves through an airport, running into Sabina. She hints at a past where Bob liked to be tied up, but Bob dismisses her as his daughter, Genie, arrives. That night, Bob prays over the meal while Genie watches. Bob’s maidservant, Fatima, serves them food. Bob discusses his work as a Christian archeologist and the big discovery of a Gnostic site — the first to be located.
They thought Christ was a spirit being, and that God and Satan were one.
The following day, Genie’s friend Beth arrives and they make plans to go to the races. Genie wanders through a Cairo market. Sabina watches her from a distance. Some men crowd around Genie. She runs into an alley, but they catch up with her. They molest her until Sabina scares them off.
Sabina drives Genie to her house, an elaborate mansion. On her porch is a portrait of Madame de Beaumont, surrounded by books and Egyptian ornaments. Sabina gives Genie a copy of the Philosophy in the Bedroom. When Sabina drops Genie off at home, Bob warns Genie about Sabina. But Genie ignores Bob’s warnings and allows Sabina to pull her deeper into her world.
Yoram Globus, head of Cannon Films, read a script his son, Rom Globus, wrote. Yoram tried to get Warner Brothers to make it, but Warner Brothers hated the script. Instead, Warner Brothers handed off a script to Rom that they were getting ready to make. They wanted Rom to rewrite it, but stick to the original concept: Egypt, a young girl losing her innocence, and Marquis De Sade.
Rom took the script to Daniel Matmor, who agreed to help him despite the three-week deadline they had. As they finished pages, a courier for the department heads would photocopy them and send them off so the other departments knew what to build.
Robert Englund had already signed onto the project to play Marquis De Sade when Gerry O’Hara was to direct. But once O’Hara saw the original script, he jumped ship. As the script changed, Englund wasn’t happy with the new direction. So, to appease their only big name, the producers asked Tobe Hooper. Hooper was already in an awful place, career-wise, but he liked the idea of doing something with De Sade and wanted to make something in the vein of Ken Russell.
Like much of Hooper’s work from this era, the film is fascinating but messy. It has some of the sleaze hinted at in Lifeforce, indulging in sex scene after sex scene, chasing that Ken Russell hypnotism. Genie, as she reads De Sade, enters a fantasy world. Soon, that world takes on nightmarish qualities, and the barrier between it and reality blurs. I guess these are the titular night terrors.
The film is ambitious, but boy does it fizzle out. It isn’t horror until, like, one hour in. The 90s were wild, man.