Cataclysm (1980)

Have you ever seen Night Train to Terror and wondered — what would one of that film's portmanteau sequences be like if they were expanded to an entire movie? Good news! Well, maybe. Your wishes have come true.The final story of Night Train, "The Case of Claire Hansen", was really a film called The Nightmare Never Ends (alternatively known as Cataclysm and Satan's Supper). It boasts three directors. Amazingly, it was written by Philip Yordan, who not only won the Academy Award for Broken Lance in 1954, but also provided a front for blacklisted Hollywood writers (he was Bernard Gordon's front for The Day of the Triffids)!This is my favorite of all kinds of movies — a film I discover at 5 AM when the rest of the world is asleep and wonder if it can really be true and if I am not still asleep. To say that this is a batshit insane film is to do a disservice to the phrase batshit insane. I feel ill-prepared to share it's wonder with you, but I'm sure going to try.There are two stories going on here:Nobel Prize-winning author James Hansen (Richard Moll of TV's Night Court and House) and his devoutly Catholic wife Claire (who is a surgeon, which totally comes into play later) decide to go to Vegas to both celebrate James' new book and to get away from Claire's nightmares. Wondering what James won the Nobel Prize for? He wrote a book that proved that God is dead. Now, he's planning a TV special to tell the whole story to the whole world (he's preaching the bad news!). Well, alright. And that Claire — seems that she's been dreaming about volcanoes. They decide to go see a magician, who puts Claire into a trance in seconds.That's when we learn the real secret of what has been bothering Claire — Nazis! She dreams of a handsome young officer who kills a room of other officers and an all-female string orchestra. After the show, Claire invites him to dinner after he tells her that a demon is after her. He never makes it — he is killed and a 666 tattoo is left on his scalp.Remember when I said there was a second story?Mr. Weiss is super old and out of it, but totally recognizes a Nazi when he sees one. Pretty and rich Olivier is being interviewed during the intermission of the New York Ballet and he looks exactly like the Nazi officer who killed Weiss' parents at Auschwitz (and he's also the Nazi from Claire's dream). Weiss is a Nazi hunter, believe it or not, and he calls in his neighbor Lieutenant Stern (Cameron Mitchell, who has been in more movies than there have been movies, but let's call out Blood and Black Lace as one of the best of his films). They go to the ballet and follow Olivier to his extravagant mansion, all the while Stern tries to convince the old man that this cannot be the man who tormented his childhood. Weiss grabs his Luger and goes to kill Olivier, but an unseen demon kills him and leaves a 666 on his body.Read more at http://bit.ly/2yHqE9E

Another title I was first introduced to as part of Night Train To Terror, this film, on its own, doesn't stand up as well as far as unintended humour, or just being a good movie. Released under a variety of different titles: Cataclysm, Satan's Supper, and The Nightmare Never Ends, none of which have anything to do with the film itself. This review based on the 88-minutes long version titled The Nightmare Never Ends. In the first scene, Claire Hanson, wakes up startled after dreaming of volcanic lava, then decides to go for a scenic drive with hubby, James Hansen (Richard Moll). Moll's character is a sort of hybrid of Anton LeVay and Freidrich Nietzsche, who is promoting a book titled 'God is Dead', with ridiculous dyed grey sideburns, his voice occasionally badly dubbed, and wearing an ill-fitted suit (although, being 6'8" tall, one supposes it is difficult to find suits which really fit well) Whilst under hypnosis, Claire Hanson recalls Nazi parties from the 1930s. An old man believes that a young man is the same Nazi who killed his family 35 years earlier, in 1944. The old man isn't believed by the police and goes after him himself, and is then killed by some fanged demon who blows a hole in his chest. Investigation of his murder leads nowhere, but the end of the set is clearly visible in this scene, as are the camera's own dolly tracks. The body is autopsied by Claire Hanson, who continues having nightmares and see demons, and it is revealed that the young man is Satan, who has remained eternally young and killed people for centuries. Here, the devil looks like the guy from KC And The Sunshine Band, with feathered hair and painted-on eyebrows that take up half of his forehead. His goal is not made clear in this confusing and dramatically awkward film, awkward in that Moll's lead character is killed off 25 minutes before the end of the movie. Also odd is that some of the best effects seemed to have been edited out and included in the anthology Night Train To Terror. Occasionally interesting set designs and lighting, but that can't compensate for such a weird story, with such an awful ending.

This ''film'' is seemingly a collection of unrelated scenes strung together by three different directors who must have hated each other and the business of film-making . Faith Clift the lead actress looks and acts like a dead zombie who's been lobotomized and then drugged , Charles (Richard) Moll , with the ever changing wigs looks and sounds lost , Marc Lawerence in a dual role is horrible in both ''roles'' and finally Robert Bristol the prissy Satan rep on earth is about as scary as whipped cream . The nightmare however does end , but only after you've suffered a wasted 70 or so mins of this mess .Fans of bad films will enjoy this , it could also be used as an example of how not to make a film .

Found this at the grocery store on a 2 movie DVD for a buck! Almost no one in this stinker can act, especially Faith Clift. Noticed there were 3 directors! Explains a lot. This was filmed at the beginning of the 1980's; so, a couple of scenes are filmed in an "evil" disco which seems to be owned by Olivier, a demon/devil/servant of the devil . . . who knows what he is? Never was quite clear about what this film was about. A few good scares and camera shots. Richard Moll appears to have significant greying on his temples in some scenes, and jet black hair in others. Some out-of-date references to energy conservation: so 70's. The whole "God is dead" thing was so 1960's--and, certainly a dead issue by 1980. Series of inexplicable scenes; never explained or tied into anything else. Did I mention Faith Clift couldn't act? The film has something to do with Satan's wish to recruit her character's husband, while a number of people get in the way. Knuckleheads. But, other scenes make it appear that the devil is after Faith herself. What do you expect for 50 cents?