The Nightmare Never Ends is another horror film which riffed off the success of the major blockbuster The Omen (1976). Rather than have an evil child, in this one Satan is an ageless, rather smug looking young man who has taken on various guises throughout the ages in which he has exerted his evil onto mankind. In a recent period of his life he was a sadistic Nazi camp commandant. An elderly man who escaped his clutches during the war recognises him and alerts the police who then tie this character in with a series of unexplained murders.The first time I encountered this one was when I saw the rather ropey anthology horror film Night Train to Terror (1985). That movie had three segments which contained material from unreleased or barely released past movies. The Nightmare Never Ends constituted the latter category as it does seem to have been distributed as it was definitely available in the UK on home video under the title Cataclysm in the early 80's. It has a couple of old hands starring as a pair of grizzled detectives, namely Cameron Mitchell and Marc Lawrence. By this point in their careers these guys were well and truly b-movie regulars, with Mitchell in particular a familiar face to anyone at all well versed in low budget genre films from this period. The film itself is certainly no classic but it succeeded in entertaining me anyway. Its combination of Satanism, Nazis and b-movie cheese was a combination which essentially delivered enough fun, for me at any rate.

Devout Catholic (Clift) is thrust into a good vs evil battle of biblical proportions when her husband (Moll) publishes a controversial tome denying the existence of God, resulting in the Devil incarnate (Bristol) seizing the moment to rise against mankind. I've seen this film re-worked into the "Night Train to Terror" anthology, and that preview-style showcase is more than sufficient to convey the gist; in fact, seeing the entire movie adds virtually nothing at all new.Poorly constructed, each scene just seems to happen, without the connective tissue explaining its context, often just a random event without proper explanation (continuity is also dubious). Mitchell, Lawrence (who play detectives) and Moll provide some familiar comfort, but their presence can't redeem this farce from its own fiery pit of hell. Epic screen-writer Philip Yordan's wife Faith Clift is a total non-actress, her delivery of the dialogue so stunted and unnatural, it almost seems incredulous she could have appeared in other films (though on closer inspection, most attribute husband Yordan a producer credit).I won't label it awful (some of the set design and make-up effects are okay, and there's a neat little twist at the end), but it's painfully close to being an unwatchable turkey.

This is a lost jewel with a good storyline, but suffers from low production costs. Mitchell provided decent acting. The climax scene although it's bad editing, has a great ending. The actor's scream is great and haunting. Some interesting visuals, great effects one can could with "technocolor" process or flood lights. This film is definitely could inspiring for independent horror genre filmmakers and fanatics.ISpoilers: hand coming out of closet is classic, a cheap trick, but works! It becomes silly and reveal of foot as a goat's hoof, great stuff. This could be reworked into an interesting art house film. Fans of this genre should appreciate the visual antics and ending

This film has good intentions. There is something lacking, but I't hard to put one's finger on it. This tells the tale of a Satanic figure who passes through time by recreating himself. An Nobel author, played by Richard Moll, Bull from "Night Court" of all people, has written a kind of Scientology book about God being dead. It has received much attention and he becomes of interest to the Satanic figure. The movie starts out with a Nazi hunter engaging the police to help him capture the man who was responsible for the deaths of his family members during the Holocaust. The thing that is always in the way is that if Satan is so powerful, why does he need to do much of anything. If there are people who threaten him (which they obviously can't), why doesn't he just kill them outright. I know he is searching for souls and all that, but his invulnerability makes him relatively uninteresting in this film. He does some things that don't make much sense in the world of the film. The ending is kind of fun, I guess.