Wed 6 Apr 2016
A Horror Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: THE DEVIL’S MEN (1977).
Posted by Steve under Horror movies , Reviews[2] Comments
THE DEVIL’S MEN. Crown International, 1977. Released in English worldwide as Land of the Minotaur. Donald Pleasence, Peter Cushing, Luan Peters, Costa Skouras, Fernando Bislani, Anna Mantzourani. Director: Kostas Karagiannis.
Say what you will about the meandering plot and the sloppy editing, this one’s got atmosphere — creepy, breathtaking atmosphere. Filmed on location amongst ancient Greek ruins, The Devil’s Men aka Land of the Minotaur features Peter Cushing as Baron Corofax, a red robed Carpathian villain working on behalf of an ancient demonic force working through a fire breathing stone minotaur. Also on hand is Donald Pleasence as Father Roche, an Irish priest committed to fighting Satan.
Now if that’s not your idea of a ridiculously subpar, but nevertheless eminently enjoyable, 1970s exploitation thriller, I don’t know what to tell you. The dialogue, I admit, is laughable, and the plot unfolds haphazardly, with little rhyme or reason, often leaving the viewer in the dark as to whether what’s transpiring on screen is happening at all or just a reflection of the characters’ innermost fears.
And yet, I wanted to continue watching until the very end. Part of it, I admit, has to do with my sheer pleasure at seeing Cushing and Pleasence, two gentlemanly actors who gave horror films a sense of class that is sadly lacking in many films today. It’s also that the film, as I mentioned earlier, has so much atmosphere that it would have been a shame not to marvel at the ancient Greek ruins and to immerse myself visually in the dusty ruins of a long forgotten civilization.
April 6th, 2016 at 10:44 pm
Cushing and Pleasance don’t exactly save the film, I don’t think it could be saved exactly, but you are right they do keep it compulsively watchable. It reminded me of one of the lesser efforts from the Spicy Horror genre pulps where you keep turning the page even as you tell yourself what absolute twaddle it is and how you should be doing something else, anything else, more valuable.
Amazing how a real touch of class can elevate even something like this.
April 6th, 2016 at 11:39 pm
It’s always a pleasure to see Cushing in a movie and what could have been a completely forgettable and unwatchable 1970s horror film is a surprisingly enjoyable guilty pleasure. It’s not a good movie per se, but it’s captivating