The Devonsville Terror (1983)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

In 1980, movie maker Ulli Lommel made an impression with audiences thanks to his movie "The Boogeyman", but in subsequent years his films slowly became unwatchable. Though "The Devonsville Terror" was made just three years later, already Lommel's inability to even get remotely close to his earlier success was evident. I admit it's not among the worst of Lommel's movies. Lommel does manage to generate a little atmosphere - you really feel the cold and isolation of this small town. And the opening sequence is okay. But after that opening sequence is over, viewers will have to suffer through the next sixty or so minutes with practically NOTHING of significance or importance happening. Eventually things do start moving a little again, but as it turns out, this last part of the movie is too little and too late. By the way, if you are thinking of watching this movie because Donald Pleasence is in it, be warned - it's clear that his limited footage (with all of his scenes taking place in the same location) was knocked off in just one or two days of shooting.

Three women are killed, by pigs, a burning wagon wheel, and a burning at the stake, for witchcraft. Whether they were really witches or not is not clear, though as I've read someone else point out: there is a curse on the Doctor's family that appears to be real.The Doctor, played by Donald Pleasance, has maggots poking out of his skin that he plucks out with tweezers. He continues to practice even though this doesn't seem very hygienic. He'd like to end the curse (understandably), but it's unclear what he does towards that end. He hypnotizes some people so that they remember their past lives, or their ancestors' lives, or maybe he's implanting suggestions.Three women arrive in town about simultaneously: a radio host, an environmentalist, and a school teacher. The townspeople mostly don't like them, and begin to think they are witches, partly misunderstanding the women, partly making up lies about them.There are some good scenes, and while a bit slow, its main fault seems to be holes in the story. There's a lot of information missing that is not of the sort that can be left as mysteries.There's a really terrible demon or devil face that appears a few times. It looks sort of like what Bill Paxton's character turns into in Weird Science. There's also some bad voice-over at the beginning and end that is evidently supposed to be by the Doctor (Donald Pleasance), but sounds more like Kiefer Sutherland (who is not in the movie).

Ulli Lommel's Devonsville Terror(1983) is a good modern day horror tale about witchcraft and a town's dark past coming back for revenge. Sadly for the people of Devonsville, history does repeat itself. Three woman are drawn to this cow town for unknown reasons. One of them is a school teacher (Suzanna Love, despite her short ugly haircut still looks hot). The women's reaction towards the sleazy male town folk doesn't earn them any points, causing them to raise suspicion amongst them (like that squirly shop keeper had any chance with Suzanna Love!). That's when the fun begins. This movie is one of those "you either love it or hate it" types. There is no fine line with this one. Recommended (depending on your taste of movies). Ms. Love co-wrote and produced as well.P.S. This movie has some nice gory set pieces.

One of the biggest problems I have with this film - apart from the fact that it actually exists - is that, in the hands of finer craftsmen and with a stronger budget, it could have been quite good. The premise, while familiar, could have been put to good effect: an accused witch's curse comes back to haunt the people of a small New England hamlet 300 years after she was wrongfully burnt at the stake. Ultimately however, 'The Devonsville Terror' just lays down and dies quite quickly, offering no suspense or horror whatsoever outside of a cheap play at being a bad exploitation film here and there (at the beginning and again at the end, where almost the same things happen) with a minorly repulsive 'shock' somewhere in the middle. The film is so cheap the producers don't seem to have even been able to afford to pay more than one of the female actors to go topless, blowing the budget instead on pulling unconvincing maggot stunts and a laughable torn by dogs sequence, stealing the melting head scene from 'Raiders of the Lost Ark', having a ghostly, horribly burnt face with a full head of hair float around and making the heroine shoot laser beams out of her eyes! An unintentional murder apparently releases the vengeful spirits of three women brutalised hundreds of years before; the superstituous, horribly-cliched small town hicks naturally think the spirits have taken possession of three female outsiders: a radio broadcaster, an environmentalist and the newly-appointed school teacher who hitch-hikes into town and falls foul of the townsfolk by telling her pupils that the Babylonian chief god was a woman. Eventually, after some extended film time where nothing very interesting happens, the locals decide to do them in. All the while the village doctor is trying to purge Devonsville of its curse by exposing his patients to seemingly meaningless hypnotherapy that exists only to allow more lame scenes of women being victimised. Apart from a rather nasty scene where one poor girl is dragged to death behind a pick-up, it would all be quite appalling if it wasn't so half-baked. Because it is, it's appalling for very different reasons.