Devil Story / Il était une fois le diable (1985)
It’s not very often you run into a movie that is so epically terrible that you come away convinced it’s trying to destroy its entire genre. But then again, there aren’t any other films like Devil Story. The first (and only) horror film by a director who’d specialized in tacky comedies, Devil Story is so obvious and unapologetic in its shortcomings that it’s hard to believe it wasn’t made that way intentionally.
Director Bernard Launois’s occasional flashes of competence only make the situation worse. It’s been called the French Plan 9, but it’s really in a category all by itself.
Will Laughlin is the Braineater.
#1 by RogerBW on February 2, 2015 - 11:39 am
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There’s a pattern that sometimes shows up where a filmmaker or author who generally works in another field has contempt for a genre, reckons it’s all cheap rubbish and its audience are sheep, and knocks something off to make a quick buck without putting any effort into it. This sounds as if it might be related to that.
#2 by supersonic man on February 2, 2015 - 3:56 pm
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“a movie beside which Rollin’s Zombie Lake is Proust”… wow, that sounds worth seeing. But I have my own nominee for a French horror cheapie that fits that description: Rollin’s debut “feature”, Le Viol du Vampire. Have you seen that?
#3 by lyzard on February 3, 2015 - 10:48 pm
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…*cough*…
#4 by Mark on February 5, 2015 - 3:21 am
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“While the man works on the car (which for some reason has Florida license plates)”
The plates were probably there to suggest an American setting and make the film more interesting for overseas distributors. Amazingly enough, this appears to have worked rather well, Launois premiered the film in Cannes and managed to sell it in several territories.
#5 by ronald on February 5, 2015 - 8:50 am
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>>>As for the Mummy: sure, he does end up killing somebody who gets in his way. But that’s a character we were longing to see torn limb from limb anyway.
Sorry, but I must be missing something, because the review gives me no hint as to who that character would be.
>>>I have to wonder why the Girl suddenly takes it upon herself to do everything she can to stop him bringing his zombie girlfriend back to his sarcophagus
Maybe she’s some sort of Muffy-the-Mummy-Slayer type who thinks that anything that a Mummy is doing must, by definition, be evil.
#6 by Braineater on February 5, 2015 - 8:14 pm
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“Sorry, but I must be missing something, because the review gives me no hint as to who that character would be”
That was deliberate. I was trying to (ahem) preserve some of the mystery. Bur since you asked, it’s French Elmer Fudd, and the way the Mummy does it is unique: disemboweling by foot.
#7 by The Rev. on July 6, 2017 - 8:11 pm
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I stumbled upon this recently. Half the time I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, and the other half I couldn’t believe what I was seeing but was laughing too hard to care. I’m glad I found the repeated shots of that old guy trying to shoot the horse funnier each time, because otherwise I probably would have thrown something at the TV. I didn’t remember much of your review, which was good, since I could be amazed all over again. There were a few things, though, which I recalled, and which I can say I wholeheartedly agree with.
1. The cat is the best actor.
2. Pascal Simon was fun in his roles.
2. Véronique Renaud….yowza.
#8 by The Rev. on July 6, 2017 - 8:13 pm
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And now I have to add this:
4. I apparently can’t count to three.