Films That Witness Madness

review

DEVILS OF DARKNESS

What positive things can I say about Devils Of Darkness? It is very hard to come up with good things to say about a bad vampire movie that includes stereotypical devil worshipping acolytes who will do anything for their master. Don't get me wrong, I love it when horror films are cheesy; however, this movie uses every gimmick available to create something that ends up being a very cliched piece of work.

An evil vampire by the name of Count Sinistre (Hubert Noel) breaks free from his tomb and creates havoc in the town of Pelak in Brittany. He kills a few people and then takes his newly created bride, Tania (Carole Gray), over to England to have some more fun. Paul (William Sylvester), an American tourist in Brittany who happened to witness some of the mayhem, is convinced that evil is afoot and investigates the matter when he returns to England. During this time Paul meets a love interest named Karen (Tracy Reed), who then gets kidnapped by the Count because Paul has a bat talisman that he would like returned. Will Paul discover what is truly happening in time to save Karen

This film is astoundingly bad and put together in a haphazard way. Instead of being an interesting tale of the occult, it plays like a melodrama written by a film school dropout. I want to like this film, I really do, but I just can't when it is ripe with so many cliches, Take for instance the name of the Count: Sinistre. I guess the writer thinks that going about killing people doesn't give the Count a bad enough reputation, so he has to make sure that we know that he is evil. Then there is an old Gypsy woman that tells Paul's friend Anne (Rona Anderson) that some evil is going to befall her. Gee, thanks for setting up her death and wrapping it up with a nice pink bow! The worst part of all is the whole vampire cult thing. We haven't seen that one before, have we folks? Kiss Of The Vampire, which was released by Hammer Productions a few years before this, has similar plot elements and even a character who is also named Tania. Go figure.

The biggest problem is the plot. One moment Paul is in Brittany and the next he is in England. It's like a black hole swallowed him up in France and spit him out somewhere else. Then there is poor Tania. One moment she is the Coun'’s wife, and then suddenly she is cast aside in favor of Karen. Now, that wouldn't be a problem if it wasn’t for the fact that the Count then turns around and wants to sacrifice Karen to the Devil. Make up your mind Sinistre, you either want to molest Karen or you want to kill her! I could go on but I don't want to torture you any further.

This film's look and feel comes across as an amateur attempt at making a Hammer film. This makes sense since a lot of British filmmakers were attempting to do just that during this time. Director Lance Comfort doesn't bring anything new to the table, except for a skillfully done superimposed image near the beginning of the film. The cave scenes, in particular, look very cheap and some of the costumes are beyond tacky.

Lyn Fairhurst, the writer of this sorry tale, does a really bad job in terms of setting up suspense and terror; there is none to speak of. One of his creations, Madeline (Diana Decker), has got to be the most annoying woman brought to life in a horror film that I have seen in a long time. The only thing redeeming about his script is that some of the dialogue between Karen and Paul is witty.

Most of the actors in this movie do only an adequate job. Nobody really seems to give it their all and Decker plays Madeline like a wannabe hipster on little red pills. The only person that looks familiar to me is Hubert Noel, who is a character actor.

There is a difference between cheesy horror films that work, and cheesy horror films that fail miserably. Devils Of Darkness belongs in the latter category and should be avoided at all costs.

1 1/2 out of 5 pints of blood

- Hammer Fangirl

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