Capsules

CAPSULE: THE DEMONIACS (1974)

1 Comment

Les démoniaques; AKA Curse of the Living Dead

366 Weird Movies may earn commissions from purchases made through product links.

DIRECTED BY:

FEATURING: John Rico, Joëlle Coeur, Lieva Lone, Patricia Hermenier

PLOT: A crew of “wreckers” rape and apparently kill two female shipwreck survivors, but the two girls seek revenge with the help of the evil spirits who live in nearby ruins.

Still from The Demoniacs (1974)

WHY IT WON’T MAKE THE LIST: Jean Rollin expands his narrow directorial palette slightly with The Demoniacs, moving away from his usual vampires and stepping out of his musty old castles for the fresh air of the seashore. The film doesn’t do enough to distinguish itself from the usual Rollin romp, however, and despite the pirate spice the result in a fairly typical film that exhibits all the artsploitation auteur’s usual virtues (visuals and atmosphere) and vices (pacing and continuity).

COMMENTS: The Demoniacs explores a new aesthetic for Jean Rollin, one that I’d dub “beach Gothic”: there are scenes set in a ship cemetery, a battered girl in a nightgown crawling along the shoreline past a congregation of carefully arranged crabs, and a pirate’s tavern decorated with bat wings and death’s heads. The villains of the piece are a quartet of sinister salts called “wreckers” who scheme to lure ships onto the shallow reefs of their island home at night, then salvage the loot that washes up onshore. On the night this tale begins, the crew is rooting through their latest catch when two beautiful young blonde girls in pristine white nightgowns stride out of the sea, looking as if they’re walking on water. True to their corrupt natures, the pirates’ response to this eerie and angelic vision is to rape the two innocent survivors, brutally beat them, and leave them for dead. (The rape scene is overlong, and somehow seems even more unpleasant and perverted because the abuse is so badly choreographed). Whether the girls were killed or not remains ambiguous; later, the Captain sees visions of them in a drunken stupor and is convinced they’ve come back to haunt him, but a villager also spots the girls walking about. That sighting leads the wreckers to track the fugitives to a graveyard of shipwrecks—an amazing location, although the most suspenseful question arising in the chase is whether the busty female brigand’s impractical bodice will be able to contain her heaving bosoms during the ensuing three-way gal slap fight. The girls flee into the “cursed ruins” where even the wreckers fear to follow; there, they are met by an orange-haired female clown (!) who introduces the suddenly mute cuties to a sleeping evil who promises to give them a chance at revenge. This sets up a third act with a resolution that’s bewildering even by Rollin’s nonlinear standards. Along the way we get a psychic brothel proprietress, bloodless pigeon heads, and macabre background details like the cheerful noose that hangs over the Captain’s bed as a decoration. One of the film’s biggest assets is Joëlle Coeur as the wanton female wrecker; she’s one in a long line of remarkably beautiful and uninhibited leading ladies Rollin managed to dig up. She’s tempting, she’s perverse, and she’s hard to take your eyes off of whenever she’s onscreen.

After you’ve seen several of them, Rollin’s 1970s movies start to blur together; they become almost interchangeable, like hazy fragments from an uneasy night of nightmares, so that one’s preference for one over another is based on subtle and almost arbitrary criteria. I consider this one of his better efforts, but newcomers will take a while to adjust to the slow pace (it seems like the Captain even gropes his mistress in slow motion). Rollin’s vampire movies may be a better place to start, since the familiar bloodsucker lore provides the viewer with something of a safety net when logic leaves them hanging.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“For all its dreamlike Rollinesque tendencies ‘Les Demoniaques’ is actually a solid and entertaining (if somewhat lackluster) viewing experience. The premise is handled well and the narrative is welcomingly coherent; Rollin’s direction is pretty much faultless throughout and the cast cackle their way through the script in fine fashion (with as ever much topless shenanigans on show to keep art house fans discreetly aroused)…”–Alan Simpson, SexGoreMutants.com (DVD)

The Demoniacs (US Limited Edition) [4K UHD]

The Demoniacs (US Limited Edition) [4K UHD]
  • The Demoniacs (US Limited Edition)
Check Price
Top 10 Lists - Guest Experts

DENNIS SCHWARTZ’ TOP 10 WEIRD MOVIES

2 Comments

Dennis Schwartz is editor of the Vermont based film magazine “Ozus’s World Movie Reviews.” He has been a prolific online movie reviewer since 1998, also contributing to publications all over the globe and maintaining an active website–where it’s not uncommon for him to review 365 films a year. In his other life he was a poet, teacher, restaurant owner, wanderer and follower of Tibetan Buddhism (where he studied with Lama Govinda and lived in Kasa Devi, India).The first film he saw as a child, Bob Hope’s Paleface, left a hunger for films that has not been sated with all the passing years. The critic who influenced him the most was Walter Benjamin, not a film critic but one of the truly great literary critics of the 20th century. The lesson to be learned from him and other serious critics is that all true art is subversive and unsettling.

Dennis has kindly supplied 366 Weird Movies with his personal Top 10 Weird Movies list.

1. The Dybbuk (1937, d. Michal Waszynski). One of the most interesting Yiddish films ever made. It was made at the time the Nazis were going into their ‘Final Solution’ plans and were publicly blaming the Jews for all their troubles. Sholem Anskil’s folk tale of a disembodied spirit who possesses the body of the woman he is about to wed serves as the theme. What is eerie, even as the irrational is presented onscreen, is the evil that lurks for the actors and audience, as the incomprehensible is soon to descend on them in the form of a Holocaust. Also, the film’s “Dance of Death” scene has become a legendary one. [full review].

2. The Killing Kind (1973, d. Curtis Harrington). The sullen 21-year-old Terry (John Savage) is released from the slammer after serving a two year sentence for raping a teen named Tina (Sue Bernard) under the pier and moves back in with his former dancer mom, Thelma (Ann Sothern), who suffocates him with overprotective love. What’s there not to like about this perverse cult horror pic helmed with a tongue-in-cheek black humor by Curtis Harrington (Ruby/Night Tide/The Dead Don’t Die)? This obscure pic is one of those treasures that few have seen due to the studio’s unwillingness to promote a film it didn’t understand, as it had only a short theatrical run and for many years was unavailable on DVD. It’s one of Harrington’s best films. Writers Tony Chechales and George Edwards keep it a wacko mix of psychological suspense with large dabs of sleaziness, in a script that strays dangerously close to going overboard on camp. [full review]

3. The Last Bolshevik (1993, d. ): Noted French filmmaker and essayist Chris Continue reading DENNIS SCHWARTZ’ TOP 10 WEIRD MOVIES →

Miscellanea

WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE

Leave a comment

Next week, film critic Dennis Schwartz will bring us a very outside-the-box and obscure list of top 10 weird films. Meanwhile, we’ll continue our own survey of weird movies with continuing coverage of Redemption’s massive 2012 drop with a look at the “beach Gothic” horror The Demoniacs (1974). We’ll also  into the reader-suggested review queue for a peek at Jan Svankmajer‘s twisted folktale Little Otik (2001), and finish up the week with ‘s cult classic Poverty Row noir Detour (1945).

Despite rocketing Google traffic on the site, it was a poor week for weird search terms. We will award a special “lifetime achievement in weird searching” award to the guy who continues to look for “movie where kids where salves of senor”: after searching for this alleged movie for weeks on end, he gave up the hunt months ago, but his curiosity got the best of him and he’s back at it. In more recent news, we hate to think what the fellow looking for “to lock a porno with grandmother” was really after (to lick a porno with grandmother? To like a porno with grandmother?)—and we really don’t want to find out. And we’ll mention a couple of more comprehensible, but still quite weird, search terms in our survey of this week’s honorable mentions: “why old women should be killed videos” and “woman sitting on a midget.” Taking pride of place in a weak field is the search to find a “lesbian witch which goes crazy after being dumped animal head masks on a secrat colt movie mustry murder.” If you find it, let us know; we’re always curious to check out lesbian witch murder movies, but the animal head masks on a secret colt puts it over the edge.

Here’s how the ridiculously-long-and-ever-growing reader-suggested review queue stands: Little Otik (next week); The Hour-glass Sanatorium [Saanatorium pod klepsidra] (out of print in Region 1, but we’ll keep looking); Liquid Sky (re-review); Society; Final Programme; Sweet Movie; Continue reading WHAT’S IN THE PIPELINE →

Miscellanea

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 9/14/2012

Leave a comment

Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs, and on more distant horizons…

Trailers of new release movies are generally available on the official site links.

SCREENINGS (Weds., Sep. 19, Nationwide):

The Birds (1963): Although it’s known today mostly as the inspiration for James Ngyuen’s Birdemic, this Alfred Hitchcock movie about a series of relentless and unmotivated attacks by our fine feathered friends is sort of strange, when you stop and think about it. Universal has restored Hitch’s avian classic has been restored and will show it in theaters for one night only. Check with Fathom Events to see if it’s playing near you.

FILM FESTIVALS (Cambridge Film Festival, Sep. 13-23, Cambridge, UK):

One of the, if not the, largest film events in the United Kingdom, the Cambridge Film Festival hosts the British debut for a wide range of films—including, naturally, some weird ones that sneak by the screeners.

  • Holy Motors – A mysterious man named Monsieur Oscar drives through Paris one night, cycling through various personas. From too-infrequently seen director , and with an exciting cast mixing fresh faces with weird movie vets: , Edith Scob, , Eva Mendes… Screening Sep. 23.
  • The Night Elvis Died – The story of an amnesiac man and a woman putting on a troubled production of a Passion Play surreally collide; part of a series spotlighting Catalan-language films. Sep. 18.
  • Postcards from the Zoo – Indonesian film about a young woman raised in a magical realist zoo and what happens when she journeys into our drab world. Sep. 15 & 17.
  • Savage Witches – Two teenage girls romp about an experimental film landscape in a feature that unashamedly references the anarchic Daisies in a modern context; from Daniel Fawcett and Clara Pais, who provided 366 Weird Movies with their top 10 weird movies list. Sep. 21.
  • Tony 10 – When a Tony’s parents file for divorce and his father is suddenly promoted from a crane operator to Secretary of State, the young boy puts two and two together and realizes his dad has been having an affair with the Queen. Sep. 22.
  • V.O.S. – A film-within-a-film meta-romantic comedy that follows the love lives of the characters in a movie and of the actors playing the parts; it’s said to be Charlie Kaufman-esque. Sep. 15.
  • Warsaw Bridge (1990) – Director Pere Portabella won’t release his films on video, so this may be your only chance to see this surrealist joke set at a literary cocktail party. Sep. 16 & 21.

Cambridge Film Festival home page.

NEW ON DVD:

Beyond the Black Rainbow (2011): Surrealist sci-fi in a midnight movie vein about a mute woman trying to escape from a mysterious enclave. One of the most anticipated weird releases of the year. Buy Beyond the Black Rainbow.

Dead Soon [AKA The Fugue] (2012): A woman loses her mind after being attacked near an abandoned well in this psychothriller cheapie. The name was changed from obscure to generic for the DVD release. Buy Dead Soon.

“Heroes of Horror”: This Pop Flix public domain collection features four movies alongside three from Boris Karloff. One movie is actually worth seeing (1932’s White Zombie); the others are Bowery at Midnight, The Invisible Ghost, Spooks Run Wild, Snake People, Island Monster, and The Terror. Buy “Heroes of Horror”.

Karate-Robo Zaborgar (2011): Based on a Japanese TV show from the Seventies, the story features a karate robot fighting a crime syndicate. This is only the sixth feature film has directed in the past two years, but there’s still more than three months left in 2012. Buy Karate-Robo Zaborgar.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Beyond the Black Rainbow (2011): See description in DVD above. Buy Beyond the Black Rainbow [Blu-ray].

Karate-Robo Zaborgar (2011): See description in DVD above. Buy Karate-Robo Zaborgar [Blu-ray].

Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988): Read our capsule review. The popular spoof finally makes it to Blu-ray. Buy Killer Klowns From Outer Space [Blu-ray].

The Ring (2002):  starred in this Hollywood remake of the Asian chiller Ringu, about a mysterious killer videotape. Its success set off a wave of Americanized remakes of J-horror classics; but, this was the only one that was anywhere close to being good. Buy The Ring [Blu-ray].

Texas Rangers (2001)/Dead Man (1995): Read the Certified Weird entry for Dead Man. Bargain label Echo Bridge has bought up and bundled major studio back catalog releases in themed twin packs to double their saleability of marginal titles; it’s sad to see Jim Jarmusch‘s magical, mystical Western placed on a double bill with a flop “young gun” oater. Buy Texas Rangers/Dead Man [Blu-ray].

FREE (LEGITIMATE RELEASE) MOVIES ON YOUTUBE:

Cinderella 2000 (1977): It’s the future (2000!) and Big Brother has outlawed sex in this Seventies softcore porn/sci-fi/comedy/musical, served up Al Adamson (Dracula vs. Frankenstein) style. Watch for the scene where a fairy turns two bunnies into early proponents of furry fandom. Painfully weird. Watch Cinderella 2000 free on YouTube.

What are you looking forward to? If you have any weird movie leads that I have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS section.

Celebrating the cinematically surreal, bizarre, cult, oddball, fantastique, strange, psychedelic, and the just plain WEIRD!