The Devonsville Terror (1983)

Thanks for the memories!

good back-story, and good acting

As Good As It Gets

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

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.

This movie was nothing but feminist man-bashing from start to finish.Almost every misandric feminist cliché you could think of was in here. Every "independent" woman in the story becomes the target of the hatred of the men of Devonsville because she refuses to sleep with them. Every woman is an innocent lamb, trying to free herself from the shackles of servitude to her patriarchal oppressors in order to live a life of pure elation with her sisters, while nearly every man is a misogynist creep and potential rapist. The men deride the women who turn down their advances as lesbians. God, we are told, was a woman, until those nasty male supremacist monotheists came along and forced Judeo-Christianity on everyone. The witch hunts were carried out by cruel, sadistic men who had had their frail egos wounded by non-conformist women who wouldn't sleep with them.Interestingly, all this didn't stop the director from including several gratuitous shots of his wife's breasts. Before watching this, I had no idea that it was necessary to take one's shirt off to do past life regression. Sex sells everything, I guess, including feminist propaganda films.The movie had a rather different effect on me than what I imagine the writers intended, because I actually found myself cheering when the men tied the feminist radio talk show host to the back of a truck and dragged her to death.Bad acting and bad special effects throughout with an ending ripped-off from Raiders of the Lost Ark.About the only redeeming thing about this movie was that some of the outdoor photography was nice (though it might've been stock footage, for all I know).

Weak, ponderous cheap-jack horror by Ulli Lommel that never really gets going and ends up with so many holes, unexplained details that only confuse and make things plod from one disconnected scene to another. So many questions, very little answers. The sloppy execution doesn't fair up any better, but the decent concept was never entirely realised and given minor treatment. Gladly there's an unpleasant side cooking up some hokey low-budget make-up FX with icky and over-the-top side-effects. Add a dash of gratuitous topless nudity too. There's an effectively bloody gore scene or two (and laser eyes?!) at the end, but it's all soon but forgotten with an uninspired ending. Watch as an memorizing Donald Pleasance slums about in a role, which he spends most of the time picking out maggots from his arm (due to a witch's curse) or hypnotizing patients to recall those good old times of witch-burning in Devonsville to hopefully rid him of this curse. The obscure superstitious framework manages to paint all shades of greys and help settle in a disquieting atmospheric tone. The rural country setting oozes organic creepiness and an ominously crawling score is another added addition. The alluring Suzanna Love is nothing more than sound and others such as Robert Walker and Paul Wilson are droningly okay. Far from terrible, just unwarrantably stilted modern-day (although there's reminiscent flashbacks of the past that we learn that there just might be a little more to the new teacher in town) witchcraft nonsense.

Director Ulli Lommel co-writes this tale of a witch hunt in the Colonial town of Devonsville, with a history of executing three local women on accusation of witchcraft. A new school teacher and two other liberated and progressive young women arrive in town about the same time. Their arrival ignites memories of over zealous vigilantes with pitchforks and three gruesome executions. Paranoia catches like wildfire and hysterical townsfolk flirt with a more modern witch hunt. Dr. Warley(Donald Pleasence), a local historian conjugates an old witch's curse as he compares current mores with the past. Other players: Suzanna Love, Deanna Haas, Robert Walker Jr. and Mary Walden. This movie is not that hard to like; it just doesn't build very much excitement.