Enter the Devil

A woman doing research for her in-progress reference book on cults of the world ends up in a rural Southwestern U.S. dust-bowl where, ironically enough, an extremist offshoot of the Christian faith has been busy with their human-sacrificing rituals.

ENTER THE DEVIL, believe it or not, is an immeasurably more professional item than you will generally find within the ambit of early 70s drive-in horror. The Something Weird video release I viewed is sourced from a terribly worn print...it looks like snow flurries on the screen through nearly the entire movie. Still, that may well be the only way we can currently enjoy this suspenseful little rarity, which sort of plays like a mixture of RACE WITH THE DEVIL and THE LAST PICTURE SHOW.

The arid desert location filming brings a unique, lost and lonely atmosphere to the proceedings which are, at times, rather uneventful...still, this is a surprisingly well-made lower-berth picture which deserves a look(and, hopefully, a better looking print).

5.5/10

This film begins with a man named "Ozzie Perkins" (Happy Shahan) driving through an isolated part of Brewster County, Texas when his tire is shot by an unidentified man with a high-powered rifle which causes the car to veer off the road. Not realizing what exactly happened Ozzie gets out of the car and believing it was a simple blowout decides to walk along the deserted road in search of a gas station. It's during this time that he is offered a ride by a man in a pickup truck. What Ozzie doesn't count on is the fact that this man belongs to a Satanic cult and that he is about to be sacrificed that very night. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a solid, no-frills horror film which managed to keep the mystery going up until the very end. On the flip side, however, it could have used a bit more suspence or horror but that's just my opinion. In any case, while definitely not a great horror film by any means it was good enough for the time spent and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Back in the early 70's when Charlie Manson and chums had just killed the hippie era cultist horror was in vogue. Race With The Devil was probably the artistic high point of the genre,but obscurities like Enter The Devil and Blood Sabbath are arguably of more generic interest to geeks like myself, dwelling more on the aesthetic aspects of crazy cults. There's a lot of aesthetic and thematic potential in the whole cult set up, hoods and robes, chanting, obscure rituals and fires, then there's the whole issue of singularity of purpose and the subsumed individual, someone can be just about anything on the outside but when it comes to their cult affiliation they become just a piece of the one persona. Other films delve deeper into the themes, but Enter The Devil gets good mileage out of the aesthetic and smartly sets things in the eerie isolation of the New Mexico desert for greater effect. It's simple slow burning stuff for the most part, Deputy Sheriff Ozzie Perkins investigating a disappearance and finding that the plot thickens as he goes, there's a good dusty atmosphere and sense of nagging unease punctuated by short sharp shocks, then things rev up with a nail biting two punch driving the film into its final block. There are clichés at hand, like Mexicans being either goofy or feisty, white guys being mostly horny and bigoted and the female lead being largely ineffectual, but somehow the character interactions work nicely, building up a solid feel of place and time both compelling and gently unsettling. The generally likable acting helps, beautiful Leslie Culver is charming enough as the research professor on hand to explain things, Joshua Bryant a helpful and friendly motel owner and Happy Shahan gruff and decent as the Deputy Sheriff. They all gel pretty well, as do the other players, making the slower moments pretty pleasing and producing a quiet, mundane feel that renders the climax all the more effective. I don't know whether the print I saw was the cut US release that got a PG certificate and re-released on Something Weird DVDR or full length (I think it was a S. African VHS but the run time falls between the two listed on IMDb) but the big shock scene in this is marvellous stuff, not graphic but real mean spirited and unsettling, really blows you out of the comfort zone prior established. The actual climax has its problems, but its short and sweet and shouldn't deter anyone who has managed the rest. Little in the way of bloodshed or action but definitely a good 'un, well worth a look for 70's horror fans.

The best of this low-budget film is its scenery : the desert is an unusual place to celebrate some kind of (black) sabbaths which resemble a Christian procession of penitents that still takes place in Spain ; filmed at night ,holding their torches against a starless black sky ,it's rather impressive in an unpretentious small production ;so are the scenes with the sidewinders.

The female character ,a professor who studies ancient satanic rites on the Mexican border, is in it to provide the movie with a decorative victim;the sheriff is obsessed with the elections and his deputy has a crush on Mexican babes.The screenplay is basic ,to put it mildly.

The action of "Enter the Devil" takes place on a barren Texas wasteland dotted with dirty little towns and mercury mines.A red-robed Satanic cult is kidnapping unlucky victims and sacrificing them in the name of the Devil.Meanwhile a beautiful doctor Leslie Culver is researching the book about devilish cults."Enter the Devil" is a slow-moving and wonderfully dry horror movie set on the desert.There is a brilliantly conveyed aura of utter isolation that kept me intrigued.If you like strange horror/western hybrids give "Enter the Devil" a look.An obscurity that deserves to be seen and appreciated by countless fans of 70's horror.Enjoy your stay in Dry Lake.8 out of 10.