Il était une fois le diable

For anyone who feels that class and subtlety is an unavoidable facet of French cinema then this is the film for you! This no budget splatter movie is both incoherent and technically appalling in a combination that could almost be described as pretty impressive. The story (such as it is) has a demented Nazi uniform wearing, homicidal mutant - who looks like what you would get if you combined Leatherface with Frank Bough - roaming the countryside murdering anyone he encounters; add to that a pirate ship embedded in a cliff, a mummy, a possessed horse and a very evil cat. Its absolutely ridiculous from start to finish and concludes with a suitably biscuit-taking ending. On the one hand, it's utter rubbish of course, yet at the same time, it deliriously strange and relentlessly unpredictable. And it doesn't really resemble any other film I can think of at all, its a z-grade island all of its own in the cinematic pond. It's really entirely down to how high your tolerance is for severe levels of cut-rate psychotronic madness as to whether or not you are going to get anything out of watching this one.

Il était une fois le diable aka Devil Story made me laugh a few times. Yes, we get some gore too, but in no way I would call Devil Story a horror movie, it is rather a comedy with a few elements of horror. Anyway, the movie is a bad one, but some may still be entertained. Only recommended if you can cope with lots of trash and want to watch something absurd, grotesque and non-nonsensical. For the laughs, a rate of generous 3.

After watching this I wondered if the director had actually ever seen a film before. Because this seems to ignore any and all of the conventions of film making we've come to expect. Plot, character development, subtext, all are dashed against the rocks of chaos here.

The movie starts with a mutant dressed in Nazi attire madly tearing his way out of a tent. We then have a prolonged shot of the victim of the mutant bleeding on the ground. Then as the mutant storms of into the woods to kill some one else his foot gets caught on the tent rope and he scuffles with it. Was that intentional? I don't know but they left it in. That question "Was that intentional?" is something I found myself asking a lot throughout the entire movie.

This is one of those film that has to be seen to be believed. There's a demonic cat that lives in the mountains. There's an old witch that controls the Nazi mutant. There's an old man with a shotgun that seems to have an endless supply of bullets. There's an Egyptian mummy that comes out of an old galleon which is magically drawn from the inside of a mountain by a devil horse.

I Liked it. Despite hearing myself sighing throughout I would definitely watch it again.

Contrary to what my fellow IMDb reviewer Weirdling_Wolf writes, I believe that the French have given us plenty of decent horror films*, from B&W classic Les Diaboliques, to the dreamlike work of Jean Rollin, to zombie/action flick La Horde, to more contemporary shockers Inside and Martyrs. Devil Story isn't one of them though, being a strong contender for the strangest, if not worst, horror film ever made. This low budget crap-fest from director Bernard Launois is technically inept in almost every department and has a virtually non-existent plot, making it a must for fans of z-grade schlock.

The film opens with a grunting, snuffling facially disfigured man in an SS uniform killing several people with a knife and dumping their bodies down a well, before continuing his murderous spree with a shotgun. The action then cuts to a young married couple who experience car trouble during a storm and seek shelter at a stately home occupied by an old man and his wife. The lady of the house tells the visitors a story about a group of bandits who lured ships onto the rocks, and explains that their descendants still live in the area: the ugly monster from the opening scene and his mother.

During the night, the young woman decides to up and leave without her husband, but wishes she had stayed put when she runs into the hideous killer and his mum, who try to seal her in a tomb. She escapes, but runs into an Egyptian mummy and a zombie woman, who are also roaming the countryside. Meanwhile, the old man from the stately home is trying to shoot a very noisy horse with his shotgun.

Devil Story suffers from poor direction, choppy editing, amateurish make-up effects and lousy acting, but the worst thing about it is the soundtrack, with all sound effects at maximum volume and repeated incessantly: in addition to the constantly whinnying horse we also get a very vocal owl, and repetitive use of that old horror cliché Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 in a misguided attempt to add atmosphere. I reckon if anything is going to make you want to hit the stop button, it'll be that damn horse!

On the plus side, the gore effects, while not exactly special, are plentiful and fun, with quite a lot of spurting blood from wounds, the monster getting injured so that part of his scalp flaps around, and one really unconvincing but very messy moment when the mummy stomps on the man with the shotgun causing his guts to spill out.

2/10. It's film making at its most incompetent, but for a select few, Devil Story will prove every bit as entertaining as a Marvel blockbuster is for the masses.

*their music still sucks, though!

Again this is one of those movies that everybody wants to see but can't find. it is a french movie never released on DVD and only available on VHS copies. But still if you search The Web you will be able to find some copies. As I watched it I just didn't know what I have seen. Some parts are too long, some parts are gory, someparts are childish. For sure it's a extreme low budget flick, dubbed in English with Greek subs. it's still strange that most of the OOP's and well sought after movies are available in Greece on VHS dubbed English with the unremovable subs. That doesn't bother me, it's the movie that you want anyhow. The parts too long is the part with the cat. He still appears but nothing really happens during that time. The gory parts are the killings, it is a for a low budget and a flick of that era rather gory. The killing itself is mostly done off camera but the result is shown in all their glory. Childish for me was the mummy, anyway. And why that man is trying to shoot that horse and isn't able to do it is still an enigma. Also being made in France it's strange that their is no nudity involved. But still, when the movie starts you will keep watching, even the dull parts.