Il était une fois le diable

A four out of ten (4/10) is a good score for a bad movie that while isn't actually bad enough to warn folks away from, it isn't good enough to risk your reputation by advocating it as better than average. That would actually be about the worst score you could give a movie like this -- average -- because it's one of those movies that will either tickle your geek nerve or rub you the wrong way. It is ineptly made, incoherently edited, aimlessly plotted, unconvincingly staged, lacking in subtext or any sense of meaningful artifice of film as a craft, and the special effects "suck". My favorite is when they show people up close bleeding to death and you can see the action of a hand pump shooting the fake blood everywhere.

And yet the movie nonetheless still has something going on in it that I didn't think the French were capable of, namely a sense of humor about how to make art -- this is one of the funniest horror movies I've yet encountered. The best scenes in the film involve airborne attacks by a flying demonic kitty. Then there is the guy in the zombie mask dressed in Boy George's old uniform, shuffling around the French countryside randomly killing people in brutal manners just for the hell of it, apparently. He uses a knife, a shotgun, and one of those spiked gloves they wore in MAD MAX that will split someone's head open like a grapefruit if you punch them hard enough. There is also a mummy, a possessed zombie babe who looks like Soiuxie of The Banshees fame, and a pretty blonde woman (Véronique Renaud in what was sadly her only screen appearance) running around in her underwear, a raincoat and Wellington boots; We need more of this in films today.

There is also a retired war hero of some sort wandering around with what appears to be the same shotgun the zombie guy has, an old hag of a witch who it turns out controls the zombie & is engaged in some kind of task to trap people in the ground, and finally the horse. The horse is perhaps the biggest mystery in the film, it's role within the context of the story is obviously allegorical rather than literal, but I'll be damned if I can figure out what the point of it was other than to allow the director to repeatedly use a sound clip of the horse whinnying. After about the three hundred and fifth whinny you too will wonder what is going on here if you have not already become annoyed & gotten on with your life. But stick with it, this one's worth the effort.

The film is an enigma: It makes no sense, and in that way is very French in nature. I like how it explores the most mundane, unremarkable locations in the French countryside, appearing to have been filmed for the most part on public land when nobody else was around. It was also made for about $25,000 if even by the looks of it, and is in fact SO low budget that a stage hand actually had to toss the demonic attack kitty through the air to simulate it's frenzied assaults. But they managed to find a nice French castle to film for some atmospheric exteriors (complete with ominously hilarious Bach organ music), the movie has a kind of nihilistic aura to it where everyone dies & evil prevails, and there's some genuinely "EWWW!" inducing gore as the zombie guy slowly gets shot to pieces, bleeds grape jelly from the mouth, and keeps right on a-shufflin.

In other words, if the movie had some random gratuitous nudity & the mummy shot laser beams out of it's eye sockets, this film would pretty much have it all. It's easily the most enjoyable horror romp to come out of France since ZOMBIE LAKE, which gets the poo-poo from purists just because Jean Rollin was too snooty to accept the fact that he actually made a movie that was FUN. This one is too, though it doesn't make any sense & probably wasn't meant to. You can do that sometimes in the movies and it isn't necessarily a bad thing.

4/10

French horror has given us some of the most elegant, most poetic horror in the genre. Franju, Rollin and others, they of tender velvet fingers to caress the soul. Devil Story is a long way away from them. A million blood spattered, brain curdled miles away in fact. Its plot seems less considered than the congealed vomit of an all night geek brainstorming session fuelled by counterfeit Gauloise and antifreeze laden plonk, its script a furied migraine ravaged dash to pull all together in time for filming. There's a deformed headcase in soldier gear who likes to kill everyone he meets, a horse that may be the devil, a creepy old lady, Gothic castle and more, and yet by some alchemy that surpasses even the most shredded synapses it all more or less holds together in the end. No doubt this alchemy plays significant role in making the film work, but much credit goes to the unrelenting attitude of director Bernard Launois on display (this is apparently his only horror but he should have made more). No matter what the absurdity, the film remains focused. Blood spray clearly from somebody pumping a tube? Keep the camera on it. Supposedly dead person clearly still breathing? Who cares? A mummy that appears wrapped in gauze rather than bandages and either has a codpiece or a big schlong? Artistic license! There's a fearless drive that renders all such silliness near irrelevant, and on occasions of an effectively gruesome effect the camera really lingers, the wounded don't get away with dignity here and it conveys a nice brutality. And altogether the no holds barred approach to plot and visuals pays off, however inept there's an aura of unhingement here that at times becomes really quite potent. Not quite as potent as Orgroff (its closest brother in French trash horror cinema), but much better ordered and marginally less inept, with technique that at times could pass for pretty much sane in a less demented product. Basically this is a film for select audiences, more or less just the hardiest of insane trash fiends. But for anyone dedicated enough to have read this far, this is a film for you. Find it, watch it, and watch Orgroff too, the order matters not so much. You can thank me later...

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.

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.

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.