The Devonsville Terror

Three hundred years ago the citizens of Devonsville accused three women of witchcraft and killed them using pretty crude (but at least in one case kind of effective) special effects. In the present day (or the early 80's at least), Suzanna Love (the film's co-writer and wife of director Ulli Lommel) comes to Devonsville to be the new school teacher.

Things don't go too well. She pretty early on tells the kids that God could be a woman, which doesn't go over too well with many of the rural folk. Paul Willson (from "Cheers"!) develops an unrequited crush on her ... and so on. Wilson and other local troublemakers decide that Love and two other young women who are new to town (a radio DJ and an environmental scientist) are reincarnations of the witches and decide to kill them.

It's hard to know what to say about this film. In fairly objective terms, it's real junk. But the ways in which it's junky start to work in it's favour. It's shot in rural Wisconsin under circumstances that are so low tech it ends up looking a bit like a home movie. Robert Walker Jr. Is on hand as one of the nice guys in town, but his presence barely registers. Donald Pleasance has a much bigger role as the town doctor, but he seems to have been available for one day. All of his scenes are shot in the same cramped edge of the same room.

The film kind of gestures at feminist themes (string independent young women persecuted by closed minded men), but kind of undoes that in a climax that suggests that they were right. Basically, I think it's an oddly watchable film that has no right to be.

Willson's head melts like that creepy Nazi in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" during the climax and that's basically worth the price of admission.

This movie had a nice old feeling to it as the commentator before me said, but that's it. The story is stupid, the acting is mediocre, and the effects are horrible. And the whole arm/worm thing is disgusting might I add. And many of the things just look fake....I love horror movies, and on a scale of 1-10 compared to Children of the Corn (which was made just a year after this;1984)...I'd give it a 1.5 for the lonely feeling, and the .5 for effort.

I watched this film completely sober, which is never a great idea when you're watching low-budget horror films. But this one was alright. The plot was firmly established, the death scenes were obviously amateur but at least creative in their methods. And Donald Pleasance, who can really do no wrong (I watched this film about a week after seeing "Alone in the Dark" - I should have made it a double feature). Other critics of this film might say it is not original. Maybe so, but the director and the actors were able to establish a "creepy level" unparalleled in any other film. Almost every two minutes some character acted in a way that weirded me out. What was made into a 90-minute film should have been a Twin Peaks-esque television show. The only thing really missing in this film is a woman talking to a log. Were there plot holes and other flaws? Sure. The laser beams from the eyes were a bit unusual, and the weekly meetings with the drunk priest, and the unexplained need for hypnotized people to be naked, and the obvious fact the wormy arm was not a real arm... but I digress. A fine film ion its own right - 6 out of 10.

The little town of Devonsville, 1683. Three slightly eccentric, yet innocent women are gruesomely tortured and executed. Devonsville, 1983…around the same time three hundred years later 3 single women come to settle in the town that is still congested by Puritan, superficial villagers. The 20th century-inhabitants of Devonsville simply seem like reincarnations of their forefathers and they quickly begin to suspect the newly arrived ladies of witchery. The gorgeous new teacher (Suzanna Love) in particular.

Ulli Lommel's The Devonsville Terror is cheap 80's taking on the gruesome subject of the Inquisition and witchery, a horror sub genre that I personally cherish highly. Obviously, the atmosphere and tension doesn't come near the classic titles in this sub genre, like 'The Witchfinder General' or 'Mark of the Devil' but it does feature some chilling scenery and ingenious horror moments. Veteran horror actor Donald Pleasance stars as the town's doctor who constantly has to pick living worms out of his own flesh (due to a curse placed on his family, centuries ago). The film is overall decent and certainly worth a watch if you're an undemanding horror lover. Too bad about the bad ending, though…Well, it isn't exactly a BAD ending. More like an unsatisfying one. Just when the plot takes a vicious new twist, the end-credits start rolling over the screen and you're left behind with an empty feeling in your stomach.

Three women accused of witchcraft are executed in Devonsville, Massachusetts, 1683. Three hundred years later, Dr. Warley (Donald Pleasence) investigates the purported curse on the remote village as three unfamiliar women come to town, a school teacher (Suzanna Love), a DJ (Deanna Haas) and an environmentalist (Mary Walden). Are they reincarnations of the executed? Paul Willson, Robert Walker Jr. And Michael Accardo play male denizens of the town.

"The Devonsville Terror" (1983) is an Indie mystery/horror that combines flashback scenes reminiscent of "The Blood on Satan's Claw" (1971) with modern scenes akin in tone to "Let's Scare Jessica to Death" (1971), "The Shuttered Room" (1967) and "The Fog" (1980). You could view it as an early 80's precursor to "The Lords of Salem" (2012).

While it's noticeably low-budget compared to those films, director/writer Ulli Lommel tries to make up for it with an impressive artistic style and mostly succeeds. There's a nice eerie rural ambiance. It would've helped if the evil religionists were counterbalanced by one or two noble believers, but it's not like hateful, lying legalists don't exist.

The film runs 1 hour, 22 minutes, and was shot in Gleason & corresponding Lincoln County, Wisconsin.

GRADE: B-/C+