Enter the Devil

Enter the Devil (1972)

** (out of 4)

This low-budget horror film was shot in New Mexico where it is also set. The film tells the story of a bunch of people who disappear without a trace and a local state trooper's attempt to track them down. It turns out that a Satanic cult are behind the kidnappings.

ENTER THE DEVIL is a film that doesn't have much of a cult following but the title puts it along side countless other "devil" or "Satanic" movies that were released after the success of Roman Polanski's ROSEMARY'S BABY. Is the film a masterpiece or something that everyone should check out? Absolutely not but at the same time there are some interesting things that make it worth viewing.

To me the best thing about the film was its music score by Sam Douglas. There's honestly nothing to the score that I would call original but at the same time it does help build up an atmosphere and it just feels dirty like the setting of the picture. I also thought there were some effective shots of the Satanic group walking through the night with their torches lighting up the blackness of night. These two things mixed together were quite good and I'd say much better than some of the other things that we saw in countless pictures like it.

As far as the story goes, it's certainly not that original and in fact it really runs out of gas around hte hour mark. There isn't enough going on in the picture to completely hold your attention but I will say the ending came as a shock and especially considering how blunt it was. Performances are what you'd expect from a film like this but for the most part I'd say the direction by Fred Q. Dobbs was good.

ENTER THE DEVIL isn't going to win any major awards but it's an interesting little film that horror fans should check out.

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 story is set in some Southwest town. There have been some accidents and the sheriff has been investigating them. When one dies, it's chalked up as just another accident...even though the coroner says this first one was murder. The sheriff didn't believe him but begins to when more are discovered dead due to various 'accidents'. At the same time, a professor from El Paso has arrived in town to look into cult activity. What's really going on here?

"Enter the Devil" is a super low budgeted picture. It was filmed in the middle of nowhere in the Texas desert and stars a cast of unknown actors with little experience. Oddly, however, despite this terrible pedigree, the film manages to be pretty good for what it is. It has some devent chills and manages to entertain despite all its deficits. And, the ending, while NOT subtle or completely believable IS entertaining!

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.

This is actually not as bad and absurd as it may seem. The story makes sense, and sects are a phenomenon that humanity has suffered from through all ages, for good and for worse, adding constantly a touch of mystery and terror to history, as life would be too commonplace without it. Here the mysterious sect is a band out in the wilderness of the Texas deserts close to Mexico, and there are quite a few Mexicans involved. Things get serious as a professional lady anthropologist is connected in the case, they try to save her by sending her away in time, but it is too late, and she is too curious.

These films and stories of satanism always end in the same way, Dennis Wheatley wrote a number of novels about it, and they never depart from the same pattern. Neither does this film. It is intriguing, fascinating and partly exciting, but afterwards you just brush it off your clothes.