La secte des morts-vivants

"The Devil's Men" (aka "Land of the Minotaur") is by no means a masterpiece, but very few horror films are. While there are good ones and bad ones, ultimately they're nothing more than *fantasies*--they ask you to suspend your disbelief. Horror films are not (or should not be) judged according to the same criteria as "Citizen Kane". Think "The Devil's Men" is bad horror? See "Ghost Story" and learn how the genre can be reduced to a pathetic cartoon (despite a big budget and a good cast). Think this is a low point in Peter Cushing's career? See "The Blood Beast Terror". This film actually has a lot going for it: strong performances from Cushing and Donald Pleasence (Cushing is particularly great in one of his few downright villainous roles), an eerie synthetic score by Brian Eno, and fine cinematography. It does get a bit dull in spots, but I haven't seen many movies that didn't. Director Kostas Karagiannis knew how to establish the proper mood for a film of this kind: witness the scene in which Pleasence, as the village priest, walks from his living quarters to the church to pray. He's a small figure in the immensely old, pagan landscape of Greece, which seems ready to swallow him up (and Eno's cue for the scene underscores this threatening feeling). Young horror auteurs, take note: it's little things like this that give the viewer a sense of unease. If, on the other hand, you just want to make the viewer feel sick or laugh, you'll bombard him with severed limbs and intestines. "The Devil's Men" is no award winner, but it's a creepy little film that's fun to watch. Its reputation as a bomb is undeserved.

The presence of Donald Pleasance and Peter Cushing two players well schooled in the horror film make Land Of The Minotaur an endurable feast. Speaking of feasting these two guys digested well a complete diet of ham to get through this film.

Pleasance plays a priest and Cushing a local nobleman by day, but by night he's the leader of a cult of devil worshipers. The object of their veneration is the ancient Greek monster the Minotaur who according to this film is really just another name for the Christian Satan.

The cult has captured some visiting young tourists and are using them of course for their own nefarious purposes. So if you can't figure out where this is going you haven't been exposed to too much the work of the two British players.

Location photography in Greece helps also, but mostly watch it for these two thespian legends.

Well, pardon me for being excited at the prospect of watching Donald Pleasence and Peter Cushing in a '70s horror film. It does not take long to see why this film, titled "Land of the Minotaur" in the US but also possessing the horrendous title "The Devil's Men", is not more widely seen today or spoken about. It is such a dull film lacking in scares, drama and any other sort of talent that it is a wonder that Cushing and Pleasence were even in it. It has to have been a good pay-day for them. In fact, the entire budget must have went towards securing their contracts, because evidently there was nothing else left by the time they went to shoot this absolute borefest. Nothing happens, and there is nothing of interest apart from the banter between the priest and the PI, that swings between jovial and nasty. The director must have slept his way through the film, the editor had nothing to do because the film gives the impression that what was shot as quickly as possible and stuck together. Every single trope you can think of from Satantic horror films makes its way in here, and is done in a way that the film-makers shrugged and said "They've seen it before, why bother making an effort or putting a new spin on it?" I am surprised of Cushing and Pleasence not being able to see through this one when they were approached.

This is the strangest episode of Father Ted that I've ever seen. It seems to be some sort of prequel starring Donald Pleasance as a younger Father Jack, who is situated on an island in Greece. Jack isn't doing too good a job of stopping tourists he meets from being sacrificed by the local Minotaur cult run by Bishop Brennan (played by Peter Cushing). Jack so far has:

1) Let two tourists be sacrificed at the start of the film then gets ignored by the police. 2) Fails to warn three further youngsters, then just watches as they sneak off into the night. 3) Waits until one of those three people escapes capture, then after she gets captured he phones New York to get help from a young Father Ted!

Ted does actually seem to be played by Dermot Morgan, so that's good. He gets to Greece and Father Jack is whining about how the devil and the Minotaur are the same needs to be stopped but Ted is giving the glad eye to a young Mrs Doyle who is looking for one of her friends. It's around this time that we realise that just about everyone in the town is part of the Minotaur cult, but it takes Jack and Ted an awfully long time to figure this out, after:

4) They totally ignore the one villager who was going to tell them the whole deal. She gets murdered not long after. 5) Leaving Mrs Doyle alone while the Minotaur cultists play 'peek-a-boo' at her bedroom window. 6) Leaving Mrs Doyle alone so she can be captured by the cultists.

Periodically Peter Cushing turns up as the local Baron/Head Cultist so he can pulls faces at the two of them and say 'What's up bitches?" before getting into his Rolls Royce and driving off. Things come to a head during the ceremony to kill Mrs Doyle, but will good win against evil?

This is pretty dull, unengaging stuff from start to finish. I've heard there's a version with slightly more gore and nudity in it, but then the version I watched had the 'people exploding' bit at the end, but no nudity. It just needed a kick in the arse action wise from start to finish, as Jack and Ted mostly wander about retracing the steps of the people who were captured and glaring at the locals.

Brian Eno did the soundtrack, however. I do recognise one track from Music For Films, but the rest was new to me. Not bad.

You can avoid this one though.

After an English and French couple- followed by 2 Americans and an Australian girl- go missing, while searching for the ritual grounds of an ancient Minoan cult, a private detective from New York is hired, by a local priest, to investigate their disappearances.

It turns out that this Greek village is home to a long forgotten priesthood, that worships the idol of a Minotaur possessed by Satan, himself.

Their priest is a local baron, who has been exiled from his homeland.

And they are grooming a young girl to be the priestess, responsible for making sacrifices to their demon god.

The closer the two men get to answers...the more people die.

And they just barely escape with their own lives.

Now, the only way to stop this demonic cult, is by eliciting some divine intervention.

For, if they are to save the last couple, before they too are sacrificed, then they must descend directly into the belly of the beast to do so- the Minotaur's lair...from which no one leaves alive.

And only God can save them...if it's not already too late...

While not the best satanic cult oriented folk horror ever made...it has some positive elements.

For instance, the Minotaur's lair is pretty damn cool.

But the ending was all a bit rushed, and rather implausible.

Which detracts from the overall enjoyability a little, however, it's entertaining enough to be worth a watch.

5.5 out of 10.