Devil Story : Il était une fois le diable

This French art-house snoozer has to be seen to be believed.Nonsensical and completely absurd plot involves perpetually grunting man-freak-beast dressed in Nazi-garb,medieval castle,a mummy and an annoyingly loud black stallion,which is hunted by the old man.If you have seen Norbert Georges Mountier's inept "Ogroff" you should watch "Devil Story" just to compare these two grade Z flicks from the depths of low-budget grave.The script of "Devil Story" is an incoherent mess with plenty of blood and gore.Unfortunately the action is pretty dull and moves at snail's pace even during its short 72 minutes time.If you are a fan of "Ogroff" or "Sexandroide" give this one a look.5 out of 10.

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

That's French (it takes place in the French countryside)and that's a horror film, so it is accordingly a real turkey. And this one is incredibly bad: it gathers devilish animals, a monster borrowed from a slasher or Texas chainsaw Massacre, a mummy, a living dead, and especially a nonsensical editing. The story is just absurd and the actors appalling. Well a must see if you want to have a great laugh. Of course this is a rare z movie, so you have to deserve it. It's not very far from Jean rollin, it is much worse actually (and that was hard to be!), but at least you never get bored: it's too dumb and completely crazy. Yes, that is the craziest horror French movie ever.

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.

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.