Devil's Den

(2006) Devil's Den HORROR/ COMEDY

Conventional lower budget version of "From Dusk Til Dawn" clone which the two are almost identical! With Quinn (Devon Sawa), Caitlin (Kelly Hu) and Leonard (Ken Foree) go to strip club called "Devil's Den" down in Mexico, only to confront a bunch of ghouls. The film starts off as a gore fest to a simple minded comedy toward the end, especially the final dual between Hu and the queen of ghouls who for some reason doesn't even call out her ghoul cohorts. Inconsistently convenient and conventional which the director of this film and the producer may have collided!

The best way to describe this movie is fun. If you are looking for something to scare you, it won't, in point of fact it won't even try. If you are looking for a well scripted, entertaining little story that takes a couple of unexpected twists, and keeps you laughing along the way, then this is a definite must see.

It is a low budget movie but the production value is actually pretty good. The strip club it mostly takes place in is pretty cool looking, nothing on the scale of From Dusk 'til Dawn, but considering the budget it is better they didn't even try. The action was fast paced and well choreographed, Devon Sawa and Ken Foree were quite funny, and the chemistry between them was outstanding.

Unfortunately, my favourite moments would be considered spoilers and I cannot mention them, but suffice to say, with all of the low budget, and big budget drivel that passes for horror today, this one is quite a little gem.

Cheers

OK, OK...so it's rip-off of several other horror-comedies. It's still fairly amusing and at least slightly unpredictable. Shoddy FX don't ruin ALL your enjoyment. Plus, you get to see Devon Sawa looking like he's been hanging around outside hotels cadging cigarette butts.

But now to the important stuff. Is everyone in horror movies completely deaf? I mean, you can have four people just yammering away in an argument just down the hall from a dozen ghouls, and the ghouls apparently don't hear a thing. At one point, a couple is just plain yelling at each other at the entrance to a cave (plus, one of them is firing a gun periodically) and the creatures inside the cave are absolutely oblivious. I've never been in a cave where that would have worked. And it's not just this movie, either. Evil slashers are always dropping out of the ceiling behind a victim, pulling up alongside cars in their own cars, and opening doors and hatches right next to potential victims. Does anyone notice anything? Nope. I mean, I'm 54 years old and I know I would have figured it out.

But enough digression. This is an OK movie. Check it out, if you like the genre.

I had a nice time sitting through this edgy horror comedy, and have no regrets. It was certainly targeting the younger viewer however I found it a decent expenditure of my time due to the better than average talent they acquired.Eventually I sort of fell into the rather macabre storyline. Obviously the budget was low and the sets didn't change much,in fact everything happens at one location,"the strip club from hell" but for my two cents I have to say they pulled of a nice entertaining little package, probably due to a lot of things like good camera work, a descent director and some pretty good young and not too well know actors like Kelly Hu, who happens to be one of our local girls here in Hawaii. Kelly gave a nice performance, although it's probably hard to step down from a role as Cassandra in the scorpion King to something with less of a bang, she and Devon Sawa, Ken Foree and Karen Maxwell gave it a great effort. I think this film will be a bit of a cult classic in the ghoul killing vampire wasting category. If you don't think a ghoul hunt with dry humor would be your cup of tea then perhaps you should pass on this one, but if your not offended by that sort of thing then give it a shot, I think you'll have a few laughs and the time will go right by. I'm sure we will see a lot more of the cast from this film, they seem to be practicing a craft called acting.

I recently rewatched Devil's Den (2006) on Tubi. The storyline follows a group of shady characters who converge at a strip club, each with their own hidden motives. As their true intentions are revealed, the strippers suddenly transform into flesh-eating ghouls. Now, the strangers must band together if they hope to escape their deadly predicament.

This film is directed by Jeffrey Burr (Straight into Darkness) and stars Devon Sawa (Final Destination), Ken Foree (Dawn of the Dead), Kelly Hu (The Scorpion King), and Dawn Olivieri (Bright).

The plot of Devil's Den is essentially From Dusk Till Dawn with ghouls instead of vampires, but with fewer compelling subplots, characters, and a noticeable drop in star power-despite a cast that had the potential to make this a much better film. The strip club setting worked well for the horror element, offering plenty of beautiful women and nudity, along with some fun kills and gore. The masks, makeup, and use of contacts showed promise. However, once the film tries to explain what's happening and why, it falls apart. The dialogue turns painfully bad, and even the actors seem to stop taking the material seriously, as if they were filming during a weekend horror convention. It's a shame because this could have been much better. Perhaps it would have worked better as a parody.

In conclusion, Devil's Den has some entertaining kills and gore but is ultimately a poor From Dusk Till Dawn knockoff. I would score this a 4/10 and only recommend it with the right expectations.