The Devil's Men (1977)

Considering I got this film in a collection of 35 other films, I have to say it was not too bad. In fact, it was an interesting watch. Could have been better as I think they should have just did a full on R movie instead of a PG film; however, seeing two great horror icons battle each other made it a somewhat fun watch. It was slow for a couple of stretches and as I said it would have been more cool had there been some nudity and better kills, but overall for a film I got on the cheap it was not all bad.The story has a group of friends going to a place where two others recently went missing. A priest warns them not to go, but they do not heed his warning and soon end up going missing themselves. I was a bit surprised at this as they show a couple being sacrificed during the opening scene, so I figured this group of three we are introduced to are the protagonists of the tale. After they vanish, the priest (Donald Pleasence) calls an American and he also teams up with a girl who is looking for her boyfriend who was one of the ones who vanished. The town, though, seems to be harboring a terrible secret and a crazed woman seems to want to tell the two men what is going on and for reasons unknown the priest declines to take her up on her offer to learn the plot right away and would rather wait until later. A strange Baron seems to be in control of everything and during the night figures in black robes seem to stalk the group as they try to find out what is going on.Not perfect by any means as there were a lot of things that made little sense like Donald's character refusal to see the person that seemed to have answers. His character seemed to have a lot of angry outbursts for the good guy too. I also did not see why he called the one guy. Sure he was a detective, but they never really explained the two's relationship. Apparently, he may have lived in that town, but if so he did not seem to have a clue what was going on making him useless for anything but beating down a cop. Still, Peter Cushing was excellent as the sinister, but polite Baron and Donald Pleasence as the priest was good too. Seems he is either a villain who wears outlandish outfits, Dr. Loomis or a priest when he is in a film. An easy enough film to watch for their performance, so while not really good this film is also not really bad either.

Several times, young people disappear in a Greek village. Private investigator Milo (Costa Skouras) starts a search for them together with a priest (Donald Pleasence), because something evil seems to be lurking around. Baron Corofax (Peter Cushing) is indeed running a satanic cult, namely for the ancient Minotaur, and performs human sacrifices in a nice red uniform. Everyone in the village seems to be part of it, even the police sergeant (Fernando Bislani). Milo and the priest make any possible mistake, though: they don't listen to a witness while she still could talk, ignore cult members walking by their inn fully dressed in black cloaks, they leave the blond girl alone (three times!) so she can be threatened, chased or abducted, and they always leave their weapons including silver crosses and holy water behind in their room. This must be one of the worst 'investigations' I have ever watched, basically the 2 heroes know from the start what they are looking for, and they behave so clumsily that you want to slap them. But the ridiculous flick develops a certain otherworldly atmosphere, surprisingly. They had great locations in Greece, impressive character actors like Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasence, and the experimental soundtrack by Brian Eno is contributing a lot, with its lack of tonality and bass notes that linger on for minutes, aiming at the subconscious. If the story hadn't been so terribly weak, 'The Devil's Men' ('Land of the Minotaur' on USA DVD) could have been a recommendable oddity.

How can you go wrong with a film that mixes the sophistication of Peter Cushing, the determination of Donald Pleasence and the bust of Luan Peters? Easy, you give them a terrible script to work with.Peter Cushing, in an evil role, leads a Satanic cult that has captured a couple friends of Donald Pleasence. Donald plays a determined but aloof priest that desires to locate his friends but needs the help of Fred from Scooby-Doo to locate them. He summons the help of a New York bloodhound, who dresses just like the hero of the cartoon, in his task. Meanwhile, the girlfriend of one of the missing people, Luan Peters, joins the search. If all this sounds interesting, then you, like myself, were mislead.It doesn't take long for the trio to sniff out the baddies but their methods of bringing the bad guys to justice are foolish. Also, women will find this a crapfest. Every time they get on the bad guys trail, our two male heroes tell Luan to stay at the hotel even though she can handle herself better than the squeamish priest played by Pleasence.STORY: $ (The script really lets us down. No tension is built. No worthwhile dialogue is given the stars and you'll need both hands to count the number of times Luan Peters is told to stay behind and let men do men work. If you're interested in seeing a minotaur on film don't bother. We get a statue of a minotaur that spits flames).VIOLENCE: $$ (There are some attacks and a few sacrifices, but those of you who drool for gore will be letdown).ACTING: $$ (Even though there are three of my favorite actors in this film, there is nothing redeemable here. Peter Cushing doesn't have much screen time, Donald Pleasence is clearly aware that he is on the set of a stinker and Luan Peters is ill-used. This should have been much better given the talent involved, but then again, the Yankees lose a game here and there too).NUDITY: $ (Luan Peters takes a bath but you see next to nothing. She isn't as obliging here as she was in The Flesh and Blood Show).

Donald Pleasance and Peter Cushing united in one horror film; that always sounds like a terrific plan. Two of the most versatile cult actors of their generation, who previously already starred together in terrific genre outings like "The Flesh and the Fiends" and "From Beyond the Grave", pairing up in a mid-70's satanic themed exploitation flick. How can this possibly go wrong? Well, unfortunately, it can. To my deepest regret "Land of the Minotaur" can hardly even be called mediocre, and that in spite of the cast, the exotic setting, the appealing title and the potentially great sounding premise. In a remote little area in Greece, more particularly near an archaeological site, multiple tourists vanish because Baron Peter Cushing and his docile followers keep feeding them to a fire-breathing Minotaur statue. Cushing, who never looked more bored and uninterested in any role he played before, owns a giant medieval castle and apparently in Greek this means you also own the complementary archaeological ruins and an underground network of caverns. That is of course quite handy if your hobby is the kidnapping of random campers and amateur archaeologists. When three of his young friends also mysteriously disappear in the same area, Father Roch - the priest of a couple of towns before) - decides to investigate. "Land of the Minotaur" is a boring and extremely slow-paced horror effort that never really undertakes any major attempts to generate a satanic atmosphere and doesn't bother to elaborate on all the potentially fascinating elements and pagan trivia details. The titular Minotaur, for example, is an intriguing creature of Greek mythology with the head of a bull and the body of a person, but for some inexplicable reason the script never deepens out the significance. Instead, the film focuses on tedious and overly talkative sequences and loud inappropriate music altered with experimental noises. The only reason to even consider giving this major disappointment of a film a chance is because of Donald Pleasance. His portrayal of rude, bossy and old-fashioned priest who criticizes everything that represents modern youth is powerful and reliable as always.