The Devonsville Terror (1983)

The Devonsville Terror

Release Date: 1983

Rating: * *

By John Engell September 5, 2012

It is fair to say that director Ulli Lommel is a hack. The man has spent the last ten years of his film-making tenure churning out direct-to-video schlock on every serial killer committed to memory. His 2004 film “Zombie Nation” has the dishonor of being in the top ten of IMDB’s Bottom 100, with the shamefully low user rating of 1.6. Lommel however, has good company on that list. The late great Bob Clark, the maverick visionary responsible for “A Christmas Story,” amongst other cult classics, sits at its three spot with his final film “Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2,” also released in 2004. Like Clark, who began his career with horror favorites such as “Death Dream” and “Black Christmas,” Lommel too had his moment, albeit fleeting and rather forgettable.
   
His 1980 opus “Boogeyman,” is the highlight of his lackluster career. Made during the post-“Halloween” boom when every two-bit wannabe with a camera jumped on the body count bandwagon, “Boogeyman” is a passable slasher-by-numbers. Nevertheless, it can be argued that one of Lommel’s follow-up efforts, 1983’s “The Devonsville Terror,” is the best example of the director’s no budget, no talent brand of movie making.
   
The film is set in the late seventeenth century New England town of Devonsville, where a hasty inquisition results in the murder of three women deemed by the locals to be witches. The first of the accused is eaten by swine, the second is bound to a wheel and rolled down an embankment to her grisly death and the third is burned at the stake. As the last persecuted woman is set ablaze, she puts a curse on the townspeople. Fast forward 300 years later when a Devonsville man suffocates his nagging wife and unknowingly unleashes the vengeful spirit.
   
After he reprised his role as Doctor Samuel Loomis in the much anticipated sequel to John Carpenter’s “Halloween” only two years prior, Donald Pleasance inexplicably appears in this amateurish attempt, once again cast as a man of medicine. Pleasance plays Dr. Warley, Devonsville’s primary physician, and a man obsessed with his ancestors. His relations have passed to him stories of the inquisition, and a sickening flesh disease where worms bore holes in his skin from the inside out. Warley becomes fixated on the town’s old witch hunt and rather unethically hypnotizes his patients to transport them back to that fateful day (Not really sure how that works). 
   
Regardless, when three strong women move into town, a disc jockey, a scientist, and a school teacher, the chauvinistic and superstitious men of the community believe they are reincarnations of the witches and are quick to exact some vigilante justice on the strangers.
   
Despite its clear monetary restrictions, “The Devonsville Terror” has one heck of a finale, with special fx that any B movie fan can appreciate. It is quite obscure. Aside from VHS, it was released in ‘99 by Anchor Bay as a DVD double feature with the aforementioned “Boogeyman.” That disc is now out of print, but can be tracked down on Amazon or Ebay or at your local used entertainment store, which is where I found my copy. Make no mistake, “The Devonsville Terror” is no Bob Clark movie, but it isn’t a bad way for genre fans to spend 80 minutes.