It's a dark night, there is a full moon poking out from behind the clouds. An on screen caption informs us that it is 'Devonsville, 300 years ago'. A posse of witch-finders condemn a woman named Jessica Maulding (Morrigan Hurt) as a witch, the head executioner (Paul Bentzen) reads from a script urging the woman to denounce the devil & witchcraft. Several pigs are unleashed & start to eat her alive. They move onto yet another woman named Mary Platt (Barbara Cihlar) who they also claim is a witch, they tie her to a large wooden wheel, set it on fire & roll it down a hill. The witch-finders night is still not over as they prepare to execute one final accused woman named Rebecca Parsons (Leslie Smith) who they tie to a stake & set her on fire, as she burns a demonic apparition rises into the lightening filled sky & places a curse on the town & it's inhabitants. We then get an on screen narrated paragraph of text that reads 'Dr. Warley's Journal #73. It has been 300 years since the Devonsville inquisition. Perhaps the long ordeal of the Warley family may be nearing it's conclusion. Only evil will out evil', yet another caption informs us that it is 'Devonsville, the present'. A new strong minded & opinionated school teacher named Jenny Scanlon (co-writer Suzanna Love) arrives in the sleepy New England town of Devonsville. Around the same time two more strangers move to Devonsville, a new DJ at the local radio station named Monica (Deanna Harris) who preaches & fights for womens rights on her show & a new female tenant in a log cabin named Chris (Mary Walden) who is an ecologist studying pollution in the area. Some of the townsfolk lead by local store owner Walter Gibbs (Paul Willson), Aaron Pendleton (Bill Dexter) & his son Ralph (Micheal Accardo) begin to resent the three women & their ideas. As the 300th anniversary of the Devonsville inquisition approaches they believe that maybe Jenny, Chris & Monica are reincarnations of the three witches tortured & murdered all those years ago sent to avenge the crimes & sins of their ancestors!
Photographed, co-written, co-produced & directed by Ulli Lommel the Devonsville Terror has virtually nothing to recommend it. The script by Lommel, star Suzanna Love & George T. Lindsey is very slow after the promising opening sequence. Nothing much happens until the very end & as a whole the film feels somewhat padded even at a short duration of just over 80 minutes. The script has an obvious & clear message about persecution & prejudice as the townsfolk of Devonsville convince themselves that Jenny, Chris & Monica are the reincarnations of witches by jumping to conclusions, being very small minded & set in their ways. Unfortunately this reasonable idea for a plot is poorly realised on screen with the entire film becoming a chore to sit through as nothing happens for long stretches, most of the characters are underdeveloped & forgettable. There is also another problem with the story, surely the original inquisition was right as Rebecca placed a curse on the town which means she was a witch! The same contradiction applies to the climax as well. One more thing, when Jenny finds a snake in her bed that wasn't there earlier why does she not question it & who put it there? In fact it's never mentioned again, as are many other little bits that happen here & there that are just dumped & forgotten about like Gibbs murdering his wife Sarah Louise (Joanna Andruss) & receiving a dodgy death certificate from Dr. Warley (Donald Pleasence) which is also totally ignored for the remainder of the film. The special effects are generally terrible, especially when a ghostly apparition is seen & those laser beams coming out of Jenny's eyes at the end look awful. There are a couple of good gore scenes, someones head explodes & another's head gorily melts in quite an impressive effect. The film was shot in autumn & is band, colourless & dreary throughout. The cinematography is flat & unimaginative. The acting is poor, even though he gets near top-billing on the credits Donald Pleasence has nothing more than a cameo as Doctor Warley who never leaves the confines of his comfy wood panelled office! Inbetween bouts of removing maggots burrowing into his skin with tweezers he hypnotises the locals to gain information on the curse & then just disappears from the film completely. Overall I think The Devonsville Terror is a poor film that I personally found incredibly boring & uninteresting. I can't really see anyone getting much entertainment from The Devonsville Terror (I certainly didn't) & therefore I cannot recommend it. Probably best to give this one a miss!
Photographed, co-written, co-produced & directed by Ulli Lommel the Devonsville Terror has virtually nothing to recommend it. The script by Lommel, star Suzanna Love & George T. Lindsey is very slow after the promising opening sequence. Nothing much happens until the very end & as a whole the film feels somewhat padded even at a short duration of just over 80 minutes. The script has an obvious & clear message about persecution & prejudice as the townsfolk of Devonsville convince themselves that Jenny, Chris & Monica are the reincarnations of witches by jumping to conclusions, being very small minded & set in their ways. Unfortunately this reasonable idea for a plot is poorly realised on screen with the entire film becoming a chore to sit through as nothing happens for long stretches, most of the characters are underdeveloped & forgettable. There is also another problem with the story, surely the original inquisition was right as Rebecca placed a curse on the town which means she was a witch! The same contradiction applies to the climax as well. One more thing, when Jenny finds a snake in her bed that wasn't there earlier why does she not question it & who put it there? In fact it's never mentioned again, as are many other little bits that happen here & there that are just dumped & forgotten about like Gibbs murdering his wife Sarah Louise (Joanna Andruss) & receiving a dodgy death certificate from Dr. Warley (Donald Pleasence) which is also totally ignored for the remainder of the film. The special effects are generally terrible, especially when a ghostly apparition is seen & those laser beams coming out of Jenny's eyes at the end look awful. There are a couple of good gore scenes, someones head explodes & another's head gorily melts in quite an impressive effect. The film was shot in autumn & is band, colourless & dreary throughout. The cinematography is flat & unimaginative. The acting is poor, even though he gets near top-billing on the credits Donald Pleasence has nothing more than a cameo as Doctor Warley who never leaves the confines of his comfy wood panelled office! Inbetween bouts of removing maggots burrowing into his skin with tweezers he hypnotises the locals to gain information on the curse & then just disappears from the film completely. Overall I think The Devonsville Terror is a poor film that I personally found incredibly boring & uninteresting. I can't really see anyone getting much entertainment from The Devonsville Terror (I certainly didn't) & therefore I cannot recommend it. Probably best to give this one a miss!