Devil Story (1985)
*** (out of 4)
If you're looking for a "story" then you're not really going to find it here. The film starts off with a deformed man/creature killing anyone he comes across while grunting like a nut. The story then goes to a dark castle where a mummy is running around and there's an old legend dealing with wreck ships. All of this is happening as a crazy man keeps shooting at a black horse and a blonde woman tries to escape something. Oh yeah, there's a black cat running around as well.
DEVIL STORY is without a doubt one of the strangest movies that you're ever going to see. I had never heard of the movie before getting a preview of it on a Facebook group and from here I read a couple reviews that made the film seem like one of the craziest ever made. I read these wild reviews and thought to myself that there's no way the film could live up to the hype but it actually met that hype and surpassed it. DEVIL STORY is a film that will be impossible to forget once you see it.
Jeez, where do you start? The film begins with some rather campy murder scenes but director Bernard Launois at least knows that horror fans want gore so each stabbing has all sorts of red stuff shooting out in just about every direction possible. After a few murders the film then goes to a Gothic style, which really reminded me one TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD. The mummy itself looked quite good and we're given several good scenes with it including one great one where it gets its faced ripped only to have white goo start to go everywhere.
The film is really, really surreal and often times it doesn't make a bit of sense. Scenes happen that don't add up and then you wonder what the hell it is you're watching. I'm not going to ruin the ending but it just kinda knocks you upside the head and you don't know what to think. There's not any nudity but that doesn't take away from the exploitation factor. The gore level and flat-out weirdness is just unlike anything I've seen before and I like to think that I've seen all sorts of weird films. DEVIL STORY is certainly one of a kind.
