The Demoniacs

Dear oh dear. It might be easy to take cheap swipes at M. Rollin, but this looks likes such an amateurish effort. Terrible acting, contrived and sloppy action, meandering plot, cheap props. I hate to twist the knife, but it certainly breathes new life into the expression "Z-grade".

The video blurb looked so promising - two girls raped by wreckers, take refuge in an abandoned abbey where they make a pact with the Devil to seek revenge. But Jean Rollin seems determined to disappoint. Way too much time is spent on watching people walking long distances, or labouring blindingly obvious plot developments (the psychic brothel madam excels at this!)

There is not nearly enough skin to compensate for having to sit through this, though some spiritied sex scenes do capture the attention. The biggest draw of the film for me was the female member of the wrecker gang (character Tina). I wish I knew who the actress was. Gorgeous, spirited, and great without clothes! Shame she can't act, but I may excuse her. I have a soft spot for beautiful girls who get sexually aroused by wicked deeds.

Bizarre points include the Devil's two attendants - a female clown, and a Rasputin look-a-like. And never did so much plaster statuary give its life for a movie!

In summary, only rent this video for the gorgeous female wrecker, fast forward through the rest.

I have a problem with Jean Rollin films. Despite all the stylish surrealism, great French locations and nudity I still find his films incredibly boring. I do appreciate Rollin's persistence of vision throughout his string of poetic sex/horror exploitation films through the 70s (clowns, castles, twins, beaches) but my mind begins to wander during his films and this is no exception. The plot follows a dream logic known only to the director with too much time spent watching these sailors fight, rape or just sit in a bar. The one female in the sailor gang really does inject some gusto into the her part though.

The first scene on the beach with the young girls rape and attack is very good and the next one in the bar with them appearing as ghosts too... Unfortunately the movie doesn't go on like that all the time. There are good and bad moments but the scenes of nudity with Joelle Coeur are erotically very good. The story of the demon in the ruins doesn't appear very clear, nor does the clown's and the ruin's keeper destinies... But all in all there is a good atmosphere even if some scenes are a bit too long and some of them are great, like the one where the religious statues fall one after each other on the ground. Jean Rollin knows how to mix sex and horror, as well as many other authors of that 70's era. A good moment but that movie could have been better again...

If you are here for the rape, you have wasted your time. The scenes are a joke. Even worse, the supposed killing of the two girls (Lieva Lone, Patricia Hermenier). The acting was atrocious.

Now, if you want to see Joëlle Coeur (Fly Me the French Way, Seven Women for Satan) fully naked, and engaging in sex with John Rico, that's a whole other story.

The Captain (Rico) hardly has time to enjoy the aftereffects when he is visited by apparitions of the two girls. Maybe it was just the booze.

The girls do eventually reappear only to escape and find an old castle guarded by, believe it or not, a clown. Not a court jester, but a clown. Strange.

They go through the transformation to become demoniacs, and, I am glad to say, sex is part of the transformation. Yes, there is the usual mumble jumble ritual, but there is also orgasm.

Don't expect a lot of gore in this film. It really doesn't make sense in a lot of scenes. You'll see what I mean. I think Rollin may have been trying to make an art film instead of a horror film.

It is a shame that Lieva Lone and Patricia Hermenier did not stick around to do more films, but another chance to watch Joëlle Coeur is always worth the time.

(1974) The Demoniacs/ Les démoniaques (In French with English subtitles) PSYCHOLOGICAL HORROR

Written and directed by Jean Rollin introduces viewers to four "wreckers" of Le Capitaine (John Rico), Paul (Paul Bisciglia), Tina (Joëlle Coeur) and Le Bosco (Willy Braque). And while they are salvaging a chest they pull from the beach, two blondes while wearing their nightgowns suddenly appear that look like they appear coming from the wreckage. The four of them then assault the two women before they kill them. And while the captain is drinking at a pub, he then sees images of them, before he is then informed that the two women are not dead but are still alive. They then go a stalking rant, especially Tina, and the two blondes continue running until they stumble onto the cursed ruin as they are greeted by a clown faced woman (Mireille Dargent). And she then introduces them to a L'exorciste Chadron (Ben Zimet). And it is him who introduces them to Le Diable (Miletic Zivomir) who is locked in a cell granting them powers to that they can exact their revenge. The only downside is that it last only until after the following morning.

If there is a reason to watch Jean Rollin movies and that is the nudity, that may be deemed too much for Hollywood censors and labelled as X rating the same as many soft core adult movies except that anyone to have seen this the make out and assault scenes looked fake and unconvincing. And out of all the women shown on this particular movie Tina happens to be the best looking one. I agree with the few reviewers who said that the movie starts out well, but then Rollins gears to boredom as it looked as if he made this movie as he is going along since it was supposed to be a film and not as a 45 minute stint. I can probably look at actress Joëlle Coeur nude all day and Rollins can only do this for so long. And anyone who were to look at her filmography, it does not appear Les Demoniacs is the only movie she is naked on.