Demon Rage

I saw this at a drive-in (shock!), but it was called "Fury of the Succubus". Its only real redeeming value, to me, is nostalgic: it's among the last of the drive-in second features ever put into wide release. From the late 40s, until they were effectively replaced by the direct to video market in the early 80s, countless of these gems at once horrified and amused the teenage clientèle after the families had pulled out of the lot to get the kiddies to bed. This was also the perfect example of the movies you stayed to NOT watch when you were there on a date. If not for "films" like this, a lot of us guys would have graduated high school as virgins!

Bickering couple Lisa (Lana Wood, sister of Natalie) and Carl (Don Galloway) move to an isolated beach house in an attempt to save their marriage. This doesn't work and lonely Lisa soon finds herself attracting a horny spirit (Kabir Bedi) that frequently seduces her and tries to possess the couple's daughter Michelle (Sherry Scott). Psychic best friend Ann-Marie (Britt Ekland) senses something is wrong and tries to stop it. This reminds me of the similar MAUSOLEUM but without the cool green lighting and effects. There isn't really much to this standard horror from director James Polakof as the first hour consists mostly of Lisa moaning and groaning as the General Zod looking spirit gives her the sexy eyes. There is a rather nice decapitation in here, but I had to deduct cool points since no one questions why there is a guillotine in the basement of their new home. The beach location is nice though and offers some early 80s location eye-porn. John Carradine has 4 minute bit as a priest who mutters some nonsense about "the devil attacking us when we are at our weakest."

It's funny how they just gloss over how verbally abusive and aggressive the main character's husband is, as though his abusiveness and neglect aren't what's negatively affecting the relationship. This is a couple that I don't want things to work out for because it's established early on that he "gets" that way whenever he's focused on his work, meaning he'll keep ignoring her, getting angry when she gently tries to get his attention, and calling her curse words. THEN he gets angry when she rightfully separates herself and wants to focus on painting, slamming what she's working on to the floor. He also rejects her sexual advances, but when he comes home and hears her in the throes of passion "alone," he gets jealous. Like, wow, he can be neglectful, abusive, but she'd better not dare respond to it, even passively. He's AWFUL! But the movie treats it like SHE'S the problem! I just kept thinking it's not good for her daughter to grow up seeing that her mother endured that treatment as normal because it often does affect a child's adult choices.

Also, they start the story out already in the house, focusing on the nonsensical family drama and just making vague references to the house being evil or whatever. It's an awful setup. I think they were more focused on getting the wife's kit off and having her in bed, fake moaning with a distressed look on her face. The other characters are used weirdly, with the husband of the main character's best friend coming across as a creep, as he keeps making lustful comments about the main character and burying the attractiveness of his own pretty wife right to her face. The daughter is used in what should be a significant way, but the execution is so poor that she still comes across as a loose end.

Conclusion: Poorly written and paced, bland, unlikable characters, plays like a TV movie with nudity; 1 star.

S/N: Also, the misogynistic comments about her breasts in these reviews are far worse than the movie!

DEMON RAGE is about a lonely, neglected wife named Lisa (Lana Wood), who is tormented by an equally lonely spirit. Since Lisa's -obviously blind- husband won't take care of business, the demon moves in to fill the void. When the specter visits Lisa in human form, she forgets all about her inattentive spouse!

Meant mostly as a vehicle for Ms. Wood to be unclothed as much as possible, the rest is pretty silly.

It starts out sort of like THE ENTITY, or a devilish, more adult take on THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR, but devolves into a cavalcade of typically languid, simulated sex scenes.

Co-stars Britt Ekland as Lisa's conveniently psychic friend, and John Carradine in a microscopic cameo as a priest.

On the positive side, there's also a female demon, a screeching black cat, a guillotine, and a giant, pulsating eyeball! All in the basement!...

A lonely and neglected housewife (Lana Wood) living in a deserted house on the beach takes a lover. Unfortunately, that lover turns out to be Satan! Her husband and teenage daughter are naturally upset by this turn of events and enlist a family friend (Britt Ekland) who is a spiritual medium and the latter's obnoxious husband to help them out, with disastrous results for everyone involved.

This movie kind of resembles both the mainstream film "The Entity" and the X-rated classic "Through the Looking Glass", but it is not as good as either. It is surprisingly low-budget and obscure movie considering that it features two former Bond girls--Lana "Plenty O'Toole" Wood and Britt "Holly Goodnight" Ekland. (okay, not two of the most talented former Bond girls, but still--). A cadaverous John Carradine also makes an appearance (but then he showed up pretty much every time he sensed the distant whir of a film camera). Ekland, very uncharacteristically, keeps her clothes on for the whole movie, but the busty Woods more than makes up for this as she repeatedly scromps naked with the horny demon, moaning ecstatically. The film is not bad, at least before the completely confounding ending, but there are few too many supposedly meaningful shots of the waves crashing onto the beach.

Not a good film perhaps, but not deserving of its current obscurity either.